London Photos

OK, I know the blog has been rather pitiful lately..... my apologies.

I took a business trip to London recently and I had a day for sight seeing. I tried to take full advantage of it along with several of my coworkers, and here are a few of the things I saw and experienced along the way. The London eye is below. I didn't get close to it, or go on it, although you could see it at many parts of central London and Westminster because it is just so big.
Here of course is Big Ben, attached to the British Parliament building. This is actually in Westminster not London. Essentially it seems like all the same city, much in the same way that Cambridge seems like part of Boston.

The Moorish looking church is actually a Catholic church called Westminster Cathedral. I peeked inside while they were having mass. It was huge, and very dark inside. It appeared covered in soot, or even burn marks perhaps. The Latin incantation was happening as I was there, and the air smelled strongly of max. It being palm Sunday, the green leaves were used as decorations as well as having been passed out to the parishioners, however it seemed many of them had somehow found their way onto the floor. Perhaps this was part of their ceremony, but I don't recall that happening in mass growing up, but then we seldom had the Latin mass either.

The statue of the lion faces some government buildings near Westminster abbey.

The large Gothic cathedral is none other than Westminster Abbey, where the royalty are coronated in Great Britain.

Below is a nice shot of Parliament and the London eye peeking over the roofs of some office buildings. To give you some perspective of its size, the Thames river, a terraced walkway and a couple of streets are between the building and the London eye.

Next is Westminster Abbey from a side entrance. Check out those flying buttresses!

This is Buckingham Palace (home of the Queen). Here we waited over a 1/2 with a few hundred other tourists for the changing of the guard. A police officer came out eventually and told us that the Palace web site was incorrect and that the ceremony was not performed at the anticipated time until after Easter. People were actually not as grouchy having gone through this as I would expect them to be.

We did get to see a simple "changing of the guard" outside of St. James Palace, which apparently was once home to Princes William and Harry, and where Charles has an office.

We picked up lunch at an old pub called "Old Shades" in Trafalgar square. Mmmm mmmm! Fish N Chips! This was pretty good stuff! The green stuff is "mushy peas" for an explanation see the link. I thought they were actually pretty tasty. Short of them being "bull testicles" or something, I was going to eat it if it was part of the regional experience. I of course went for the malt vinegar on the fries, and the fish was thick and lovely.

St. Paul's Cathedral, I managed to sneak inside again even though they were having service, and got scolded when I tried to sneak a picture (without a flash of course). It was gorgeous, unfortunately it was a Sunday so I didn't get to explore churches as much as I normally would have appreciated. I wanted to climb to the top of the dome which is supposed to have some spectacular views but was closed. A coworker of mine was inspired by the site of the church to begin singing the "feed the birds" song from Mary Poppins. He has a 4 year old daughter.

Here is the Tower of London castle. Site of many executions, amongst them the wives of King Henry the 8th.








And Tower Bridge, inspiration for that silly little London Bridge song.

And here I am striking a cheesy pose. If I had a bottle of Old Spice aftershave to hold up to the camera perhaps it would be complete.