Friday, November 21, 2008

God its Cold Outside!

I'm in London! Yay! :-)

Aside from it being bloody cold outside, it really is a beautiful city. Today I started out by going to Westminster Abbey - this was maybe one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I love the history -its so cool because the history is the foundation of this country and in lots of ways, the foundation of the US. Seeing the tomb of Queen Elizabeth I and King Henry VII was especially interesting - they're buried at the Abbey with Geoffrey Chaucer, Frederick Handel, Charles Dickens, and a score of other people who have changed the way we view the world. Thats kinda cool. One of the most impressive things is the Coronation Chair, the chair that every king and queen that have been crowned at Westminster Abbey since like 1000 have sat in to get their crowns. Thats really cool - unfortunately they didn't allow photography inside the Abbey, but the chair looks like its been beaten up over the years. Definitely an icon of English history!

This is SOOO cool... Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament















Westminster Abbey


















Trafalgar Square


After my trip to Westminster Abbey, I walked past the Prime Minister's house (just the street - the house is actually sectioned off, but you can walk right by the street) on my way to Trafalgar Square. This was really cool - many streets converge on this giant square and apparently its the biggest or most popular square in London. I walked into the National Gallery and saw a Da Vinci work, then went into the National Portrait Gallery which, in my opinion, was much more interesting. After this, I walked around in Covent Garden and Leceister Square, shopped a bit, before hopping on the Tube (Mind the Gap) to go to the London Tower. Unfortunately, I missed the deadline to have the guided tour of the London Tower, so I just did a self-tour of the place. I may go back sometime this weekend to do the guided tour as I hear its quite good.

















Tower of London...












Mind the Gap...






Its quite a change coming from Dubai to London - from a new city in the global sense to one of the oldest. What a change!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to see your pictures. London is one of my favorite cities. I forgot to get you my friends name and telephone number - drat--- I don't think I can get it from her this quick (the telphone number0. Her name is Yvonne Seeley or she may be using her married name of Headley. Her husband is Gwen Headley if you want to look them up. Tell them you are my nephew and Richard's son. They will know who you are. See you soon LOL AL