London

So, on Saturday the 19th I finally made it to London. I took an hour long train ride from Brighton to Victoria Station in London and it only cost 10 pounds (14 pounds after online fees). When I got to London I was within walking distance of the building above, the home of Queen Elizabeth II, Buckingham Palace.



To get the cheap fare I had to get to London a bit early, and I was too early for the changing of the guard. As you can see there were only a few people hanging around the Victoria Monument in front of the palace.



So to kill some time I decided to go see the Canadian monument commemorating Canada's aid to the UK during the first and second world wars. I thought it would be big and memorable, but instead it was just this little disk and a small waterfall behind it. It's nice there was a memorial, but I thought it would be bigger. There were also memorials for campaigns in India, and for Australia. Both were bigger.



By the time I got back to Buckingham Palace there were lots more people standing around Victoria memorial and in front of the gates, so I settled in to wait for an hour before the changing of the guard started.



The Scottish Guards were those on duty when we first got there. There were only 2 people on guard at first, but then a bunch of them came marching around the Victoria memorial and into the yard in front of the palace.



Behind the Scottish Guard, came the Scottish Guard band. It seems like each set of guards has it's own band that follows them around.



Afterwards the Welsh Guard came around the Victoria memorial and into the yard. You can tell it's the Welsh Guard because of the green and white feathers in their caps.



The Welsh Guard also had it's own band. But now that we had both bands there, it seemed like they decided to have a battle of the bands. The Scottish and Welsh bands switched back and forth playing songs from the Jackson 5 and Eric Clapton. I didn't recognize many of them, but the Canadian lady in front of me said that's what they were.

While they were playing guardsman were marching around in front of the doors.






Once all the music and marching was done, both bands, the Scottish guards, and most of the Welsh guard marched out of the yard, around the Victoria memorial and down Pall Mall. Leaving only two Welsh guards guarding at the doors of Buckingham Palace.



After watching the changing of the guard, I walked through St. James park which was really quite naturalistic. I remember reading somewhere that the English prefer much more natural gardens compared to the highly manicured gardens of the French. This is a pretty good example of that I would say.



After heading through the park I walked down to Westminster Abby. Like most other historical places in England, they didn't want me taking pictures. So I only got a few from the outside. It was quite interesting as I saw gravestones for Lewis Carroll, Lawrence Oliver, and the Bronte Sisters.



Once we got outside we were allowed to take pictures. This is the cloister area of Westminster Abbey.



And this is the cafe the erected in the cloisters of Westminster Abby. If they can erect a cafe in the cloister, how come we can't take pictures? I swear it's got to be because they can make money selling postcards.



After taking an audio tour through Westminster Abby I headed over to Westminster Palace. I never knew that was the name for the parliamentary buildings. I guess that's why the building seems so ornamental. I can hear Craig cringing from here at my lack of knowledge of English history.



From the park behind Westminster Palace I got a fairly good look at the Thames and the London Eye. Trips up there cost 30 pounds each and, from what I've read, aren't really that good. The Tower Bridge is further up the river, but you can't see it from here.



After wandering through the park I started heading down the road towards Trafalgar square. On the way down the street I passed this nice looking horse with a slightly frightening sign that the horse may bite and kick passers by. Nevertheless, people were still lining up to stand beside them and have their pictures taken.



Then, at the end of the road, I ended up at Trafalgar square with a man standing atop a very large pillar. It looked like Napolean, but I can't think why they'd put Napolean at the top of a plinth in London.



And on the other side of the plinth is the British National Gallery. It's free to visit, but they charge a few pounds if you want to take the audio tour. I figured I"d get the 60 minute tour and then get another one if I wanted to see more. Turns out the tour they gave me had almost every picture in the collection, but just gave me a list of the most important paintings. Like everywhere else though, they wouldn't let me take pictures while I was inside.

So I started going through the list of 30 paintings or so, and stopped at any others I thought were interesting along the way. There were images by Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, Van Gogh, Picasso, and many others. I figured that doing the 60 minute tour would take long as I always fly through museums, but just by stopping at random paintings I was rushing to finish the tour 3 hours later to get done before the closed. The audio tour really helped, I think it's the first time I've been to a museum where I actually stopped and looked at most of the paintings.



After seeing the national gallery, I noticed that St. Martin in the Fields was right next door.



When you go in, it seems like a fairly normal hall. Albeit with a pulpit in the middle. And there's a strange window at the end that I'm sure must symbolize something. But it does sound good. There was a girl there practicing for the performance that evening. I took a video but it didn't get any sound which is really too bad, because it was really nice.



After getting some dinner, I walked up to Piccadilly Circus. I found these painted elephants up and down the street. I think they were for some charitable cause, but I can't remember what.








On the way back towards Victoria station I stopped on the other side of the horse museum to take a look at the horse grounds. I think they practice riding in formation or some other guard changing stuff here.