Day 1: Arrival, Westminster, Big Ben & Parliament

Dad took about 1500 pictures on this trip, so I'll include a small sample (it's so hard to choose!). You can click on the pictures to englarge them. As usual, pictures don't do anything justice, you really have to be there. . .

Flying over London...

Here's how we looked switching between hotels, carrying/rolling our bags, stopping on street corners to look at maps.

These telephone booths are EVERYWHERE, even in the country.

With a member of the queen's royal horse guard. I forget where this is but it was somewhere close to No. 10 Downing street where the Prime Minister, Tony Blair lives. I would include a picture of his house, but it's really not much to look at comparatively. . .

Big Ben and Parliament during the day. . .

. . . and at night.
There's a story behind this picture, this picture is actually about Day 4. Mom and Dad decided
they wanted to ride a double decker bus so we got on one on the other side of Ben, rode it across the bridge, and they insisted we get off at the last second to take this picture. So we rode a bus for about 1/4 of a mile. I'm sure everybody watching us scramble off the bus said, "Look at those silly Americans..."

Westminster Abbey
This building is across a square from Big Ben and is where the coronations happen and where many of the anchient monarchy are buried, like Mary Queen of Scotts and her sister Elizabeth I (remember the movie we watched at the Andersons, girls?). It's beautiful in there but it's almost like a tomb because you're walking around these huge stone caskets with stone figures of the people inside laying on top with their hands folded. Sorta creepy. However, the accoustics are amazing. We heard a choral and organ evensong here.