Five times in London and we have never visited Big Ben (or I should say, Elizabeth Tower). So we decided to play tourists this time and go and have a look. It was only a 5 minutes walk from our hotel, couldn't be easier.
Big Ben was, well, big!
Here is our obligatory photo with Big Ben, taken on the Westminster Bridge.
Beautiful courtyard near Big Ben, part of the Palace of Westminster.
Cromwell Green outside the Palace of Westminster aka The Houses of Parliament.
Oliver Cromwell seems to be much hated in Ireland as he appears to have been involved in the ethnic cleansing of Catholics in the mid 1600's. So then why is his statue here?
The Houses of Parliament - not crowded, and not open.
The entire complex is huge, and the neo-gothic facade is stunning. It is not the original building, though, having been rebuilt in 1840-1870.
As usual, he was clueless about his historic surroundings.
Obligatory photo outside the Palace of Westminster :)
It was just too big to capture in one shot, despite our fish-eye lens.
Another historic landmark - Westminster Abbey - just across the street.
We stumbled upon a quiet little corner to rest our legs - Jewel Tower. This is one of the few surviving parts of the original Palace of Westminster, built in 1365.
Someone preferred to stretch his legs instead.
Exploring the dry moat with daddy.
A friendly caretaker told us how to visit Westminster Abbey without having to pay the entrance fees. So we went round the back and walked past Westminster School.
View of the 11th century school.
According to Wikipedia, it is one of Britain's leading independent schools,
with the highest Oxbridge acceptance rate of any British school.
And it has produced seven Prime Ministers. Wow.
The serene corridors of Westminster Abbey.
There were all kinds of wall plates along the corridors. I am not sure why they were put up there. This one is about Francis Drake and James Cook's sea travels, and the one below, strangely, is about the discoverer of Halley's comet.
Surrounded by centuries of history and he was only interested in his raisin bread, lol.
Trying to look fashionable at the Abbey (some accessories come with strings attached).
I found this interesting excerpt from Wikipedia about Oliver Cromwell: "Oliver Cromwell was given an elaborate funeral there (in Westminster Abbey) in 1658, only to be disinterred(exhumed) in January 1661 and posthumously hanged from a nearby gibbet."
So Mr. Cromwell is immortalised in a statue just across the street, and here he was hanged. Talk about a controversial figure.
Now on to more pleasant things. There was a lovely photo exhibition at the Abbey to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.
Here are some lovely photos of significant events in the Queen's life that took place at the Abbey:
Her father's coronation, and her wedding.
Her own coronation at 26 years old.
Princess Diana's funeral.
William and Kate's wedding.
Oh, and here is Prince Charles again with his moustache.
Some shots of the splendid Westminster Abbey:
View of Big Ben from Parliament Square.
It is a nice bit of green surrounded by the UK Supreme Court, the Treasury and Revenue offices and Portcullis House where the MPs work. It is also where most demonstrations in London are held. How convenient :)
Churchill not looking too happy at Parliament Square.
Portcullis House, named after the chained portcullis used to symbolise the Houses of Parliament on letterheads and official documents. Opened in 2001, it overran its budget by £70m, and the parliamentary report on the over-spend was never published. Costs include £32,500 a year to rent 12 decorative fig trees. No wonder tax-paying Britons are unhappy.
The London Eye from Westminster Bridge, on our way back to the hotel.
This is us trying to have a nice Sunday roast lunch with one hand..
..whilst keeping the mayhem under control with the other hand.
No, not really. But it was the Jubilee week, and we found ourselves pounding the streets of London again not long after our last visit in April. I must say, the Queen is looking very well in this picture, don't you think? Happy Diamond Jubilee, Your Majesty!
And we also spotted Prince Charles looking quite dashing with a moustache.
The capital was certainly feeling very jubilant, by the look of things.
Regent Street crowd on a Saturday.
Glittery 3D flag on Carnaby Street.
The UK flag shared the spotlight with the Queen and her corgis in many a shop window, some in very imaginative ways.
The Queen with Warhol's Marilyn and soup cans at Pepejeans.
The Queen was Lego-lised at Hamleys, whilst William and Kate made an appearance on the upper deck.
Corgi was not missing out on the action at FCUK.
Oh yes, it has.
Anthropologie was quite unpatriotic, but they did have this interesting, humongous Protea made from corrugated cardboard.
We also stumbled onto the Liberty department store, which we never knew existed prior to this, despite its fame.
It even has its own clock tower.
Gorgeous flowers outside Liberty.
And then I saw this in Liberty's shop window:
And I recalled the conversation I had with my good friend, Beatrice, just before we left for London. Suddenly, it all made sense.
Beatrice (excitedly): "Liberty prints are really in at the moment, you know!!"
Me: "Er, what is Liberty print?"
Beatrice: "Small flowery prints." (in her mind: duh)
Me: "Ok." (in my mind: what?)
So Beat, these shots are specially for you:
We didn't have a fixed plan for the day, so we wandered into Hamleys Toy Store (yes, I can hear you parents chortle).
Their marketing strategy: (1) Re-package the toys and sell nothing below £10. (2) Have promotion booths everywhere to promote the high margin toys via live demonstrations.
See, right at the entrance, this customer was already enchanted by bubbles from a £30 bubble gun.
He was more hesitant about the assertive bunny and the drumming bear, but mummy was quite captivated and almost bought them. Almost.
Surrounded by candy and he only wanted the "balloons".
We could not buy these but we did leave with a smallish toy car, and a multi-button super duper loud and noisy steering wheel. (yes, you may chortle again)
Lunch was at Carnaby Burger Co (http://www.burgerco.co.uk/), an ethical burger bar where waste is minimised and recycled, all materials used are environmentally-friendly and good causes are supported (way to go!).
Lucas waiting for his dessert at Carnaby Burger Co.
Then this gooey pudding with melted toffee, custard and ice cream came. And mummy and daddy declared that it was theirs.
We stopped off at John Lewis to get some London 2012 souvenirs.
Wenlock is cute, but I was wondering why there were no native animals in the UK to choose from that they had to adopt a one-eyed alien as their mascot. Then I discovered that Wenlock is not an alien, but a drop of steel. Oh.
Here is a funny commentary on the Olympic mascots by Chris Chase of Sports.yahoo.com (full article here: http://redicecreations.com/article.php?id=11006):
"London unveils creepy-looking mascots for 2012 Olympics When the official logo of the 2012 London Olympics was released three years ago, the odd puzzle-piece design was the object of so much scorn that organizers were desperate to avoid similar criticism when they unveiled the mascots for the Games on Wednesday. With the introduction of Wenlock and Mandeville (above), London 2012 organizers realized their goal. The criticism of the mascots won’t be similar to the complaints about the logo. No, they’ll be much, much worse.
Look, I don’t know what to say. Olympic mascots have always been the object of scorn(remember Izzy?), but these two, uh, things take the absurdity to a whole new level. There’s a complicated backstory to the characters which was written by a children’s author. It explains why the mascots have one eye (it’s a camera lens to see the world) and yellow lights on tops of their heads (an homage to London taxicabs), but fails to tell the tale of why they look like early rejects from a Pixar movie. Plus, the fact that some details are explained only makes me wonder about the things that aren’t. Why does the one on the left look like it’s wearing an oven mitt? Where are their feet? What, are both those design features a metaphor for how we can’t run away from global warming?"
Relaxing at John Lewis' cafe.
Totally zoned out on the London Bus, which I have also just discovered is a subsidiary of Comfort DelGro. Hmm.
Back at the hotel, watching Euro 2012 whilst eating plum and banana puree:
Maybe it tickles him to watch 20 big men chasing after one little ball, and why don't they have one ball each to play with?
