Europe Photo Entry #15: London

Ha! You thought there was no way we had any more photos from Europe up our sleeve! It's been 1 1/2 years since we got back, but no, we haven't finished blogging about it.

I have no real regrets about the way we did our trip to Europe, but I have to say that seeing England last was very odd. If we had gone to England first, then I'm sure it would have seemed very foreign to me, but having visited six other countries first, it was almost like visiting New York or Philadelphia. Just not nearly so foreign an experience as, say, Hungary or Italy.

Of course, we loved it just the same.

Well, we had to put at least one picture of Big Ben up. The is the British parliament building at Westminster. Visiting the House of Commons and the House of Lords was my idea. And while no one debated about whether Oasis is the best band to come out of Britain since the Beatles (see here: http://snltranscripts.jt.org/96/96pmajor.phtml),
the Commons were definitely more lively than the Lords.
Michelle in front of Westminster Abbey.
Westminster Abbey doesn't tilt like that in real life. Neither do I. No cameras were allowed inside, so I can't show you the graves of any legendary Britons, although there were many. You can see a list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Burials_at_Westminster_Abbey. This place had the most knowledgeable tour guide in history. I thought T.E. Lawrence was buried here, so I asked the aged guide where his grave marker was. He told me that he's not buried in Westminster, but then he told me where he was buried (it's some little English village, although apparently there's a bust of him at St. Paul's cathedral, which we saw but didn't have time to visit). Then I asked about a couple of other people I didn't see buried there, and he told me their burial sites. Now that's a tour guide who deserves a raise.


Piccadilly Circus (I think the "circus" part refers to the shape of the plaza, but the behavior of the people there lends a double meaning to it).

After the debacle at the Frankfurt Temple, the London Temple was a nice respite from the frenetic pace of our trip.

Self-explanatory. The Tower of London. I learned a lot about English history here, more than is worth mentioning in this short space. I should mention that due to Michelle's careful planning, we made it into the exclusive "Ceremony of the Keys", which is the symbolic locking of the Tower at night. It was very neat, although the redcoats who performed the ceremony took their duties waaaaaaaaaaay less seriously than any U.S. military drill team would have (they were not actors). Their comportment was a bit of a joke, and the trumpeter sounded like he hadn't picked up an instrument since sixth grade. Let's hope that the best and brightest of the British Army are in Afghanistan. If you were to compare that ceremony to what you see at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington, it's not hard to summon some chest-thumping pride in the American soldier.