London Day Tour

During the international students' freshers fair during orientation week at school, I signed up for a discounted London day tour for my first Saturday in the UK. Only 20 pounds got me a round trip train ticket to London and a guided tour that lasted like nine hours and included a river tour on the Thames. There was also the option of going to Madame Tussaud's wax museum, but I've been to the one in Hollywood, and meh. Not worth the 30 extra pounds (can you believe it? Even I'm questioning my memory on that figure) they wanted for it.

We saw a helluva lot of shit. Like this:

I think that's Westminster Abbey, but I don't know why blogger put it all the way at the top like this. You're just going to have to go with me on this. I'm not going to have time anymore to fix the kinks, although now I'm at the end and I've cut and pasted my other picture of the Abbey above, too. I just spent two days straight of reading about componential analysis, and I still have 30 long pages to read by tomorrow.

This is actually the first thing we saw, the Queen's Gallery. Apparently it was opened to the public to help pay for damages in a fire???? and then was kept open because the government is always willing to continue to take money from the people. We didn't have time to go in, so now I have no idea what kind of art the queen likes. DAMMit'AH.

Next was Buckingham Palace. Neither was the queen at home nor did the guards see fit to change that day, so I was deeply insulted.

The palace looks kind of more like a mansion by today's standards, except for all the gold (which of course is not solid), but I'm sure it's cool to live in.

The lion and the unicorn are seen around a lot as royal symbols. The guide gave specific traits associated with each, but except for the generally accepted traits of the lion, I can't recall specifics. A cursory glance at the internets only tells me that the lion is England and the unicorn is Scotland.

In front is the Victoria Memorial. Look at the pretty angel:

We couldn't go on the other side of the statue, because in the street behind it they were filming "Johnny English 2." Great, thanks.

Here are some shots as we are walking into Green Park, so named because there are no flowers (according to the guide, this was the fault of the jealous wife of King Charles II, who found he'd given flowers from the park to another woman and had them all uprooted).

These flowers are part of the palace grounds, not of Green Park, so I guess they're okay.

Here we start to get around to the other side of the memorial.

Next we saw down the street some of the houses of the royal family, and guards.

Then we went to another park, where the animals were very friendly. I fed some banana to one of the geese, and someone videotaped it, but I think it went onto the tape, not the memory card, so you can't see. Suckaaas.

Some people were in what they call "fancy dress" here, as guards and a queen. I don't know why.

We had a bit of free time in this park. I saw this building. I took its picture. That's all I know.

So the Duke of York thought he was hot shit, and commissioned a statue of himself, which the people did not think was cool, so they vandalized it a lot. Hence, really high pedestal.

Trafalgar Square?

This statue is high for a different reason, which has to do with status and reverence.

Here we are on a street with a lot of important documents. The guide said, it's okay, take a picture with the horses; they're nice. This horse took a chomp right on my arm.

Me and a guard:

Houses of Parliament

Big Ben is not the clock, but the bell inside the clock. BOO-ya. 

We had like three hours of free time before we went on the river cruise. I was reading The Little White Bird by James Barrie a while ago, so I decided to visit Kensington Gardens to see Peter Pan.

I saw this little house when I first got inside. It's cute.

Here are the fountains at the main entrance:

I ate second lunch that was leftover from first lunch while I hung around the Peter Pan statue and watched other people take pictures with him and also watched all the birds bird around in the little Serpentine River next to me.

You can't see the snail, but he's in there.

Also in the Gardens was the Serpentine Art Gallery, but it was closed. Outside was this big installation with a cafe inside it. It was too expensive for me to buy a mocha. 

I considered hanging around and playing some stranger at ping pong, but I really didn't have time. 

Next I found a Prince Albert Memorial.

Around it are people and animals from the "four corners" of the world: Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. I thought it was cool because I've now lived in all those places (considering the Americas as one, as in the sculpture).

Look how distinguished Europe looks:

Sorry, I should have gotten closer for Asia.

I thought it was funny that they had to include a cowboy for us, and that he was in the back of the Native Americans.

Here we are at sunset, on the River Thames.

I'm not sure if I was going for the bridge or the building here...

The London Eye. It's a ferris wheel.

This was voted Ugliest Building in London. I forget what it's for. I was given a lot of information that day, three weeks ago, people.

Oooooh...

The rest of these pictures, I pretty much don't know what they are. I think the Globe Theater is in there somewhere.

Suite:

The Anchor! They have a pirate ship!

This is Tower Bridge. It's what people think London Bridge is. London Bridge is boring in actuality and not special. Tower Bridge is cool.

I think this one miiiiiiight be the real London Bridge question mark?

Okay, that's it. It was a long day. I was very tired at the end. London has a good subway system, but I can't say if it's well priced since an all day tube pass was also included in the price of the tour. I haven't been back to London yet, but probably in November I'll go.