England #17

Here is the London Bridge. Impressive, huh? I was surprised to see it, and thought "What's the big deal?" Daniel told me how people tend to mix-up the London Bridge with the Tower Bridge. Thus the London bridge story in Arizona. :)
Here's the proof it's actually London Bridge.


Here are some interesting buildings we passed along the way.

This is the HMS Belfast. A floating Museum on the River Thames. (Between London Bridge and Tower Bridge.) I believe it was used in World War II and the Korean War.

Here I am getting ready to do a little more shopping in Hay's Galleria. Which is a wharf that was converted to a riverside shopping center.

While I was shopping, Daniel saw these guys on the River Thames. We are assuming they are British Navy Seals or something. (He used his zoom lens to get this close up shot.)

Here are some pictures of Tower Bridge.

The view walking across Tower Bridge, heading over to the Tower of London.

The Tower of London. The Tower's primary function was a fortress, a royal palace, and a prison (particularly for high status and royal prisoners, such as the Princes in the Tower and the future Queen Elizabeth I). This last use has led to the phrase "sent to the Tower" (meaning "imprisoned"). (wikipedia)

Tower of London and Tower Bridge

Moat around Tower of London.

We had planned on taking a tour of the Tower, but ended up getting there about 20 minutes too late! We were so disappointed. I guess we'll just have to go back someday! The outside was quite impressive on it's own. Here's some pictures.


I really am almost done with our trip!!

England #16

Next we headed over to see Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the Jewel Tower.

Here is a view of Big Ben, right as we came out of the Underground station.

Some of the Security at Parliament.

Here are some pictures of Parliament. It is huge!

Here are some pictures of Westminster Abbey.


This is the Jewel Tower. It is one of only 2 surviving sections of the original Palace of Westminster.

The Jewel Tower Sign

I cannot remember what this is, but it was next to the Jewel Tower.

I know that I am a terrible tour guide! :)

England #15

Here are a variety of buildings we saw around London and thought were interesting.




Cool Buildings and construction near Trafalgar Square.


Map of where we were.

Some pictures of Trafalgar Square


Fountain @ Trafalgar SquareInteresting?

Statue at Trafalgar Square of General Charles James Napier. He was a British General and Commander-in-Chief in India.

A better picture of one of the accordion buses.

We thought this was fun because the soccer team at Bethel College (where Daniel went to college) are called the Bethel Threshers.

England #14

London has a lot of museums, several which are free. So we decided to visit The British Museum. It is one of the world's greatest museums of human history and culture. (wikipedia)


It was such a massive museum, it was overwhelming! You would have to live in London and visit it numerous times before you could even begin to experience it. There is SO MUCH to see there. We only skimmed the surface. Here are a just a few pictures for you.





One of many sarcophaguses.

The Gates to Balawat


The Rosetta Stone.


An African chair made out of guns.

England #13

After the Changing of the Guard ceremony, we took some more pictures near the Palace.
Here are some close ups of the statue of Queen Victoria in front of Buckingham.
Queen Victoria

Here I am sitting on a tiny fence in front of some really pretty, colorful flowers.

While we were taking pictures, some of the guards came marching back and went to the Palace. Maybe they forgot something? :)

We were on our way back to the Underground to go to our next stop when we passed this sign on someone's driveway.

Daniel kept trying to get a good picture of the British flag flying in the wind, but the wind kept dying down just as he would get his camera out. He finally got it to work and it ends up being a tattered looking flag! Oh well.

One of the many interesting buildings we passed on our way.

Here are some pictures of the very steep escalators for the Underground. The first time on was a bit surprising.They do have signs that tell you to stay to the right if you are just riding, so that those who want to walk as they go, get the left side. That is very helpful when you are in a hurry!

We thought this Pub was quite nicely decorated.

England #12

Here are some of the pictures of the Changing of the Guard ceremony. There ended up being a ton of people there and most of the pictures are just holding the camera up above people's heads and snapping away. The joys of digital photography!

You can see the throngs of people all around the Palace to watch the change. We didn't realize there would be quite so many people there, or we would have arrived earlier.

The soldiers arriving for the ceremony.The band arriving


Some more soldiers arriving. I don't know what the difference is between the red uniforms and the black. I'm guessing different branches of the military?

Everyone getting in postion for the ceremony.

The Band setting up.

The change was quite different than what I was expecting. I thought there would be a lot of pomp and circumstance around the 2 guards actually switching out. We hadn't even realized it happened until we noticed the black suited guard where the red suited one had been. We had assumed he would be replaced by another red suited one, so we just kept waiting and watching.

There was a lot of marching around and things that we had no clue what it meant. We just kept snapping pictures.


You see the black suited guard in the box on the left, that's the new guard.

The band played a whole variety of music during the whole thing. They seemed to like American music and movie songs, too.

During all of this one of the doorways was business as usual. People came and went as if nothing was going on.

At one point I turned the camera around and snapped Daniel. You can see a reflection of the Palace in his sunglasses.

We were pressed up against the fence the whole time. It was very crowded!

These guys marched past about 50 times or so. I'm not really sure what they were accomplishing. I would have been curious what their conversation was about. :)

The black suited guards preparing to leave after the change.

Here is a view of all the peoples hands and arms through the fence. It was a bit crazy.

Well, now we can say that we have been at the Changing of the Guard, but you really didn't miss much.

England #11

Here is a picture of a beautiful lake right across the road from Buckingham Palace.


They had these huge, ornate archways over the sidewalk across the street from the Palace.

Here is a view of the London Eye from the Palace.

We saw a couple of these accordion buses around town. I definitely would not want to try and drive one! Their streets and corners are so narrow and tight as it is.


We thought that we would take a picture of one of their old fashioned looking phone booths. Inside is disgusting! It smelled like a combination of urine and strong men's cologne. Ugh! It's also where they post their pornography. It made me think that these booths belong on the Vegas strip not scattered around London.