I started by taking one of the double decker red buses to Westminster. What I did not realize was that Westminster was the same stop for Parliament. I was looking at the Parliament and totally missed the stop. I found out a few stops later at Trafalgar Square where then I walked back to Westminster.
I saw a statue of Abraham Lincoln for some reason. It was quite large and prominent in the park.
I was planning to spend a few hours at Westminster exploring the insides of the cathedral, and paying my respect to the many famous people interred at the cathedral. Sadly it was not my destiny to visit Westminster. The church was only open to Viscounts for some event and you needed an invitation to get in. So my day got skewed in terms of when I was going to do stuff. But it turned out ok since I was able to fit in more than I expected to do that day.
Westminster Abbey is a lot smaller than I thought. The towers do not dominate the skyline which is how I imagined it. It was still impressive to see it though in person. Even if I did get in, I would not have been able to take pictures, but I did get postcards of the insides. It was just spectacular to look at, although it was just the outside. Next to Westminster Abbey was the Parliament building, another spectacular building in terms of its design. Big Ben the pinnacle of the structure. I walked along Westminster bridge to get a whole view of the building, and stopped 5 times to take pictures for people who were struggling trying to get their picture with Big Ben. Do you know how Big Ben got its name? It's for the bell inside. While I was on the bridge, the bell sounded at 12:00 noon. What a tremendous sound.
The London Eye: view from Westminster Bridge
After I crossed Westminster Bridge, I was going to walk to the Waterloo Bridge and cross back over. While walking between the two bridges, I discovered the London Film Museum. I thought since I had the time, that I would take the opportunity to check it out. I was not sorry. I saw a lot of stuff that was actually used in the movies. Super cool. I will explain in the pictures.
Christian Bale's Batman Begins Costume
For all of those Harry Potter fans out there, I saw the brooms and spell books from the movie.
Golden Egg, Goblet of Fire, and Ron Weasley's Angry Letter about the car
Alien
Terminator Head
I'm not really a huge fan of Alien, but I thought these two figures were interesting looking. I don't know how these were used in the movies, cause they seemed just to be models, but I am not sure.
Here is something for Star Wars fans. I am such a fan, so I was excited to see some of this stuff. The light sabers below were the movie lightsabers used in the movies.
Luke Skywalker's lightsaber
Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith's lightsaber
Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber
Obi-Wan Kenobi's lightsaber
Darth Vader and Storm Troopers
Bobba Fett the Bounty Hunter
The meteor that superman was sent to earth in.
Suit of armor from Knights Tale
I then went to Trafalgar Square. It was pretty cool, but filled with protesters. In the center of the square was Nelson's tower, which is seen below.
The National Gallery
Olympic clock counting down to the Olympics
I was told to visit the last remaining building of Whitehall palace, the banqueting room of James I. It was indeed a gem. From the outside, the structure is pretty plain rectangular building. Nothing really would draw your attention to going inside unless you knew what was inside. When you walk into the banqueting hall, you are amazed at the immense ceiling paintings that dominate the room. Not only was the room architecturally complex, the paintings were one of a kind. They were huge. I want my sister to make me a banqueting hall like this in my house someday (won't happen but I can dream)
The center painting was painted in a way, that when you entered the room, the focus of the room would be that painting. No matter where you looked when you entered, your eyes were automatically drawn to the painting. Absolutely stunning.
The whole ceiling; see how the oval picture dominates the other paintings.
After visiting Whitehall, I thought I would go find the Churchill War Rooms. I walked all over town in the area where I thought they were according to a map that I was using. However, I was unsuccessful at finding them on my own. I decided since I was in the area, I would walk across St. James Park to Buckingham Palace. As I reached the park, the found the War Rooms. I would save those for my journey back before dinner. Along the paths in the park, there were a surplus of pigeons and ducks that people would feed. I have never seen so many ducks so close to people, in such a small space. I saw a kid feeding squirrels, where he would get them to climb up and sit on his leg while they ate what he gave them. I guess you could say the boy had some "nuts."
The changing of the guard happened earlier in the day. It was not my priority to see that. But they still had the guards outside that wore the big furry hats and stomped around. Lovely building.
I looked at my map and realized that I was close to Westminster Cathedral, which was another place where I wanted to go. I had to ask some directions at the Queens Mews Museum (Carriages and stuff). I reached the church. It was really interesting from the outside. Very different from the Abbey. The Abbey was very much so Gothic in style, and this seemed more Romanesque. Inside, you could see massive domes and romanesque archways. It was stunning. I could have taken pictures inside, but there was a service going on so pictures were not allowed. I was still able to go into the smaller chapels and look at that stuff. I did sit for a while and listen to the music and the organ. Indescribable.
The Churchill War Rooms was the location where Churchill ran his war councils and led the English to victory of the German's in WWII. It was a bunker used during the war. After the war, it was as if someone went into the war rooms and placed glass over everything and preserved it the way it was and turned it into a museum. Most of the stuff in there were original to the war rooms. Some rooms were left untouched.
Churchill sat in the chair in the middle of the map, the only chair different from the others. That guy is not original. The papers, table covering, map, and everything else was original to the room and never removed.
Looking down history: the way it looked in WWII
After the Churchill War Rooms, it was time to get some dinner. I got dinner at the Silver Cross. It had the same menu as the Central Pub in St. Andrew's. I saw many other similar pubs. After dinner, I had gotten myself tickets to an Opera; the Marriage of Fiagaro done by the English National Opera. I was really excited. I got there early to get my tickets. Although, I was saddened by the news that the opera would be performed in English, as they are the English National Opera, and not in the original Italian the opera was written in. I was hoping it would still be really good. Luckily, the show was fantastic. I was able to understand what all of the dialogue and songs mean because of the english. Sometimes the music did not line up with the wording and phrasing of the text, but overall it was really good. I am glad I went to such a well known opera.
The London Coliseum: picture from my seat in the 2nd Balcony (Upper Circle). The building was Roman Coliseum themed.
By the time I returned back to my home for the night, it was already midnight. I had gotten up early that day to get an early start and got back late. I was exhausted. From all of the walking I did, which I am sure was a substantial amount, added to my exhaustion. Saturday promised to be slightly less exhausting, for I only planned to go to the British Museum for the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment