From the British Museum, I wandered down to Waterloo Bridge (getting
lost several times since I didn’t want to pull out my fold out map unless I had
to) and crossed over the Thames and followed the South bank to the London Eye
(the largest Ferris wheel in Europe?).
While
walking along the river, I passed through a lot of Paralympic street festival events.
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| Paralympic Volunteers |
Like the fabled catfish of a certain Southern city, all around London were variously themed statues
of its two Olympic mascots, Wenlock and Mandeville. Some of these were kind of creepy, while some were kind of cute, it depended on the particular statue.
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| Wenlock on the Thames |
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| Big Ben Wenlock |
When I reached the London Eye, I decided not to ride it as
figured to see the city myself and not just from a distance in the air.
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| London Eye |
So I crossed over Westminster Bridge to the
House of Parliament. Took what I hope
are some nice pictures of Big Ben (apparently recently renamed by some
enterprising parliamentarian to the Elizabeth Tower).
There were a lot of armed guards standing at
the gates. Not the royal ones in the red
coats and black fur helmets, but the working ones that look like you see in all
the movies. Dark flack jackets over white collared shirts with blue tabs,
bobby helmets, submachine guns. But they
were awfully nice to tourist. The
stone work on the Houses of Parliment is simply amazing.
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| Queen's Entrance to Parliament |
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| Cromwell statue celebrating Parliament's win over the Crown |
I tried my best to capture it, really wish I
had the courage to bring AM’s nice camera (don’t know how it could have
possibly fit in my bag). Wandered into
the small park adjacent to take a few more pictures, and then across the street
to Westminster Abbey. At this time, the
abbey was closed for evensong, so I just took pictures from the outside. '
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| Westminster Abbey |
By now I was getting pretty tired. (Museum/poster standing like in conferences
just absolutely kills my hip. It goes
pretty numb by about 30 minutes and then alternates between pain and
numbness.) I continued to meander without consulting the map (but
consulting road signs) until I reached Buckingham Palace.
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| Buckingham Palace |
I was a bit disappointed to find that you
could not approach the guards directly (to try to blow their famous reserve) as
they are set well behind the courtyard fence. (I think you can approach the guards at St. James Palace more directly, but never got there.)
They don’t carry the old bayonet rifle I imagined, but what look like
M16 type rifles with an wide bayonet. At
the time I reach the palace, it was well after closing time for tours (I never
did make this tour.) 
The barbed wire (more like tank cable) on the walls surrounding the Palace was pretty impressive.
I was getting
pretty tired, so I walked over to Hyde Park Corner (passed the Wellington Arch
that figured so prominently in the cycling race and triathlon) and got the tube
for home.
After stopping to drop off my
backpack and camera, I decided to head across the street to eat.
I ordered fish and chips, just for an authentic British
experiences. When the waitress asked if
I wanted garlic bread, I thought she meant as the customary complimentary bread
appetizer served in most American restaurants.
Instead, it was an extra L4 (~$6) for what was essentially pita bread
with some garlic on top. Tasty enough to
be sure, but the take home message for me was that everything in a London comes
at a high cost (except the museums, which are free although donations highly
favored). Even a plastic shopping bag
was 50 pence (I have no idea if that is half a pound or some other unit of
measure.) I also asked for an orange juice and got a orange soft drink
instead. Interesting. At a later sandwich shop, I got real orange
juice, so I am not sure if the waitress just didn’t understand me or what. Anyway, dinner ended day one.
