Today I had some free time so I figured I'd go and finish off the National Portrait Gallery, which I did, and it was excellent. Really, it's almost like a history museum - they just have a million portraits of like every famous person in British history with captions letting you know what the story was. It's really something.
On my way there, I passed through Piccadilly Circus, which is sort of the Times Square of London, I guess, in that its really touristy and packed. They have this statue of Eros though that I thought was pretty sweet.
This is the gate the Queen rides through when she's going to Parliament or being crowned or whatever, it's right by Trafalgar Square. Only Royalty are allowed to pass through that gate in the center (I learned this from a tour guide walking by)
This is a statue of Capt Cook! What a baller, I really like him - he died on Tahiti of course though.
This is the Mall, leading down to Buckingham Palace - which you can see in the background. Bit disappointing though, there weren't any good stores!
The Palace! I stopped by to see the Queen, but apparently Friday is the night when she washes her hair.
This is the monument to Queen Victoria, right in front of Buckingham Palace. I like the big statue of her, it's very imposing.
One of the famous Palace guards. I'll be honest - I took a picture of this one and not the other one because he was black and I thought that was pretty cool.
I think this is the Horse Guard building? That area in front is where they do their fancy changing of the Horse Guard, which I missed of course.
This was right by the Horse Guard building, I'm so excited - a statue of Lord Mountbatten, commander of the British forces in Burma during WWII which of course I'm doing my thesis on. He was the cousin of the King, and a pretty good General, as these things go.
Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament! I told you I saw them. Pretty cool huh. I also walked by 10 Downing Street on my way over towards here, but you can't really see it - there's just a gate on the street and some annoyed looking guards so I figured I wouldn't bother taking a picture.
Big Ben, of course. I kind of assumed it would be bigger, but on retrospect I realize it's because I was visualizing it as it appeared in
The Great Mouse Detective, where of course it was incredibly massive. Still, it's pretty neat. Can you tell what time I took this picture at?
Right across the street, we have this statue of General Smuts, who of course was the leader of British forces in the Boer War. There was also a statue of Abraham Lincoln for some reason, which really confused me but I guess it's just a tribute to him as a great lawmaker or some such.
The Houses of Parliament. The statue in the lower right (if you can see it, its small) is actually of Oliver Cromwell, which I thought was kind of interesting given that he dethroned and executed a King; still, I suppose he did it to restore Parliament, but it seems a little weird.
Finally, I walked down to the Covent Garden area for dinner; it's got a nice shopping area right here, something like a mall combined with an open-air market, and I was able to pick up some cheap-ish Indian food. This is a pretty hot spot on weekends I guess, there were a lot of street performers including an escape artist, two guys juggling chainsaws (at different times), a living statue, and about 30 magicians. Also they had an art exhibition of the graffiti artist Banksy, which was cool but seemed sort of counter-intuitive somehow. Still, nice to see.
The Palace! I stopped by to see the Queen, but apparently Friday is the night when she washes her hair.
This is the monument to Queen Victoria, right in front of Buckingham Palace. I like the big statue of her, it's very imposing.
One of the famous Palace guards. I'll be honest - I took a picture of this one and not the other one because he was black and I thought that was pretty cool.
I think this is the Horse Guard building? That area in front is where they do their fancy changing of the Horse Guard, which I missed of course.
This was right by the Horse Guard building, I'm so excited - a statue of Lord Mountbatten, commander of the British forces in Burma during WWII which of course I'm doing my thesis on. He was the cousin of the King, and a pretty good General, as these things go.
Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament! I told you I saw them. Pretty cool huh. I also walked by 10 Downing Street on my way over towards here, but you can't really see it - there's just a gate on the street and some annoyed looking guards so I figured I wouldn't bother taking a picture.
Big Ben, of course. I kind of assumed it would be bigger, but on retrospect I realize it's because I was visualizing it as it appeared in The Great Mouse Detective, where of course it was incredibly massive. Still, it's pretty neat. Can you tell what time I took this picture at?
Right across the street, we have this statue of General Smuts, who of course was the leader of British forces in the Boer War. There was also a statue of Abraham Lincoln for some reason, which really confused me but I guess it's just a tribute to him as a great lawmaker or some such.
The Houses of Parliament. The statue in the lower right (if you can see it, its small) is actually of Oliver Cromwell, which I thought was kind of interesting given that he dethroned and executed a King; still, I suppose he did it to restore Parliament, but it seems a little weird.
Finally, I walked down to the Covent Garden area for dinner; it's got a nice shopping area right here, something like a mall combined with an open-air market, and I was able to pick up some cheap-ish Indian food. This is a pretty hot spot on weekends I guess, there were a lot of street performers including an escape artist, two guys juggling chainsaws (at different times), a living statue, and about 30 magicians. Also they had an art exhibition of the graffiti artist Banksy, which was cool but seemed sort of counter-intuitive somehow. Still, nice to see.
I think Brits love Abraham Lincoln because they had such a huge abolitionist movement. They also colonized most of Africa, and were responsible for a large amount of the slavery and quasi-slavery that happened over the last few centuries, but they're a contradictory people. what can i say.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I can never hear "10 Downing Street" without thinking of First Among Equals and everything associated with that book.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Lincoln, wars, things that are both horrifying and awesome, etc. -- I'm reading The Killer Angels right now, and even though I think Shaara's writing style is both irritating and kind of trashy, I'm enjoying it.