Saturday 9th June London
Out the door about 9.15 am to walk to Houses of Parliament
for tour at 11 am –took us about an hour to walk there from St Pauls along
Victoria Embankment with a few stops on the way at interesting places like
Cleopatra’s Needle and the Battle of Britain memorial.
Then we had to go thru security screening to get into
Parliament building –everything scanned and Lyndsay had pat down search and into
the Great Hall of Westminster awaiting our tour group. About 30 people booked
at same time, as well as in English language, tours were also organised in German,
French, Japanese or probably any language you wished. Our tour leader was very pleasant
and knowledgeable woman called Carol. The Tour which lasted about 1 hr 15 min
was hugely informative and put into context many of the historical figures and
events we have known about in relation to British politics over the years. The architecture is huge and sumptuous until
you get to the House of Commons which is relatively sparse. Very pleased to
have done it.
Then a bit of lunch in quite quiet and peaceful Whitehall
gardens, a respite from the thousands of people out and about today, bit windy
and cooler but no rain. Also no free yoghurt today. Went off to check out
Spitalfields Markets which were largely closed by the time we got there but by
going on Circle line we discovered our carefully laid plans for taking tube to
airport tomorrow were in disarray as that line will be closed tomorrow. Very
helpful man at TFL Information helped sort out an alternative route from Mansion
House which is actually easier than the one we had planned.
Back to St Pauls exhausted and crashed for nap about 5 pm
interrupted by very noisy helicopters immediately overhead. Then weeks washing
done and dried and watched Euro 2012 Soccer match between Denmark and Holland,
shared fish and chips and watched some more TV then crashed for night.
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