London: Day 2

On our second day together in London, Mary and I visited Westminster Abbey, Winston Churchill's War Rooms, and we took a boat tour of the Thames River.  Despite being excessively crowded, Westminster Abbey is the most beautiful church I have been inside.  It contains the tombs of nearly all of Britain's monarchs and it is intricately decorated, each room representing a different era of British history, with different design schemes, colors, and materials that make up the ornate sarcophagi.  Guards banned cameras inside and unlike in St. Peter's Basilica, they meant it.  You really do have to pay 13 pounds and go to London to see the inside.  But I promise it is worth it.  The sheer amount of history inside and the beauty of the building and its contents- ranging from carvings of kings, queens, and knights to thousand year old tapestries to the tomb of the unknown soldier...to things as superficial as the exact spot where "William and Kate got married!".  It took a long time to get through the entire thing too see every room. What is remarkable to me is that Anglican priests still live there and they hold public services every Sunday.

Since we got a late start that day, we were not able to tour Parliament (pictured directly above).  Similar to the White House, you need a background check and since I'm on the no-fly list for trying to bring a fully stocked tool kit (razor blade, hammer, etc) and six pack of Izzy's through security in Buffalo two years ago, I knew mine would take a bit too long.  So instead, we went to Winston Churchill's War Rooms, an underground office building used by the British Government during the Blitz of London by Nazi Germany during WWII.

The War Rooms were the epicenter of the government during the Blitz because they were the only safe place Prime Minister Churchill could be while made war and defense plans.  They are my favorite historical monument yet, because they were well-maintained and contained an amazing amount of original furniture, equipment and papers.  As I walked through the labyrinth of underground rooms, I knew what it must have been like to live down there when all you could hear were bombs and air raid sirens.  Scary.  Cinder block walls, poor lighting, poor ventilation, small hallways, and generally very military style barrack conditions.  Churchill, his family, his staff and British generals and their staff lived here for weeks or even months at a time.  The entire war was planned from here- they had a secure communications room, a map room with precise world maps wrapped all around the room, bedrooms, a kitchen, and of course, THE War Room.  The famous conference room where Churchill spent met with his generals and staff daily remained just as it was left in 1945.  Mary's grandmother worked in the War Rooms during WWII so it was very cool to be down there seeing it all.  Everything was behind glass of course, so the pictures are a bit fuzzy below.

Our final activity that day was a great tour boat ride down the Thames River.  It's a great way to see the major sights of the city from a far before going to them.  As you'll see from the pictures, it was a beautiful evening in London.

The London Eye, a Giant Ferris wheel, as seen from the boat.

Passing under London Bridge

A crowded top deck of our river boat.  Westminster and Parliament in the background.

This is the foot bridge that gets destroyed in the 7th Harry Potter film!!!  We passed under it in the boat.

Boats cannot pass under Tower Bridge, it ended here.

Mary and I on Tower Bridge at the end of an excellent sightseeing day!

Day three will come soon.  Everything is still going well here- my classes are relatively easy and my host family still feeds me well!  I love most things about France, but I could do without the striking.  All part of the experience, of course.  On Oct. 26th, I'm going back to England for a six day trip to Scotland with Mary.  Barcelona, Paris, Dublin, and a week long trip TBD are coming up.  Study abroad is half over.