Day 2 in London

October 25th

Westminster Cathedral (55K)

We wake up and hop the tube. We're pretty much travelling during morning rush hour, so things are pretty tight. We're headed back down toward parliament, since there's a lot to see down there. Specifically, we start with Westminster Cathedral. It's impressive, and the stripes on it make it fairly recognizeable. When we finally work our way around to the front door, we discover there's a service starting, so it looks like we won't get a chance to see the inside.

Queen Victoria (63K)	Buckingham Palace (and people) (84K)	The Mall and The Admiralty Arch (53K)
The Changing of the Guard (69K)	The Horse Guard (62K)	We walk toward Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guard. I remember from my previous trip to London that this is a major attraction, so I want to get there early. We arrive almost 45 minutes before the ceremony starts, and already the place is swarming with people. We take a few pictures of the crowds, of the guard on duty, of the statue of Queen Victoria nearby, and of the Mall, looking toward Wellington Arch, and then try to find a good vantage point. There's really none to be had, but the ceremony goes on for almost an hour, and towards the end of it people start to drift away. I think the plan (if I do this again) is to arrive near the end of the ceremony.

We walk to the Wellington Arch   , and look at the Artillery Memorial   . Then through Hyde Park to Speaker's Corner (where there are no speakers at 1pm on a Monday). Across the street is the Marble Arch   so we cross to take a look at that before getting onto the Tube there. In the Marble Arch Tube station there's a busker playing Sunny Afternoon. It reminds Brian of a movie in which Ray Davies appeared doing just that.

Wellington Arch (37K)

Artillery Memorial (88K)

Marble Arch (42K)

We're off to see the phalluses. Nelson's Column is in Trafalgar Square, and there's a booth selling food for the pigeons. This seems like a particularly bad plan, but I guess maybe it keeps the pigeons away from the rest of the city. Maybe it's poisoned, but there sure are plenty of flying rats around here.

A Bad Idea (86K)

Nelson's Column (42K)

Cleopatra's Needle (27K)	One of the sphynges flanking Cleopatra's Needle (37K)	Thanks from Belgium (39K)	The big ferris wheel (41K)
A walk down the Strand, stopping at varoius camera shops (looking for more lithium batteries) produces only alkaline batteries, but the London Camera Exchange says they'll have more in tomorrow. If we're in the neighborhood, I'll stop by, but I think I've got enough alkalines to last out the rest of the trip. In any case, we're walking in the right direction, and soon we're at Cleopatra's Needle   (phallus two of the day!). We admire it and the sphynges flanking it, the thank-you from Belgium   , the giant ferris wheel across the river (which has protesters camped out on it. Brian can see 'em in his picture, but all I recognize in my picture is their banner), and then it's time for a late lunch   .

The Tower of London (46K)	Tower Bridge (38K)	Tower Bridge (38K)
After lunch, we walk over towards the Tower of London, but it's jammed with tourists. We decide to look at the Tower Bridge, the HMS Belfast, and then over to St. Paul's Cathedral. From St. Paul's we head toward Old Bailey, and when we get to the right point on the map, we're confonted with scaffolding (yet another thing being renovated). A helpful woman tells us that we have to back off a bit to see Old Bailey, and sure enough, there's the statue on the roof of the building that's being renovated.		HMS Belfast (29K)
St. Paul's Cathedral (43K)	Old Bailley (55K)	Zoomed in (24K)

We stop at the Viaduct for a pint (which is another Nicholson's pub, and they do seem to live up to their billing as The Best In London Pubs (though we didn't have a lot to compare them to). It's back to the hotel, and then once again to the Devonshire Arms for a dinner of sausage and mashed potatos and a few pints.

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Copyright 2009, Dave Polaschek. Last updated on Wed, 31 Dec 2003 13:49:56.