Had My Day In Parliament

Sandra and I ended her trip with a day in Westminster. We first spent the morning going through Westminster Abbey. The church does not allow you to take photos inside, so this is all you get to see. But it was very surprising to see that the church also is a graveyard in the sense. Tons of royals, kings and queens are buried inside the church. Before entering we got manhandled by one of the guards...literally. He was just a little too friendly with the hugs. :0

After we visited the Abbey, we headed over to the UK Parliament. When we did our tour to Greenwich, our tour guide told us that Parliament had just gone out for summer recess and that we should take a tour. Sandra and I were very excited to go. Here is us walking into Parliament.

As you go through security, they take a photo of you and immediately a badge is made with your photo on it for security purposes. I was surprised how much better they are in security then the US. A badge with my photo is seconds! Surprisingly, I think Sandra and I also broke the law as we took photos of our badges! :)

As in the Abbey, Parliament also does not let you take photos. We were allowed to take photos in the oldest part of Parliament were we were waiting for our tour to begin. Here is Sandra and I waiting.

Here is a photo of the area where we were waiting.

Another shot of the roof.

The tour lasted about 75 minutes and we got to walk the route that the Queen would walk when she comes and opens Parliament. We walked through the House of Lords and the House of Commons. I actually got to run my hands over the red and green leather seats. Very cool to have so much access to the chambers. Nothing like the Capital tour in DC.

Afterwards we took photos of Big Ben. Here is one of my favorite photos.

Also near the exit was a security guard. I snapped this photo because it just looked like it could be from the 1940's. Very cool.

We ended Sandra's visit with tea time!

Yes...People Actually Wear These

Sandra and I also visited the Shakespeare Globe Theater when she was in town.

We wondered through the small museum that talked about the history of the Globe and then took a guided tour through the place. Here is Sandra in front of one of the many costumes that was on display.

Our guided tour was really just us sitting in the Globe to get a feel of the place.

While we were there, rehearsals were going on for an upcoming show. This guy on the stage was practicing being dropped into the set through the mesh "ceiling". He did it a number of times while we were there.

After the Globe, Sandra and I wondered through town. We found this bronze statue of Churchill and Roosevelt having a chat. We decided to take some photos. We had a lot of fun and people passing by were also laughing.

After that, I took Sandra to one of the department stores that had a fantastic hat selection. Here is us being British!

Can you believe someone would wear this!

Tower of Terror

While Sandra was in town, we also went to the Tower of London. The first part of the fortress was built in 1080 and many different monarchs added on to it over the years. It is one of the biggest tourist attractions in London. Here is a picture from the outside.

Sandra and I got to the Tower early in the morning to beat all the crowds. The Tower has served many different roles. One of which is to house the crown jewels. That's right, the Queen's famous crowns live in the Tower of London and are brought to her for different occasions. Here is the building were the jewels are housed with a guide on the outside standing watch. Inside, you get on a flat escalator and sail by the jewels. It is kinda funny. But very impressive.

You can walk around and explore the Tower and see many different things. Here is Sandra standing in front of a big cannon.

There are also tons of armor and wood horses that were made over the last few centuries.

You can also walk around the top of the fortress to see how they use to protect the place. Here I am playing with my camera.

There was also some cool artwork around the place.

The Tower is also famous for being a prison and the place of many deaths. Many famous executions happened here. Here is the place where Anne Boleyn, second wife to Henry VIII was killed in 1536.

Sandra and I also took a hour long tour with a Yeoman (Queen's bodyguard). They are people who have serviced in the royal services for over 22 years. Now they work and live at the Tower of London. Our tour guide was extremely animated and told us many great stories about the Tower.

We had a fun time during our visit, we also got to visit the Loo of Year! :) Too funny.

Center of Time

While Sandra was here, we also made it to Greenwich. We took a 2 hour walking tour that started at one of the only remaining Roman walls in London.

From there, we headed over to the Thames River where we took a short boat ride down the river. Here is our boat.

I have to give major credit to Sandra for always trying to take pictures of us while she was here. Of course, these photos are rather funny as she is also holding the camera as she takes it. Here is one of those photos.


Here is the view of us going under the Tower Bridge.


Once we landed in Greenwich, our funny tour guide led us around the place. We walked through the old Naval College which has now been converted into different universities. The place is rather grand and is always being rented out for movies (according to our guide).


Here is a picture of the inside of the chapel which I photographed above.

The Naval College also has one of the best painted roofs outside the Sistine Chapel. This roof is in the old dining hall. Can't imagine being a naval officer and eating under this everyday.

From there, we walked to the park which has the Royal Observatory on top of the hill. As we listened to our tour guide, we got to see the bright red time ball on top of the Flamsteed House go up and then drop at 1 p.m. It is one of the world's earliest public time signals and would let ships on the River Thames know what time it was. The ball has been dropping since 1833.

After our tour, Sandra and I hiked up the hill to the Observatory. Here is Sandra with London behind her.

From there, we went and stood on the center of time! Here is the Greenwich Meridian Line behind me which is longitude "0" for the world. Crazy enough, every place on earth is measured in terms of its distance East or West from this point.


Here, I am standing in the Western and Eastern Hemispheres!


After that, Sandra and I ended our day by leaving Greenwich by walking UNDER the River Thames. Apparently, there are only two places that you can do this. We walked down, but we took an elevator up! :) It was a great day and crazy enough, I got sunburned! Who would of thought we would get any sun in London!

Forgot to tell you!

You probably can tell that the blog is slowing down. It has dawned on me that I failed to tell you all that I have a job! I tend to forget that everyone reading my blog is not my mom, dad, or sister! :)

I have started my second full week at Westminster, a local government here in London. I am the new Research Project Manager and my role is to run surveys across Westminster to figure out how to improve services to customers. They have over 100+ services, so my task is rather large. The Council runs a survey every month and I get to analyze the results and then work with different services to change things. Kinda fun. This month, I am working on my favorite local services....recycling, street cleansing (yes...not cleaning), and abandoned waste. You should read what people report!!!! Shocking.

One big bonus of the job is that my office is on the 16th floor of City Hall overlooking Westminster Abbey and Parliament! Not bad.

Anyway, my blogging will slow down as I will not be a tourist anymore for 7 days a week! :) However, I still plan on filling you in on my fun.

60 Acres of Fun

I am slowly recovering from the amazing visit I had with Sandra. We were the ultimate tourists doing almost everything. On Saturday, we had a wonderful time at Hampton Court Palace - a 60 acre palace about 40 minutes outside of London on the River Thames.

As the palace is huge, we spent about 5 hours doing various things around the place. The palace has been the home to many monarchs, including Henry VIII and Queen Mary I. Also, at one time Cardinal Wolsey lived there. As I have just watch the first 2 seasons of Showtimes "The Tudors," I am now an expert on that period!

As we wandered around, I was taken by all the beautiful chimneys everywhere.


At the palace, you can take various tours. Sandra and I did a audio tour of the Tudor kitchens which were massive and impressive. The 16th century kitchen rooms use to cook over 600 meals a day for various Kings and Queens. As eating meat was a symbol of wealth, over 70 percent of their diet was meat!

Here are the "refrigerators". The rooms on both side of this walk way had thick walls and the food was kept at a constant temperature.


Here is Sandra standing next to one of the massive fireplaces where they would roast their meat.


Of course, they also had to have their wine and beer!

Sandra and I also took tours of various rooms throughout the palace. We also took a 1 hour guided tour with one of the palace's gardeners (there are about 30 of them). As there was only 5 of us, it was like a private tour. Here is a picture of the rose garden with the palace in the background.

There were also beautiful Tudor gardens that have been constructed. This garden use to be a fish pond. The property had many fish ponds at one point to keep the fresh food ready for the King and Queen.


Here is another garden.

While Sandra and I were walking around, there were amazing flowers everywhere. They have a private nursery and the gardener said they plant 120,000 plants a year! Here is a flower the size of Sandra's head!


They also had tons of trees that looked like smurf trees! Here I am under one.

Sandra and I also saw the "great vine" which was planted in 1768. It still produces fruit and is considered the oldest vine in the world.

It was a great trip to the palace. As I did not get to see everything, I will try to go back again!