However, I will do my best to recall what I can about each location, and at least somewhat describe what each place was like.
So in late January I was sent to the United Kingdom for my job, and since I have friends in London it made sense to arrive with a weekend at the beginning of the trip so that I could spend some time with them. After a fairly large night out with the girls, my good friend Marie decided she would play tour guide around London, the following photos are the highlights of that stroll.
Firstly we got the tube to South Bank since that is a really good starting point for a loop of each iconic landmark.
With a nice view of the River Thames, and some great markets available, South Bank is a really easy beginning to the day, so we stroll through the various food stalls at the market and then decide to head to St Paul's Cathedral via Blackfriars Bridge.
Looking surprisingly sober and cheerful, but still I require a railing for support, and if you notice... we got incredibly lucky and there was sun in London!
Just a cute scene of the Thames washing up in South Bank before we headed over the Blackfriars Bridge..
I didn't remember to actually take any photos of the bridge itself, so the sign will have to suffice!
And here we finally made it to St Paul's Cathedral...the site of the cathedral has a fairly rich history, some people claiming that in AD 604 it was in fact a pagan temple to the goddess Diana, which was then destroyed and replaced by a smaller chapel, which was in turn destroyed during a fire in 962.
This was replaced by another cathedral, in which the bones of Ethelred the Unready (a particularly unlucky English king) were laid to rest, but sadly this next cathedral also burned down in 1087... not to give up easily, work begun immediately on yet another cathedral known as "Old St Paul's" which took 200 years to complete...it was completed in 1314... can you guess what happened to it?
To top the previous cathedrals this one was struck by lightning in 1561 which destroyed the spire... and then it was completely destroyed by... you guessed it... fire! The Great Fire of London in 1666 completely gutted the cathedral again.
In 1669 the task was given to Sir Christopher Wren to design a new cathedral, he drew from various architectural styles including Greek, Gothic and Renaissance and ultimately the cathedral as it stands today was completed on the 2nd December 1697.
Having finished at the cathedral we then walked over the Millennium Bridge, and we stopped past the Globe Theatre, home of Shakespeare's plays, and rather an interesting place.
The building as it stands today is actually a reconstructed building which stands near to the site of the original (200m away). The original Globe was destroyed by fire in 1613.
Once we had poked around the Globe we continued on our way, stopped for a spot of lunch at a nearby pub Founders which was really affordable and delicious, and then returned to South Bank.
This is a rather large Ferris Wheel, called the London Eye, it is 135 meters tall and offers some excellent views of most of the nearby landmarks. It opened to the public on the 9th of March 2000.
There is really not a lot else to say about it, if you like Ferris Wheels, enjoy this one!
Attached to Westminster Palace, Big Ben is one of the worlds most recognizable clocks I am sure, it has been destroyed in countless movies, and slapped on so many postcards and souvenirs it is really rather scary given that at the end of the day... it is a clock.
The tower was originally completed in 1858, it was designed by Augustus Pugin, who very shortly afterwards went mad and then died.
It is designed in the Gothic Revival style, and stands 96 meters tall.
The original bell weighed 16.3 tonnes, and the bell was dedicated to Sir Benjamin Hall (which could be why it was nicknamed Big Ben)
Onwards! Next we walked to Buckingham Palace, sadly there was no changing of the guards while we visited, so we settled for a few quick photos.
After this we walked to Trafalgar Square, another fairly recognizable area in film and television, but also quite the meeting spot for many people. It tends to be crowded with people, street performers, and is within easy walking distance to most other interesting sights.
Here is Nelson's Column, this monument was erected in 1843 to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson who died during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
And with that, we leapt on a tube, and returned home for some much needed sleep!
Next blogs: The Sherlock Holmes Museum, London - Cambridge, Stonehenge and Bournemouth (three for the price of one!) - Toyohashi, Japan - Paris/Versailles, France.... which will finally bring us up to date.
References:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Bank
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Eye
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackfriars_Bridge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Paul's_Cathedral
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethelred_the_Unready
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globe_Theatre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Ben
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckingham_Palace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson's_Column
http://www.foundersarms.co.uk
*REVISED* to include the name of the pub, and to share its URL
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