À Paris: Versailles

The palace at Versailles, a fraction of the gardens, and the Queen's Hamlet (Marie Antoinette)

London - Take 1

Westminster Library

Victoria Rail Station -- clash of centuries, like in Leeds

Double-deckers - for Chris

First stop:  Buckingham Palace

Queen Victoria Statue

Buckingham Palace

Hello, guards

Guilded gates

Buckingham Palace Road

Second stop:  Westminster Cathedral.  Wow, some Cathedral. 

Impressive.  100 different varieties of marble from 24 different countries.  The artwork was complex, highly symbolic and stylized.  It was really dark, though.

Jus' passin' by...

Took the Underground (seven pounds?!) three stops (I only had an hour before I needed to get back to the terminal to get my bags and hop on the bus) to The Embankment.  To go right, to the River Thames or to go left, to Trafalgar Square??  Must have both!  

Third stop:  Thames  

River Thames - you can see St. Paul's Cathedral on the other side

Park on The Strand

Fourth stop:  Trafalgar Square -- only enough time to take a walk around the Square!

National Gallery - no time to go in

The Canadian Embassy!

To admit, I was a little disappointed.  I thought it would be bigger...or more busy...more of a hub.

This one is for my amusement. Well, hello, fine feathered friend...

 

Thus concludes my three hours in London.  

London - Take 2

Flew into Heathrow Airport at 9am, took the National Express into Victoria Coach Station and had the day to spend until meeting a friend before boarding the 7pm coach back to Bradford!

Hyde Park Corner

Australian War Memorial

Wellington Arch

Hyde Park

What's left of the Rose Garden

Quick snapshot of a flock of pigeons suddenly deciding to fly a figure 8 together, over our heads

From the bench where I sat down with a Hoisin Duck wrap and Apple and Gooseberry juice, snifling from the cold

Bought an Oyster card and rode a red double-decker bus to Trafalgar Square

Inside the National Gallery (I got reprimanded for taking this one...I thought it was just no photos inside the actual galleries.  See, with my stealth not looking at the display properly, I missed both significant potential focal points.)

National Gallery from Trafalgar Square

Whitehall Guard

Westminster

Westminster Station and Parliament behind it

GUILD HALL

Big Ben and Iranian protest in front of it

Westminster Abbey

Poppies outside Westminster Abbey (East doors)

The Royal British Legion is selling poppies on the left.  They look like so:

I dropped my Canadian poppy twice that day...and retraced my steps twice and found it!

Westminister Abbey (North doors)

Above the doors: 20 statues of martrys including Martin Luther King and Oscar Romero

"Closed until Monday -- enter West gate for prayers" so I entered through the Dean's garden but couldn't enter for prayers.  Some event happening involving fancy people taking happy pictures with fancy hats.  Now that I check on the website, the Abbey was closed to visitors that day and I shouldn't have been able to get in to take the pictures I did...but...!

Chapter House

"Built by the royal masons in 1250, the Chapter House of Westminster Abbey was originally used in the 13th century by Benedictine monks for their daily meetings. It later became a meeting place of the King’s Great Council and the Commons, predecessors of today’s Parliament.''

Original paintings on the walls.  So, like, Martin Luther sat here on the benches.

 

The entryway, which was "closed", but as you see, there were a number of people blind to instructions :)

Hallways around the courtyard

I must say, this was the place I most wanted to visit in London

Fancy taxis, probably delivering the fancy guests

Towards the Thames

Parliament

Big Ben from the bridge over the River Thames

London Eye

Premature return

Last weekend was a craze. I prioritised and didn't post but I have pictures to put up.  I have just caught the Megabus to London. I booked a flight two nights ago to go home for a week.  Toronto, with my family and friends is apparently the best way to recover from these seven and a half trying weeks. Will see some of you soon. Cheers!

The walled city of York

Posting on the walk.

York Minster

St.Mary's Abbey Ruins