Markus and Brian's Excellent European Adventure

Last of London

Yeah, yeah. I know.

Anyway, here's the last photos from London, from the end of our trip. Still many more photos to go. Next up: Ireland, France, and other areas I glossed over during the summer. I'll include more people photos, too; these are mostly just the "sights." (Give us a break, we were at the end of our trip! We stopped partying and being bad role models in mid-July.)

After I'm through these, I'll set up an album that puts all the pictures together in one place.

Pictures

1) Look! Rocks that don't move!
2) Markus poses with the rocks that don't move.
3) Another perspective on the action.
4) The lesser-known bank around the unmoving stones, built hundreds of years before the rest of the site was started. (It also doesn't move much.)
5) They're planning on building a traffic tunnel directly underground the site to alleviate traffic in the area. (Okay, last Stonehenge photo, I promise.)
6) Trafalgar Square; without reading the guidebook, neither Markus nor I had any idea why it was so popular. I think it's sustained entirely by tourists. And the pigeons. So many pigeons.
7) There's the column. There's a dude's statue on top. Talk about ego.
8) Speaking of excessiveness, here's the world's largest driveway, leading up to Buckingham Palace.
9) Approaching Westminster Abbey. There was a very graphic anti-war display on the road out front.
10) The Abbey. Like most places, we couldn't take photographs indoors. Very fascinating history inside, with tributes and coffins of many famous dead kings and queens, memorials to many artists, scientists, and poets, museum artifacts, and the chair used in crowning ceremonies for around a thousand years now. Much more interesting than some other historical stops on our trip because a) Canada has a close history with England that I've learned about in the past, and, more importantly, b) it was all in English.
11) I snuck a photo of the courtyard in the back; not terribly interesting, but it was something I could get away with. I'm such a badass.
12) Buckingham Palace. More like Boringham Palace.
13) A guard with a rather mean looking assault rifle stands guard.
14) Near the palace, leading into Green Park stands the Canada Gate. Several provinces have crests all over this sucker.
15) The gate in full view.
16) One of my favourite pictures. In the telecom section of the excellent Science Museum were exhibits covering the history of the telephone, including these instructions. "As soon as disengaged apparatus is associated with the calling line, a sound, known as the 'Dialling' tone, is heard in the receiver. This tone may be described as a continuous purring sound, and signifies that the apparatus is ready to function."
17) Ah, Harrods. The world's swankiest, most extravagant department store. Friendly but stern guards ensure you meet the dress code at the door. A heavy atmosphere of history and elegance. A massive array of rooms, each specializing in something you probably can't get elsewhere. Cigars, teas, pianos, horseback riding, Hello Kitty, HDTVs, postmodern furniture...each will have a room dedicated (and specially decorated) to the product. Even the elevator rooms are themed; the Egyptian one is peppered with statues and heiroglyphic motifs.
18) London Bridge.
19) My last photo of the trip: Piccadilly Circus. It's an intersection of five streets. While I sat near the fountain in the middle, I eavesdropped on some cops harrassing some homeless guys, who were harrassing the cops in return. Friendly people, those Brits.

Posted by Brian at February 23, 2004 04:23 AM