Saturday - June 25, 2016
Saturday was the big day to go into London. My Uncle Richard lives north and just a bit East of Central London just inside the M25 ring. The M25 is a huge motorway (freeway) that circles around London. He lives just a mile away from the Buckhurst Tube Station which made it very easy to walk to and catch a tube right into the heart of London.
Click the link below to see the google map of the M25 and London.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/69+Loughton+Way,+Buckhurst+Hill+IG9+6AS,+UK/@51.4580066,-0.3271602,10z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x47d8a10348a728ef:0x7efc7242373ea03f!8m2!3d51.6313762!4d0.0518681
The tubes are an awesome and fun way to get around London. You can get a daily pass that allows you to get on and off at what ever stops and also to use the buses around London. The kids became excellent tube map readers and helped us figure out the routes.
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Chad looking at the map. Halle happy to go. Sean approves of this method of transportation.
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It was open to the public and free, so we went inside. It is amazing how much detail there is!
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| The inside of the cathedral. |
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| Outside of the cathedral. |
As we continued down Victoria road we found a couple of red telephone boxes. They are a total English icon! I was worried they might not have them around anymore - so when we found two I was so excited. It was down a smelly alley, but I made the kids get their picture taken there any way in case we didn't find any more. (Soon after, we found many, many more telephone boxes that were not quite so stinky, but oh well.)
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| Trying to smile while not trying to smell! |
Our next stop was the famous Westminster Abbey. This one did cost money - so we just enjoyed the outside view and caught a little bit of information from a tour guide near by.
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| Our first view of Westminster Abbey and all the tourists. |
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| Another church, the Methodist Central Hall, was right across the street. The column is a memorial to the Crimea and Indian Mutiny. |
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| I loved the cool architecture of this building that adjoins to Westminster Abbey. |
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| Another view of Westminster Abbey |
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| The entrance to Westminster Abbey. |
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| I love the Gothic architecture! How did they build like this so long ago?! |
"Westminster Abbey is steeped in more than a thousand years of history. Benedictine monks first came to this site in the middle of the tenth century, establishing a tradition of daily worship which continues to this day.
The Abbey has been the coronation church since 1066 and is the final resting place of seventeen monarchs. The present church, begun by Henry III in 1245, is one of the most important Gothic buildings in the country, with the medieval shrine of an Anglo-Saxon saint still at its heart.
A treasure house of paintings, stained glass, pavements, textiles and other artefacts, Westminster Abbey is also the place where some of the most significant people in the nation's history are buried or commemorated. Taken as a whole the tombs and memorials comprise the most significant single collection of monumental sculpture anywhere in the United Kingdom."
Just a little further up the street was a view of the Clock Tower, now renamed the Elizabeth Tower, but most commonly called "Big Ben" from the name of the bell inside of the tower.
Everything you want to know, plus a whole lot more about "Big Ben" can be found at the link below.
http://www.aboutbritain.com/BigBen.htm
We then cut across Parliament Square, which is a small park like area to head towards the government buildings. There are 11 statues in Parliament Square. I only took a picture of Winston Churchill but you can also find David Lloyd George, Jan Smuts, Henry John Temple, Edward Smith-Stanley, Benjamin Disraeli, Sir Robert Peel, George Canning, Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, and Mahatma Gandhi. (More information on Parliament Square see Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament_Square)
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| Winston Churchill |
After Parliament Square, we continued on Parliament Street where many government buildings are located.
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| Just one of the amazing buildings all around London. This was on Parliament Street and is the building used by HM Revenue and Customs. I also captured a few black London taxis. |
Continuing on Parliament Street lead us to #10 Downing Street where the Prime-minister lives. When I was younger, you could walk down the street and even up to the door. Just a few policemen would be guarding the door back then. Now the whole street is closed off, so it was hard to actually see which door it was.
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| Downing Street - home to the English Prime-minister. |
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| Trying to actually see #10. |
To be continued . . . . . . . .
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