What part of London wasn't covered today???

Westminster Hall-Houses of Parliament Tour

Still Westminster Hall-This is the only part we could take photos in. This is also the only part that is 900 years old. The other parts of the building were re-built first after a fire in the 1500's (it was a Palace to King's before this fire, then afterwards became Parliament) and then another fire in the 1800's ruined most of the structure and it was re-built then. The House of Common's area was bombed during the last day of the German Blitz in World War II, so it's even newer and most everything there was donated as presents from the Commonwealth countries who didn't participate in the war. One country gave an ash tray although smoking hadn't been permitted int he building for over 300 years. They really thought hard on that one.

They had an exhibit with models of the Olympic stadiums (which of course, being a former model maker myself, loved). They also had the torch and medals from the last London Olympic Games in 1948

Picadilly Circus!

View from the steps of St. Paul's

A trip to camden Town! Saw all kinds of interesting people here with full body tattoos, piercings, dreads down to their ankles, and neon hair! Was a very lively cool place to go!

Some of the interesting things they had for sell at the markets. Who doesn't need a wrestling mask? I wouldn't put one of those on my face if you paid me.

Located on Regent's Canal, hence the name Camden Locks named for the locks (a device used to lift and lower boats in different levels of water in a waterway-yes I used Wikipedia for that), making it a very scenic area in contrast to the crazy stores and markets.

The Locks

Still Camden-just not part of the market

A short walk away from Camden is Regent's Park

Leicester Square at dusk

With all the neon signage, it's a lot like Picadilly!

Kind of packed at night too because it's one of the few areas in London where the bars/pubs stay open past midnight. Since the tubes stop at midnight, most places shut down. Around this area, there are quite a few open later.

The Cambridge Theater was located right at the Seven Dials statue I was sitting on, so I thought I'd take a picture!


Started out the day by taking the summer tour of the Houses of Parliament (that giant building on the Thames with Big Ben). We started in Westminster Hall, went through to where the Queen's horse-drawn carriage enters into the building (Soveriegns Staircase), then to her Robing Room where she fixes her hair or something (they set up a little vanity table in the corner, but our guide wasn't sure what she did in there really as only 3 people accompany her in there) before her big speech to the House of Lords and House of Common that commences the session. We then went through the Royal Gallery, the Prince's Chamber, and then through to the Chamber of the House of Lords where the Queen's royal throne is and she calls parliament to order. Our tour guide joked that because the House of Lords representatives are unelected and until 2001, their titles were passed down through families (hereditary), the average age of the members is 68 and their average pose is with their eyes closed and head laying back on the benches. Because of this, they have speakers in the seats for the hard-of-hearing.

We walked through the Central Lobby (which possibly gave way to the term-lobbying) to the House of Commons which was decidely less impressive than the House of Lords (House of Lords was very ornate with gold everywherere and red leather benches, while the House of Commons had green leather benches, and mainly everything was made of wood-more common I guess you could say). I believe that it is less impressive as it was only re-opened in 1950, after England was in great debt after the war and in bad shape and didn't want to go into even more debt on an ostentacious government meeting hall.

We sat in the hall where the people from the House of Commons come out only if they vote "no" to a proposition (they have no more sophisticated way of voting even these days with digital everything!). Lastly, we ended back up in Westminster Hall. All in all, the tour was pretty good, but would have been better if we could have taken photos! As you can see, the rest of the day was quite packed as well!