London is one of those cities where there are so many things to do/see/eat that it is impossible to fit it in when you are visiting. To make my short two and a half days here easier, I decided to do a morning sight seeing tour. This ended up being against my better judgement.
Our guide drove us past churches and old buildings whilst blurting out names of actors who filmed movies there and of different royal family members having ties to the place. That was until we arrived at the Prince Albert memorial. He had died at age 42, leaving Queen Victoria to raise their nine children and the country on her own. It is believed that she mourned his death until her own 40 years later. The memorial to him still stands erect and subtle to this day.
Like I said. Real subtle. But that is how the royals always operate. Queen Victoria and Albert were also the first monarchs to live in Buckingham Palace, which isn’t exactly a cottage.
There were only two guards out front today signifying that King Charles, current resident of Buckingham Palace, is not in residence at the moment. When he is, there are four guards out front instead of two. Regardless, the gates are adorned in gold either way.
There’s also a unicorn statue. Yes. A unicorn. If you look closely at the gates in the photo above, there is a unicorn and a lion in each emblem.
And if you thought Victoria was the only one to use gold in statues, check this one out as it resides in front of Buckingham Palace.
After ten minutes at Buckingham Palace without an interior tour, we stopped at Westminster Abbey for a five minute photo op. This one photograph does not give the Abbey justice, but you can see the parliament building in the background. We didn’t get to go inside Westminster either, or really get a chance to see Big Ben which is sad since its literally on the other side of Westminster Abbey.
Our next stop was Saint Paul’s Cathedral. I was really looking forward to this one because the tour was supposed to include entry so I could photograph the interior.
We walked through an open area mall and there she was in all her beauty, looming over the buildings around her. A building that survived WWII bombings because residents poured water on the fire bombs that fell from the sky.
The cathedral is a shining light of faith and hope as the surrounding area burnt to the ground during those bombings. But the cathedral remained.
We made it around to the entrance and my camera practically jumped out of my hand to get inside. Alas, since it was Sunday, prayer services were going on so photography was prohibited, but I can attest that the interior is every bit as impressive as the exterior would have you believe. Don’t let the £25 price for admission turn you away. But, if it is Sunday, admission is free, but you have to be respectful to the services going on. It is still very much a functional church.
Our guide returned us to the hotel an hour early, leaving out many other landmarks, (Trafalgar Square, Tower of London, London Bridge, Big Ben). The end of the tour was just the driver showing us the Thames, which is really just a dirty river in the middle of a metropolis. It was later in the afternoon when I had two cab drivers give me far better advice and historical knowledge of central London than the morning tour did. I’m not saying that those tours are useless, but you will get better knowledge from locals than you will from those tours. I had more success wondering on my own than I did on the tour (more on that in the next blog).
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Becky Tyler Art and Photography 
London is one of those cities where there are so many things to do/see/eat that it is impossible to fit it in when you are visiting. To make my short two and a half days here easier, I decided to do a morning sight seeing tour. This ended up being against my better judgement.
Our guide drove us past churches and old buildings whilst blurting out names of actors who filmed movies there and of different royal family members having ties to the place. That was until we arrived at the Prince Albert memorial. He had died at age 42, leaving Queen Victoria to raise their nine children and the country on her own. It is believed that she mourned his death until her own 40 years later. The memorial to him still stands erect and subtle to this day.
Like I said. Real subtle. But that is how the royals always operate. Queen Victoria and Albert were also the first monarchs to live in Buckingham Palace, which isn’t exactly a cottage.
There were only two guards out front today signifying that King Charles, current resident of Buckingham Palace, is not in residence at the moment. When he is, there are four guards out front instead of two. Regardless, the gates are adorned in gold either way.
There’s also a unicorn statue. Yes. A unicorn. If you look closely at the gates in the photo above, there is a unicorn and a lion in each emblem.
And if you thought Victoria was the only one to use gold in statues, check this one out as it resides in front of Buckingham Palace.
After ten minutes at Buckingham Palace without an interior tour, we stopped at Westminster Abbey for a five minute photo op. This one photograph does not give the Abbey justice, but you can see the parliament building in the background. We didn’t get to go inside Westminster either, or really get a chance to see Big Ben which is sad since its literally on the other side of Westminster Abbey.
Our next stop was Saint Paul’s Cathedral. I was really looking forward to this one because the tour was supposed to include entry so I could photograph the interior.
We walked through an open area mall and there she was in all her beauty, looming over the buildings around her. A building that survived WWII bombings because residents poured water on the fire bombs that fell from the sky.
The cathedral is a shining light of faith and hope as the surrounding area burnt to the ground during those bombings. But the cathedral remained.
We made it around to the entrance and my camera practically jumped out of my hand to get inside. Alas, since it was Sunday, prayer services were going on so photography was prohibited, but I can attest that the interior is every bit as impressive as the exterior would have you believe. Don’t let the £25 price for admission turn you away. But, if it is Sunday, admission is free, but you have to be respectful to the services going on. It is still very much a functional church.
Our guide returned us to the hotel an hour early, leaving out many other landmarks, (Trafalgar Square, Tower of London, London Bridge, Big Ben). The end of the tour was just the driver showing us the Thames, which is really just a dirty river in the middle of a metropolis. It was later in the afternoon when I had two cab drivers give me far better advice and historical knowledge of central London than the morning tour did. I’m not saying that those tours are useless, but you will get better knowledge from locals than you will from those tours. I had more success wondering on my own than I did on the tour (more on that in the next blog).
Discover more from Becky Tyler Art and Photography
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
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