My first day in London. On a hunch that this was a rare sunny day, I spent most of
my time outdoors, enjoying the great weather. I did quite a bit of walking - so much
that I decided to draw my route in on my street map, to see how far I'd really gone.
Not far enough, I guess. London is spread out, even some of the key attractions are out of the way.
I took as many pictures as the camera would take (even a few videos), and a few on my "spare film" chip.
For the moment, I'm posting only a few photos, because I have too many to really weed
through, and want to show enough here. Chances are more will be added soon.
 Westminster Abbey. One of the places I really wanted to see. Unfortunately for all of us tourists, there was a "special ceremony" being held, so the Abbey was closed. Since it's closed on Sundays too, I guess I miss it this trip.
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 The clock tower, housing the bell "Big Ben". Behind it, London's newest tourist attraction, the "Eye" (Ferris wheel).
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 As soon as I got a chance to look over the Thames river, from the bank, this thing came chugging by. I though a first it was a small mexican boat, but it fact it's amphibious - called a "Duck". The noise and the un-seaworthy aspect of it made me laugh anyway.
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 Here's one of the nicer tour boats, probably a bit cheaper.
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 The "Eye" of London. Each "egg" holds about 25 people (they like to board fewer), and it takes about 30 minutes to make the circle.
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 Another pesky bird. "Are you SURE you don't have anything I could eat? I eat most anything!"
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 The postcard scene, includes the towers of Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, the Clock Tower. What doesn't come through here is the SIZE of these buildings. They are huge!
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 Lambeth Palace, the home of the Archbishop of Canterbury since 1292.
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 Nelson's statue at Trafalgar Square - I just thought it was a traffic congestion area. From this point, I walked down to 10 Downing Street, (Tony's Place), then down another few blocks to Liz's house.
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 Liz's cottage. No changing of the guard to stick around for. Nice.
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 Westminster Cathedral. The stonework pattern on the outside make this seem more like a turkish mosque or something. The tower is open as a sightseeing deck, and quite cheap, so I rode up and took some pictures.
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 Here's the inside of the cathedral area. Very nice organ music playing from the pipe organ above the door when you walk in.
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 This is the view to the southeast, and if you look, it has a little of everything: St Pauls, the Eye, Big Ben's clock tower, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, and far off, the Canary Wharf business district.
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 Victoria Station - this is also the heart of the Theater district, with shows all around - much like the area around Times Square in New York.
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 St Pauls Cathedral, Sir Christopher Wren's masterpiece. I'll make a return visit for this one, too; there's a restoration project underway, and the entire front fascade (off to the left of this photo) is covered with a scaffolding. Inside, well besides the long wait time, there's an admission fee! To see a church. Oh well.
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 The Globe Theater, where many of Shakespeare's plays were first performed.
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 That's about enough for one day! Here's my hotel, about 10 miles west of downtown, in a section called "Shepherd's Bush". Luxury accomodations, so very good after a long day's walk-around of London. More tomorrow!
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