Tourist Day

Today my flatmate Ashley and I took the day to go to the major tourist sights in London. But before I get to that, here is a picture from our trip to Kensingon, where we saw a production of Uncle Vanya (which was fantastic!): 

Our first stop was to Big Ben and Parliament. It was so surreal standing there. Big Ben really is enormous. 

And I learned that the name "Big Ben" actually comes from it's largest  bell. Technically it's name is just the clock tower at Parliament. Parliament is absolutely breathtaking. It's very humbling to be in its presence. 

I was continually reminding myself that I was really seeing it, and that I really do live in London. 

We walked past Westminster Abby as well. It's quite a sight. And all these major landmarks are so close together.

The next stop was Buckingham Palace. To be honest, I thought it was going to be a bit more grand. But it's still very impressive. Unfortunately, we didn't have any royal sightings. But the royal family is in residence this time of year, so you can't get past the gate. 

The Queen Victoria Memorial is really impressive. It was a little difficult to get a good picture of it because some woman decided to climb one of the statues to get a better view point. She moved eventually though.

It was nice to spend the day going around and doing all the things tourists do. Now I feel like I really am in London because I've seen the things that so represent London. There still is so much more to see, of course, but we did the major sights today. And see? London really does have nice weather :)