DAY FOUR

 

Well, there goes Day Four.  I’m so used to just being here for a week, it’s weird to realize that the rest of our times is 3x as long.  Yesterday was amazing, though.  Lots of walking.  I’m wearing out the inner soles of my Toms, which were an abysmal choice for the amount of walking we’ve been doing.  Here’s what we did yesterday.

We met Warren again (the guide from the City walking tour) and we took a coach tour around the City of Westminster.  We stopped at the American Embassy, and at Buckingham Palace the Queen was holding a ceremony to bestow the knighthood to a bunch of people.  I wanted to blend in line so that maybe her cataracts wouldn’t allow her to see me.  Sir Henry Kirby.  It sounds legitimate enough.

Warren had copies of his book for us to buy, so naturally I did, although today he seemed to be full of more crap than usual.  During our walking tour of St. Paul’s Cathedral, he said that the Russians beat America to the Moon.  Right.  Anyway, St. Paul’s was beautiful inside, Christopher Wren was a real genius.  I highly recommend it to everyone.

From St. Paul’s, we went to take a walking tour through Parliament, which is something that apparently not a lot of tourists get to do.  We saw Westminster Palace, the House of Lords, the House of Commons, and some other cool rooms.  Today in class, we’re meant to give four odd facts about Parliament, so I thought that I’d share mine here.

1) Westminster Palace, the main part without the clocktower and other towers, is the oldest section of the building, built in 1097.  The rest of the complex has been burned down and rebuilt in a succession of fires.

2) Westminster Palace first used as official court by Edward the Confessor.

3) Parliament last burned down in 1834.  Parliament as we know it was designed by Sir Charles Barry and construction finished in 1870.

4) The Great Clock in St. Stephen’s Tower where Big Ben is located was designed by Edward John Dent and achieved levels of accuracy unheard of in the 19th century, chiming the hour within a second of the time. (Big Ben is just the bell in the clocktower, not the clock, nor the tower itself)

After Parliament we went to see All’s Well that Ends Well at the Globe Theatre, which was something of a dream come true.  I usually don’t care for the Shakespeare comedies, but All’s Well was actually really good, I got some good snaps of the architecture I think.

Well, that’s all for Day Four, I think.  Sorry nothing funny, but I’m a little rushed as we’re meant to be at the British Museum at 10 am, and knowing our group, we need to have left 10 minutes ago.

So, cheers for running shoes and wishing I had some.

— Henry