Pub Crawling in London England - Day 3

London Street Scene

Angie was pretty keen on seeing Westminster Abbey the next day which worked for me.  Westminster Abbey is a gothic style church owned by the royal family.  Many coronations, weddings, and funerals have taken place over the years and many famous people are buried there as well; including Queen Elizabeth I who I have been intrigued with for years.  It was unreal standing over her grave and I wish I had gotten a photo, but photographs are not permitted in the Abbey.  I could have stayed for hours; there is something so amazing about a structure that has been around longer than the US itself.  But we had a lot to see in five days.

Westminster

So, we said goodbye to Westminster and headed towards Parliament Square.  We were having a wonderful chat when we were distracted by a statue in Trafalgar Square.  Was I seeing things correctly?  Was that Abe Lincoln?  What?!?  We did a double take and tried to reorient ourselves.  We were still in London, not Illinois, right?  What was Lincoln doing here?  When I got home I did research and found nothing, Google had let me down.

A few months later, one of my friends who works with the public asked many English tourists why Abe was in Parliament Square.  The best answer we received?  "Why is Shakespeare in Central Park?"  Touché!  Those cheeky English!  I guess this is one for the ages.

We snapped a few photos of Abe to document this moment and headed across the street from Trafalgar Square to see what was around.  We ended up with a great view of Big Ben and the Parliament along with the London Eye (The Millennium Wheel).  The London Eye was built for the Millennium Celebration in 1999.  I have to be honest with you.  I think the London Eye is an eyesore and wish they would get rid of it, but I doubt my opinion is enough to get the city of London to remove it. Too bad.  To me, it just doesn't fit with the rest of the landscape of the area and stands out like a sore thumb.  I have never heard of a sore thumb being a good thing; neither is the Eye of London.  Still, it does bring in tourism and a city has to bring new things to the table, so I can let it go...

Abe!

That evening after another snack of the McDonald's fish burger (they were so cheap), we took The Tube to see the London Bridge.  As soon as we exited The Tube, we realized that the area was slightly seedy.  In fact we ran into a guy close to the bridge who was making us nervous so I spoke a few words with an English accent so he wouldn't take us for tourists and would leave us alone.  I don't know if it worked because it was so believable or if his ears were just offended by it, either way it didn't matter; he left us alone!    

It was pretty chilly that night and we thought maybe we had made a mistake as our noses began to freeze off as we trekked across the bridge, but then we saw the London Bridge in all its glory.   The London Bridge is inspiration for the nursery rhyme that all of us have uttered since childhood.  It has had many disasters thought-out its history and as a result has been rebuilt many times.  I didn't understand the line: Take the key and lock her up, line so I did some research when I got home.  It is believed that they used to bury a virgin in the foundation for luck, but others think it is in reference to Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine.  I am rooting for Queen Eleanor, because putting a virgin in foundation just doesn't seem like the right thing to do, but this is England and they don't follow anyone's rules.

Chalk Drawing

While in the area we did come across a beautiful church that we tried to get photos of, but it was too dark and between the freezing cold and shady people, we knew it was time to head back to the hotel as it was getting late and we didn't want to miss the last train.


Unfortunately, we were so tired we missed out on another intriguing night of TV.  But we knew, there was always tomorrow.