London

My apologizes for the lengthy amount of time between picture posts.  Life has been a little crazy with coming back from France and moving for the summer and all. I’ll keep it short, especially since I’ve included so many photos. I love London (huge surprise, right?). I’ve been to the city twice and it is such an interesting mix of old British royalty with modern business.  As one of the business centers of the world it is crazy modern but there is so, so much history there. Going to London felt a little like going home just cause of how international the city is and how much english I heard everywhere. Browse and enjoy!  Don’t forget you can click for larger photos!

Piccadilly Circus

I tried to take a panorama of Piccadilly. Didn’t work out as planned but still looks really cool.

Grosvenor Square – the view from our hotel room

We had Thai food our first night in London! I had sticky rice for the first time in ages! It wasn’t quite the same but it was Thai!!!!

The Phantom of the Opera West End Theater…drool…

The National Gallery/Trafalgar Square

Nelson’s Column to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson

We saw Spamalot on the West End! It was hilarious and totally amazing!

Silly Spamalot picture with Catherine!

St. James’ Palace – built by Henry the 8th

Hyde Park

Wellington Arch

So yeah…this sculpture…photo props to Catherine

I believe this was the street on which Mary Poppins was set.

A side view of the fountain in front of Buckingham Palace.

Yes, that is Westminster you see in the background.

Parliament!

photo props to Catherine

Everything famous!

Excuse the large number of Big Ben (now called the Elizabeth Tower in honor of the Queen, not to be confused with me :D) pictures. I think I took a billion and I swear I narrowed them down quite a bit for blog posting.

THE view of Parliament.

Do I need to tell you what this is? Didn’t think so.

The symbol of London – photo props to Catherine

Classy West End!

The Royal Courts of Justice

Note the cool street signs

This is a small ballerina statue created for Queen Victoria. – photo props to Catherine

This steeple right here is what inspired the wedding cake design. The first baker to bake what we consider a wedding cake today based his cake off of this design. Also, fun fact, did you know that Queen Victoria was the first one to wear white at her wedding, and we’ve all copied her ever since?

St. Paul’s Cathedral

The marks on St. Paul’s from the Blitzkrieg in WWII – photo props to Catherine

The monument to the fire fighters of the London Fire.

Our hilarious tour guide!

Tower Bridge

The tallest building in Europe, right here ladies and gentlemen.

The infamous Tower of London as seen from Tower Bridge.

It’s hard to imagine that so many horrible things happened in this palace/torture center.

English Scones!

Scotland Yard! Sherlock fans, anyone?

This was where Winston Churchill went to school and was kicked out for being “naughty.”

The red brick building on the left is a famous London boys’ school, and is where Daniel Radcliffe attended.

The re-built Globe Theater

London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down, London Bridge is…you know the rest

Photo props to Catherine

The ancient Roman city wall is just chillin on the side of the road…

photo props to Catherine

Photo Props to Catherine

Photo Props to Catherine

photo props to Catherine

Buckingham by night

Photo Props to Catherine

black and white with a few edits…

color!

Photo Props to Catherine

Sherlcok Holmes fans, pay attention! THIS IS BAKER STREET! THE BAKER STREET!

CHIPOTLE! no, sadly, we didn’t have time to eat here

There it is, 21B Baker Street. After much searching, we found it! It is, in fact, a Sherlock Holmes Museum.

Photo Props to Catherine

OHMIGOSH! It’s Sherlock’s house!

The British Museum inside

THE one and only Rosetta stone, which was the key to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphs. – courtesy of Catherine

This is one of the original au natural mummies of Egypt, purely preserved by the harsh climate.

The Egyptians thought it would be cool to mummify a crocodile. – courtesy of Catherine

Straight from Babylon – courtesy of Catherine

Ramses II and his arm

About 1/3 of the Sphinx’s beard

Photo props to Catherine – this is a tiny statue of a Minoan Bull Jumper – the Minoans worshiped bulls as a symbol of masculinity.

Now indulge my nerdiness for a moment. This is a Geometric Greek pot. How do I know? Well the main give away is the geometric patterns and the men around the middle who have been drawn as their shields.

A Greek kouros – early Greek sculpture style that strongly resembled Egyptian sculpture. Note the rigidness of the sculpture.

Catherine was going a little crazy from too many Greek pots.

THE ELGIAN MARBLES! These are a big deal, as they belong on the Parthenon in Athens.

photo props to Catherine

photo props to Catherine

The story of these goes that the Centaurs came to a party, and decided to carry off the women. A battle ensued which the men almost lost (picture here) but rallied and won 🙂

So here’s the thing, why did I have to travel to London to see things from Ohio? I’ve been to this site and now I’m seeing my state in the British Museum. Mind Blown.

The official front of the British Museum!

Every show you’ve seen in the pics I was dying to see, especially this one because it’s ballroom!

More West End shows..Check out the front of the theater for Singin’ in the Rain though. Isn’t that cool? – photo props to Cathrine

The War Rooms – under here is where Churchill set up shop during WWII.

Westminster Abbey

The necessary picture in London 🙂

St. James Park

Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace

We left the day of the London Marathon and so we got to see them setting up the finish in front of Buckingham Palace. – photo props to Catherine

Photo Props to Catherine – You can rent lawn chairs and sun bathe in the park!

FISH AND CHIPS! yum!

• June 7, 2013
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