London and Westminster

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7th April 2005
South-West London, England.

I spent much of yesterday and today doing a 24-hour Big Bus hop-on hop-off tour of London, and quite enjoyed it. Have learnt that most of what I thought was London is actually the city of Westminster, and that London City is actually quite small at only about 1 hectare or something. Have seen almost all of the usual tourist sights, such as:
*Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and Parliament Square
*the Tower of London
*the London Eye/Millenium Wheel
*the old and new London Bridges (neither very impressive)
*the Tower Bridge (very pretty, what I would have called London Bridge)
*Kensington Palace (from outside)
*Buckingham Palace (from outside)
*Hyde Park, some other parks
*Piccadilly Circus and the Eros statue
*Trafalgar Square and the lovely monuments there, including the metal lions and the fountains and Nelson's column
*Regent Street, Oxford Street, Mayfair.....basically all of the Monopoly streets

I've also done a river cruise down the River Thames with a very funny and adorable commmentator, and basically just done a lot of wandering. Have had a lovely time being toursity.

Have made some new friends and am basically just enjoying myself. There's no longer any hot water, though, and the ice-cold showers are hell on earth. Today was the coldest day in the history of my life. My nipples, though perhaps you're not supposed to talk about such things, are absolutely killing me from walking about all day in the cold - seriously, it's very painful. And my fingers may require amputation.

Have also come to the belated realisation that Northern Ireland is going to be even colder. Ugh. I may not last long there. Employment, everybody assures me, is up for grabs in London. But, well, too late now.....maybe later. I already have the airline ticket. And it really is awfully expensive to live here.

Must run. Will write soon.

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Photos

Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is too big to get everything in one picture, but this is one the two big lovely fountains...

The lovely Tower Bridge
So much more impressive than London Bridge.....which, incidentally, I didn't bother to photograph.