Palace of Westminster

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This was the last trip to London, and I really didn't want to go.
We had to leave the castle at 8am and we got to London around 10:30, but my only field study for the day wasn't until 4:00.

I hate getting up early for no reason.

Me and Laura both had schoolwork to do, so we found a coffee shop and sat there drinking hot chocolate and studying. We didn't want to stay in one place too long though, so after a while we wondered off to find another coffee shop.

Unfortunately all the Starbucks we came across were way too crowded.

We found a little chocolate store / coffee shop and sat in there for a while listening to the owner's amusing rantings about how everyone wants coffee and nobody buys chocolate, and his business is chocolate not coffee.
Why does he sell coffee then?
Probably cause he has to.
The hot chocolate I got there wasn't nearly as good as the first place, and neither was the little piece of chocolate candy that came with it.
He was even complaining to guests and getting mad when they tried to order coffee.

Well we managed to stay there for while before he kicked us out, complaining in a French accent I could barely understand...

What are you doing? Studying?? I can't have people just sitting and reading in my store. This doesn't work for my business. This isn't Starbucks.

Yeah, we noticed.
And I'm pretty sure complaining to customers who wanted to buy coffee from him wasn't good for his business either. We were the only two people in that store for the vast majority of the time we were there.
He kept going,

You want to sit and study? Go to Starbucks. They love people just sitting and reading in there.

Yeah we would but unfortunately they were all full, unlike his shop.


So we wandered around for a bit more (saw some protesters, that's always fun) until it was time to go and tour the Houses of Parliament.

Our tour group consisted of the students in our class plus two old ladies that joined us.
We saw a bunch of fancy rooms with lots of decorations, and a bunch of portraits of kings and queens.
We weren't allowed to take any pictures though except in the last room.
The first room we saw was very ornate but the guide explained that it's only used for the queen to put her robe on, or something like that, before she goes on to the next area. Other than that its empty all the time.
One of the British ladies said

Oh that's a shame; this would make a lovely drinks and nibbles room.

.
All the students laughed.

One of the most interesting things was a statue of Winston Churchill... apparently people used to rub his foot for good luck, and now all the color is worn off in that spot and there's a little hole in his shoe. And there was a sign that said we weren't allowed to rub his foot anymore. Darn.

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Photos

Houses of Parliament
before the tour

Houses of Parliament
yay for protesters!

Houses of Parliament
last part of the tour (where we could take pictures)

Houses of Parliament
weird creepy angel thing on the ceiling that was hard to get a good picture of

Houses of Parliament
after the tour