God Save the Queen

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London is a more beautiful city than any American city I have seen. Modern buildings with aesthetically impressive architecture blend in nicely with well-preserved historic settings. There are many parks and streets are often lined with plush greenery.

We saw many of the tourist sights and settings of beautiful London. We saw the changing of the guards in front of Buckingham Palace. I must admit that the traditional dress of the officers is rather strange. Two officers wear these weird red, telephone backpacks—it’s very hard to explain, so look at the photo. We saw the exterior of Westminstor Abby and later enjoyed a musical, Blood Brothers, in the West End.

After having drinks at the longest bar in Europe (very not conducive to talking to people… it’s too long of a bar!), we spent the night at Cait’s friend’s flat in Westminster. (What hospitable friends she has!)

We woke up early the next day to catch a ferry to Greenwich, England. While on the ferry, we got to see many of the famous sights of London, including the Tower Bridge, the British Airways “London Eye” (an enormous Ferris-wheel now ranking as London’s most visited tourist site), and the Millennium Bridge (now famous because it was open for just one day in the year 2000 before its aerodynamic instability, that is, the way it would sway in the wind, forced engineers to entirely reconstruct it).

Greenwich is the home of the Prime Meridian and the Naval Observatory. It was at this Naval Observatory that the British solved the “longitude problem.” For years, sailors could tell their north-south position based on the stars but had very little way of knowing their east-west progress. In an effort to solve this aptly-titled “longitude problem,” the Brits, who had much interest in sea exploration at the time, commissioned the building of the Naval Observatory. By establishing the Prime Meridian, from which we determine longitudinal distance as well as time zones, Greenwich is famous as the city through which the Prime Meridian runs. I stood on both sides of this line. Wahoo.

Also, Greenwich has an expansive park that compliments the impressive architecture of Christopher Wren, one of Britain’s favorite architects.

Next, we took the ferry back to London to attend the Notting Hill Carnival. What an event! The Notting Hill Carnival (or Festival) is a celebration of the black community in London. There were thousands of people packed into the streets, which had been blocked off from traffic. Because no trash-cans were set up on the street (in an effort to better maintain security), there were empty cups, bottles, and other trash lining all of the streets. Floats with hip-hop music and dancers representing different regions of the West Indies, the Caribbean, and Africa paraded down the main street. Notting Hill residents had parties on their balconies, and numerous food vendors sold food from residents’ front steps. There were dance parties throughout the streets, and after losing and then finding Ashley, we decided to join in the booty-shaking! (A special thank you to the religious cult who gave us “Jesus Loves U” and “I Love You 2” postcards. It made for a great souvenir!)

Although I did not see Gwyneth and Chris, Jude and Sienna, or Madonna and Guy, my trip to London was not a disappointment. Cait is the greatest and her homecountry is spectacular. God bless the Queen!

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Photos

My Knight in Shining Armor
At a square in London with great street performers!

The Running Man
What a clever bit of performance art! (He looks like he's running!)