London_Big Ben & Westminster Abbey

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Hi again...
My office sent me to London for work ...and my itchy feet took me to some great places around london...

I tood the BIG BUS tour to move around. It quite easy that way. I bought my passes online from India. The day tour passes are valid for 24 hours. When you board the bus from your closest stop, they hand over a route map to you.
For eg:You can then choose to get down at the Big Ben 'Big Bus' stop - look around -come back to the same stop - catch the next Big Bus and move ahead. It quite convenient too. the frequency is very good. Theres a bus passing by every 15-20 min, and each stop definitely has a ticket collector to help u.
There are two specific routes - the BLUE route and the RED route. Both have different locations to cover and also overlap at some points.
With a 24hr pass you can swop between any of these routes too.

I found out that the square next to my hotel at Paddington was a Big Bus stop. The representative checks your pass with his electronic device and stamps it .....there you go..

Our Bus went over Sussex Gardens - Hyde park - Marble arch - towards Big ben...

This was my first stop - The Big Ben !!.....& the famous Westminster Abbey.

Rich in British Architecture and history !....It was awesome. The weather was slightly grey and cloudy giving my pics a better backdrop. At 18 degrees it was so chilly , just right !

An architectural masterpiece of the 13th to 16th centuries, Westminster Abbey also presents a unique pageant of British history - the shrine of St Edward the Confessor, the tombs of kings and queens, and countless memorials to the famous and the great. It has been the setting for every Coronation since 1066 and for numerous other royal occasions.
Today it is still a church dedicated to regular worship and to the celebration of great events in the life of the nation. Neither a cathedral nor a parish church, Westminster Abbey is a “Royal Peculiar” under the jurisdiction of a Dean and Chapter, subject only to the Sovereign.
Westminster Abbey, a work of architectural genius, a place of daily worship, deploying the resources of high musical expertise, a burial place of kings, statesmen, poets, scientists, warriors and musicians, is the result of a process of development across the centuries, which represents the response of a monastery and later a post-Reformation church to the stimulus and challenge of its environment.
The only traces of this Norman monastery are to be found in the round arches and massive supporting columns of the Undercroft in the Cloisters. This now houses the Abbey Museum but was originally part of the domestic quarters of the monks. The Abbey also possesses an eleventh-century door - the oldest in England - which now hangs in the vestibule to the Chapter House.

Westminster Abbey is famous for its many tombs and memorials. Ranging in date from the eleventh to the twenty-first centuries and displaying a corresponding variety of artistic styles they form the most important single collection of monumental sculpture in the country. There are around 600 monuments and memorial statues together with many gravestones and commemorative floor slabs, though these represent only a small proportion of the 3,300 people who are actually buried in the church and its cloisters. As well as the shrine of St Edward the Confessor, the tombs of kings and queens, and important military memorials, the Abbey has been for several centuries the place where the nation commemorates those who have achieved greatness in many different walks of life, including literature, science, music, religion and politics.


Enjoy the pics.

and then move to my next stop...the London Eye
😊

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