January 16, 2012

Big Ben

Benjamin, he's so photogenic

Today we checked out some of London's premiere tourist locations. We stopped off by Big Ben (who's Ben by the way? I'm pretty sure they named that clock after Benjamin Franklin- a subtle tribute to their love for America)and saw the London Eye. I'm thinking of things to do for my Birthday this Thursday and right now I'm thinking of either going to see a show (Phantom, Les Mis, 39 Steps, not sure yet...) or maybe riding the London Eye. We'll see what actually happens...

A good picture ruined

Oh, and here's what could've been a really awesome picture of me in front of said London Eye, but it was interrupted by Matt.

Benjamin at night

Another Big Ben shot. Man, Ben is one freaking popular guy.

Westminster Abbey courtyard

Me outside Westminster Abbey!


We went inside Westminster Abbey today, and it was AMAZING. It was a lot more cluttered than Windsor Castle, and it was filled in every space with tombs, statues, plaques, candles, etc. The ceiling was gorgeous and so intricate! I wish so bad I could have taken pictures, but we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. My favorite place in the entire abbey was the poet's corner in the southeast area of the cathedral. THIS is why I'm an English major. I walked on the bones of Robert Browning, Thomas Campbell, Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens, Henry Irving, Rudyard Kipling, Laurence Olivier, Alfred Tennyson, George Frederick Handel, and Thomas Hardy. I took a whole class on Thomas Hardy last year and read all his books but two of them. I made sure to walk over his grave a couple times. I guess it made me feel like I was somehow getting revenge...although "Tess of the D'urbervilles" is one of my favorite novels. Just not his other ones...
But basically it was one of the coolest experiences to know that I was standing on the bodies of all these world-famous authors I've read from for years and years. It was an amazing experience.

They also had memorials to Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, William Blake, Elizabeth Browning, Robert Burns, George Byron, John Campbell, Lewis Carroll, Samuel Coleridge, George Elliot, T.S. Elliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, John Keats, D.H. Lawrence, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Milton, Alexander Pope, Sir Walter Scott, William Shakespeare, Percy Shelly, Dylan Thomas, Oscar Wilde, and William Wordsworth. Seriously, I was in HEAVEN. It was amazing to be surrounded by all these names and all of these fantastic authors who I love! I want to go back every day and just walk around that corner.

We also got to see the fantastic Boudicca statue- the queen of the Iceni tribe who led her people to war against the Romans. She was one fierce woman.

Journey to Benjamin