January 27, 2012

A view in a random neighborhood we got lost in. A view on one of my walks.  I love this neighborhood area.

Well, I'm all done with my assigned London Walks for my class.  Thank goodness.  I like doing the walks, because if forces me to get out and see London and is essentially a written tour guide.  I hate doing the walks, because they are...walks.  Seriously I'm pretty sure I walked about 80 miles today.  I did my last two walks, and the second walk began with this introduction, "just a word of warning.  The walk is a rather long one.  Just consider it your exercise for today."  Why, thank you Book, for that introduction.  Now let me just go and sit down for a bit because just reading that introduction tired me out.

A quick pic with the iconic phonebooth and Benjamin in the background

The first walk today took us on a walk to Buckingham Palace.  We passed my some royal Horseguards.  Yep, Horseguards.  Their job is to sit on a horse for hours and let annoying tourists stand awkwardly by them and take hundreds of pictures.  Oh, and they have to stay completely still atop their horse who is standing in mounds of horse...stuff.  Because apparently they don't clean up the horse...stuff until all the shifts that day are over (we can't have them leaving the area unprotected while commoners clean the area.  There must ALWAYS be Horseguards guarding the area).  It didn't smell too bad, but I'm pretty sure that horse was not too happy, chilling in all his friend's horse...stuff from hours before.  

Famous Horseguards in front of a palace

The guards are kind of creepy too.  I've seen several guards since I've been here in London- at the Tower of London, around several castles, in front of certain important buildings, etc.- and they all creep me out.  They just stand there, with shifty eyes and weird platform shoes on.  Honestly, all that moves is their eyes.  And it's pretty disturbing to walk up to someone to get a picture next to them and watch them just follow you with their eyes (and not moving at all).  So, we joined in with the hundreds of other tourists waiting in line to get their hokey picture with the Horseguards.  But hey, it was pretty exciting.  I've always wanted a picture with a Horseguard.

Couldn't resist...

We stopped off at Buckingham Palace for a bit and snapped some more tourist pictures.  The palace is stunning, but I'd love to see the inside.  Too bad I'm just a commoner (and a foreign commoner at that) and will not be allowed inside.  The actual walk up to the palace was stunning.  I loved seeing how wide the roads were.  This might sound odd that I noticed this, but back home we have sometimes three or four lanes of traffic going both ways in busier residential areas with trees lining the streets.  Something that’s bothered me since I came to London is how claustrophobic I’ve felt.  But going to Buckingham was fantastic because the roads were wide and there were trees lining a sidewalk on each side.

Buckingham Palace

Outside Buckingham

The street leading up to Buckinham

Sitting on top of the fountain area outside the palace

London has hundreds of fantastic statues everywhere.  This has been one of my favorites.

Oh, and we also passed by the Hyde Park Chapel during one of the walks.  The chapel is the closest to the center, so of course we can't go there.  Most of us have to leave 2 hours early to get to church on time.  They've scattered us among wards across London, and miss out on the closeness and amazingness of this chapel.  It's under construction right now though, so alot of church business is being conducted at the center.  For example, a week or two ago they used the living room at the center for an interview BBC conducted with a church leader about Romney running for president and Mormon-y stuff.  Anyways, something cool about this chapel is that it's the reason why we use the word "cultural hall" instead of "gym".  So after WWII the church bought this land and had to get everything approved.  Because of zoning laws in the area they couldn't use "gym," "recreation hall," or "social hall."  Basically the building wasn't approved to be a place for recreation or business so they couldn't use those words.  The architect helped church leaders come up with the word, "cultural hall" instead so they could go ahead with building plans.  So basically this church building is pretty dang awesome and he is a major trend-setter.

The Hyde Park Chapel