London is mostly miserable, grey and depressing - one of the ugliest cities I've ever seen! However, the central part around the Thames is majestic and well worth a visit.
Tower Bridge
Tower of London
Tower of London White Tower
Tower of London throne room
Two princes mural
Sweeny Todd
Terrorist warnings
The Crypt
The Crypt Jasmijn
London eye
London eye from below
London eye capsule
London eye capsule highest
Westminster Palace from London eye
Westminster Palace at dusk
Westminster Palace and Big Ben
Big Ben
Westminster Palace rear
Westminster Cathedral
Westminster Palace tower at dusk
Guyfawks Day fireworks 2005
Twin starbursts
Single starburst
Busker
London garden
Next to the Tower of London, I first walked over this English icon with a Brazilian guy from the youth hostel around midnight in 2001. It was freezing ... but dramatic.
This was one of the greatest medieval fortresses in Europe. A huge moat was dug on 3 sides; on the 4th is the Thames.
The central keep.
These murals in a nearby underpass are full of royal beheadings and murders that occurred at the Tower. My personal connection with royalty is one of my ancestors who apparently arranged the murder of these two prices imprisoned in the Tower, because they were heirs to the English throne. There you go! I knew I had to be connected with royalty ...
In fact murder was quite fashionable. Here in Fleet Street once stood Sweeny Todd's infamous barber shop, where he slit the throats of customers with a shaving knife and made them into mince pies. Yuk! The English are gross.
Outside a police station near home, following the London underground Al Queda bombings. These look very similar to posters that might have existed in the former soviet union ... report your neighbour's car, shed, backpack, doorknob etc. if it looks suspicious.
My favourite restuarant in London was an actual crypt! The floor is full of carved slabs under which dead people lie. In Australia it'd be a national monument. In England stuff like this is so common they've turned it into a restaurant! Great atmosphere, however ...
There are candles everywhere ... very pretty!
The best way to get an overview of London is from the London eye. However, the queues are about an hour long.
It's way high ...
10 mins by fleet of foot from home, on the other side of the Thames, I run around it quite often. The longest ever anti-Iraq war peace protest has been running for years opposite this seat of English government in the park. There are placards everywhere - it's great!
The English royalty tend to be wed here, eg, Charles and Diana.
This is actually the view from our window!
Some time in the medievil past, Guy Fawks and co-conspirators attemtped to seize control of England in a coup that was to commence with the explosion of the Houses of Parliament, killing most of the government. Naturally this is celebrated en masse by the English people, with massive fireworks and bonfire displays around the country. This main display on the Thames attracts many tens of thousands. Guy Fawks et al. stacked numerous barrels of gunpowder in the basement and were discovered just prior to lighting the fuse; they were then executed.
You could feel these explosions with your whole body.
Some of the buskers are a bit full on. This one brought an entire piano and dressed in period costume. She was good!
This is the garden in our apartments. We have a resident fox, as is common here.
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Tower Bridge
Next to the Tower of London, I first walked over this English icon with a Brazilian guy from the youth hostel around midnight in 2001. It was freezing ... but dramatic.