Yesterday, art history class led me to class led me to the Museum of London (really all about the Great Fire and not much else), the Barbican (brutalism art style and I can’t decide to embrace it or brush it off as ugly modern) and the Priory Church of St. Bartholomew which was very very old (c. 1123 AD… yeah). Cool fact: parts of Shakespeare in Love was shot there!

It was musty and romanesque and full of shadows and streaming rays of light. The smells were of incense and something like lilac or cinnamon. I felt uncomfortable to touch anything.

But enough of that. Mark came to visit me! ❤ And first on my list to show him (and myself) was the London Eye! FINALLY. We saw the nice video beforehand then got to get into our capsule, but only after the Patriots mascot and cheerleaders got into theirs. Typical. I tried to shield Mark’s eyes. Anyways, tons of pictures. I was hesitant to move around a lot once we were well on our way up but I got excited nonetheless.

Going up.

London skyline with those crazy clouds.

Almost at the top!

The tippy top.

Heading back down.

I took about a thousand of Parliament. I know you are thankful I spared you.

So then we walked across Westminster bridge and around Parliament Square to see the Churchill Statue, back of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. But after a long day, we decided to head back to relax and grab dinner at Stanhope Arms. A good day.

So then today, Melissa came with us to go see Winston Churchill’s Cabinet War Rooms and Museum. Which was cool, but cooler for them being history junkies.

The War Room?

Winston making a phone call.

It was very misty and half-rainy when we got out, but we all decided to walk through St. James’s Park to see Buckingham Palace. These pictures made the weather look a lot better than it actually was.

Silly goose.

Us and the Palace.

Rehashed picture.

And another rehashed picture.

Purty flowers.

After strolling around Buckingham Palace for a bit, we took the Tube to Tower Hill to see the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, but that was about all the walking we wanted, so we headed back home. That night, we went to Victoria to eat at The Shakespeare (mmm chicken tikka masala) before heading back to see Westminster at night.
I’ve already shown you enough night pictures but stuff WENT DOWN that night! The clocks were supposed to be switched back an hour and we caught Big Ben getting changed! At 10pm they shut the face lights off and moved the hands around really fast so that the time showed midnight (why? who knows) and then LEFT it like that for a long time. And turned on the Eye.

BUT IT GETS BETTER. They ALSO closed Westminster Bridge. Why? Again, who knows. So the area was blanketed with a dark clock stuck at midnight, a moving Eye at night, and no cars on the streets. I called it a Time Warp (like in War of the Worlds). Mark called me a crazy.

Then we went home before the Tube has a chance to get caught in the non-working spell.