London-ing

A quick catch up of the time I spent in London.

Overview of famous landmarks:

Clockwise from top left:

• Westminister Abbey and Big Ben: (well actually the clock tower of Westminister, the nickname just refers to the bell inside, which has its distinctive sound because of a crack). Did not have enough time to visit these two, the photo was taken from the Thames River cruise.
• Traflager Square: quite a nice place to relax, and right next to the National Gallery.
• London Eye and House of Parliament: much grander looking than Canada's haha. The house was originally wood, and was plotted to be burnt down in the gunpowder plot. That didn't succeed, but 2 drunken lords manage to start a fire that burned down 75% of the building.
• Tower of London: guess this is suppose to the Vatican equivalent (not fair comparison either). Went to see everything inside of the crowned jewels, there's some interesting rooms haha. There existed a Lion Tower that kept exotic animals, including a polar bear that was tied to a rope so it could fish in the Thames.

Yours truly being a tourist at Traflager Square:

The lion is symbolic of Britain (like the eagle is to USA). It's also a favourite of the Assyrian kings as I later learned at the British Museum. Saw very little of the museum, was dying of fatigue and heat instead.

Change of guards at the Buckingham Palace:

The guards were followed by a mob of eager tourists, which was quite futile since there's been people queuing at the gates since morning to get a good view.

A bridge who's name I forgot but still has to mention as a civil engineer:

The bridge was opened by the Queen, but soon experience major swaying problems and had to be closed down by the police a few hours afterwards. The architect denied that the bridge had any faults and instead blamed the way that Londoners walked (which would be a lot more believable if everyone marched like soldiers but no). Eventually, after a great sum of money has been spent, the bridge was fixed. Tsk tsk.

More buskers at Covent Garden:

Tightrope walking Frenchmen, and violin players (y) They entertained me while I waited for check-in time to arrive. Covent Garden was originally the vegetable and herb garden for local nuns.

Also had lunch at the Coven Garden Market, Jamie Oliver had a joint there:

Woodmen's Pizza at Jamie's Union Jack. A tad salty and not the most British thing to order. In fact most of the meals I ate in London were Italian, like the Tagliatelle di Campagna I had at Bella Italia (it's like Swiss Chalet, but better).

Overall I wasn't as impressed by it as I was by Rome, but Rome had a longer history so it's also not quite a far comparison. Was still great though, wish there was an extra day of free time, so many things were left unvisited!