We did a walking tour today of Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral. Starting the day at 8 to get ready, eat breakfast and grab on the tube by 9. We got onto the district line and got off at St James’s Park.

Westminster Abbey used to to be a monastery of Benediction faith but turned Catholic, then Protestant when the reformation happened. The official religion of England changed many times throughout history and within those years many martyrs were killed. Some of their statues are built into the side of the Abbey. The choir is by a very prestigious private school that costs ~£37,000 to go to. They excel in music education and work along side the church.

In the Westminster, there were memorials to Stephen Hawking, Charles Dickens, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Sir Isaac Newton and many more. The Abbey was bombed in the blitz resulting in catastrophic damage to the ceiling and the inside.

In between the two locations, we walked through the park itself and then saw Buckingham Palace.

We had lunch at the Phoenix Victoria Pub; venison pies, vegetable pies and risotto for me. Think of a Shepard’s pie but the mashed potatoes on the side with just the meat/ vegetables on the inside. The tour guide said that since London had been so polluted, the doughy outside was made to protect the meat on the inside. Many of the residents of London visit this park because it’s known for its beautiful and serene atmosphere, and especially since the weather has been gorgeous these past few days. We walked over where Shakespeare’s original Globe was and past a place where he resided.

We witnessed the changing of the mounted guards that happens every hour. The place was used for Olympics, but thousands of troops line up in that part for the Queen’s second birthday to be inspected.

At St Paul’s Cathedral there was a glorious memorial to William Reddaway – a famous wartime hero and strategist, but not so great Prime Minister. His horse, Copenhagen, was buried in a full armor, at Reddaway’s home, for having such bravery during the battles. The cathedral had also been bombed during the blitz but there were many volunteers that had bags of sand and water hoses at the ready to put out the fires so that the Cathedral wouldn’t be burnt down a second time. The first time, the Fire of London had caught the scaffolding on fire and books in the crypt had ignited resulting in the burning.

The dome part of the cathedral is actually 3 domes in one, one big one where people sit, one on top of that and one in the very tippy top. The very highest dome is called the gallery of whispers, named for the sense of eerie magic that takes place when one whispers something and someone across the room hears them.

We then walked across the street to the Millenium bridge (the bridge from Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince). If you look down at your feet, an artist had painted all sorts of different things on gum since graffiti is strictly forbidden.

The views were incredible on the Thames River and there were many well known sights such as The Shard, St. Paul’s, the Tate Modern, etc. The Tate Modern’s building was actually an up-cycled factory of some sort, there were lots of musicians playing outside and local street artists selling artwork of the Thames and the views there.

We then headed to the London Eye [with a brief tourist shop stop!] The views were incredible and well worth the long, but quick moving queue.

As for the media in the UK, I noticed that the people didn’t use their phones while in conversation and generally had them put away. The newspapers were usually free and we saw several news recorders while on our 8 hour walking tour. The hotel has access to American television shows and Netflix UK has a few things on there that the US doesn’t.