Westminster and St James

An early start, as we haven't quite switched time zones yet, turned out to be  ideal as we covered a huge amount of ground today.

Taking the Tube to Waterloo station in peak hour was a very hot experience. Every time we've been on the Tube the train temperatures are a boiling point.

First stop from Waterloo was the London Eye. It was about an hour before opening time which gave us a great opportunity to  look around, watch it start up, and take some photos across the Thames river without any competition.

Crossing the Thames brought us to the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. This is one of the most spectacular buildings either of us had seen, and the level of detail is astonishing.

The sites along Whitehall continued in quick succession: Westminster Abbey, Churchill War Rooms, 10 Downing Street along with a number of monuments and historical buildings of note.

Last in this line was the Horse Guards Parade; where we were lucky enough to catch the Changing of the Guards.

Onwards from here to Trafalgar Square. Not as busy, people or pigeons, as expected which allowed us to get up close to the monuments. I especially enjoyed the temporary blue cockerel.

We explored both the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery on Trafalgar Square, that also became our lunch spot.  One thing that is in vogue here is serve your own cake.

We wound our way down the Mall, through Admiralty Arch, past the Duke of York memorial, down Jermyn St full of tailors still today, under The Ritz to Green Park. A nice walk through the park finally brought us to Buckingham Palace.

The Queen wasn't in but it was still fantastic so see both the palace and the Queen Victoria Memorial. 

From here we wound our way back through the delightful St James park an for the first time all day the overcast sky had way to sunshine! This is also the time where we spotted a wedding, which has become something of a coincidence on every trip we take.

Back on the tube from here to our last stop for the day: the British Library. There is only a small exhibition here but it is filled with some of the most important and interesting items in history. There is a copy of the Magna Carta and a really good explanation about it; but other highlights include the oldest surviving piece of English writing, the original rules for Football (Soccer) and some of the Beatles original handwritten lyrics.

While we are exhausted there is still too much to see so another 3 big days coming up.