London - Vibrant, Regal, Clean and Crowded

We are in Helsinki at the moment on our way to Bejing.... Just finished our England leg of the trip with just under 48 hours in London. Jessica was our local tour guide and in one afternoon she managed to show us Parliament House, Big Ben, Green Park, Westminister Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral, Queen's Horse Guard house, 10 Downing Street, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, London Bridge, Eye of London, the Thames River, Trafalgar Square and Regents Park. Lucky for us she knew her way around.

Here is Big Ben and they are right, it is BIG. The darkish clouds in the sky is weather that had been threatening to rain for days but we managed to miss all the bad weather even though there were serious floods in the regions we went through. Really fortunate that none of our sightseeing plans were affected by weather in Germany, Ireland or England.



This is the tower of London, where the crown jewels are kept and where Henry the 8th beheaded one (at least) of his unwanted wives.



The last evening Hilary and I went to Picadilly Circus and Soho on our own while Jessica caught up with her flat mates and work mates for her last Friday night in London. Picadilly was vibrant and amazing, most of all the crush of people was even overwhelming at times.

We'd been told that London was dirty and grimy but even in the seedier places of Soho, we didn't come away with that impression. We also never saw any rubbish or litter in the underground (tube).