Today I pretty much spent the afternoon around the City of Westminster. After the cruise, which finished at Westminster Pier, I went to Westminster Abbey, ate lunch while sitting on the lawn in front of it, then went in.
There were free audio guides and maps (well really, they're not free, because you'd normally pay like 16 just to get in), so I got one and did the tour at my own pace.
Westminster Abbey seems to be where the par-tay is happening if you're royal or famous, and dead. All the Kings and Queens, Chaucer, Handel, Charles Dickens, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Darwin (yes, the evolution guy)...
Then I went to the Banqueting House. Okay, I lie. Well not really. I did end up at Banqueting House, but I went via Wellington Arch, which, if you look on the map, is nowhere near Westminster Abbey and Banqueting House down the road. Wellington Arch was closed. And I even looked up the opening hours and made a note of when it was closed. I just forgot, in amongst the information overload of the past few days. But it was a good trip to Hyde Park Corner anyway.
Banqueting House. As the name suggests, it is used for Banquets. Built by James I, sibling (half sibling?) of Elizabeth I, and his son Charles I was beheaded there for getting too up himself and saying that God called Kings gods. Well it was more because he dissolved Parliament with that view, and they found him guilty of treason. *chop*
After the Hyde Park incident, it was actually already 4 o'clock when I got to the Banqueting House, but it was just a one room thing, and an audio guide, so I just sat there listening. I was worried that I wouldn't finish the audio guide because the place closed at 5, but there were people still there at 5.10 and no one had come to kick us out yet. But I'd finished anyway so I left.
There were free audio guides and maps (well really, they're not free, because you'd normally pay like 16 just to get in), so I got one and did the tour at my own pace.
Westminster Abbey seems to be where the par-tay is happening if you're royal or famous, and dead. All the Kings and Queens, Chaucer, Handel, Charles Dickens, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Darwin (yes, the evolution guy)...
Then I went to the Banqueting House. Okay, I lie. Well not really. I did end up at Banqueting House, but I went via Wellington Arch, which, if you look on the map, is nowhere near Westminster Abbey and Banqueting House down the road. Wellington Arch was closed. And I even looked up the opening hours and made a note of when it was closed. I just forgot, in amongst the information overload of the past few days. But it was a good trip to Hyde Park Corner anyway.
Banqueting House. As the name suggests, it is used for Banquets. Built by James I, sibling (half sibling?) of Elizabeth I, and his son Charles I was beheaded there for getting too up himself and saying that God called Kings gods. Well it was more because he dissolved Parliament with that view, and they found him guilty of treason. *chop*
After the Hyde Park incident, it was actually already 4 o'clock when I got to the Banqueting House, but it was just a one room thing, and an audio guide, so I just sat there listening. I was worried that I wouldn't finish the audio guide because the place closed at 5, but there were people still there at 5.10 and no one had come to kick us out yet. But I'd finished anyway so I left.
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