London, England: Day 2

Friday, Nov. 21: (Day 2)
After a great breakfast at our hotel, we met up for a guided bus tour. It was called the Imperial Tour, and covered walking tours of all the greatest attractions in the area. We saw Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, House of Parliament, Big Ben, Victoria Tower, a ground level view of the London Eye,  Waterloo Bridge views, Trefalgar Square

The crew in front of Buckingham Palace.

Our tour guide, flagging everyone down.

 A lovely carriage, heading down the lane.

Victory Square 

A statue dedicated to Queen Victoria, and our princess Sarah at the foot of the statue.

The Palace.

Our next stop took us over to a collection of the classical sights. Westminster Abbey came first, with this gorgeous view:

And on our walk over to The Houses of Parliament, we passed lots of statues. This particular one had out tour guide tickled, because in all of his investigations, he could find no information explaining the presence of Abraham Lincoln's statue hanging out there between the religious and government hotbeds of London, England. 

And at the same statue, here we have our first walking view of Big Ben. It blew my mind a little bit, how centrally located everything was. I thought we'd have to travel a bit more to get to some of these places. Or, at least hop on the bus again between Parliament's buildings/Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. 

And there he is! Big Ben himself.

The view from Big Ben (or now, apparently, Elizabeth Tower) at one end of the Houses of Parliament to the other, with the Victoria Tower

Houses of Parliament

Because of terrorist threat, the monuments around the government buildings were fenced off and guarded. 

From there, we hopped back onto the bus and drove over the bridge to Trefalgar Square. It was starting to get dark, but it was really gorgeous.

Crossing the bridge, with a great view of the Houses of Parliament

Peeking at the Eye of London

Statues in Trefalgar Square. 

The statues put in three of the four corners of the Square have been selected by public subscription, and because there was so much division over the fourth corner -- they now have a changing installment. During our time there, it happened to be a blue rooster.