Monday started off with a ride down to the Westminster tube station. We emerged at the base of Big Ben which was amazing. As I walked away towards the Thames to get a better shot of Big Ben and the parliament buildings I saw the London Eye for the first time (it wasn't up the last time I was in London!) and I got very excited. It's huge! We walked around Westminster to find out if there were tours of the building like in Ottawa (there aren't :( ) and wondered what time parliament would be in session, because we thought it'd be fun to sit in and listen.
Across the street from parliament is Westminster Abbey, so we headed over there. After a walk through St. Margaret's which is in the same grounds and open to the public, I really wanted us to by tickets to tour the Abbey, so we stood in line and then also reserved tickets for a verger-guided tour later that afternoon. We would have gone on one that morning, but the changing of the guards was starting at 11:30 and we had a date with the palace!
After a brisk walk to the palace (it was farther and a bit more difficult to find than I'd thought), we found ourselves on the left side of the palace gates, looking across the street at the Victoria Memorial where I'd wanted us to stand, so we meandered through the crowds and only made a couple bobbies mad as we quickly walked across the middle of the road over to the monument. We climbed the same steps I'd stood on with dad 13 years and waited for something to happen. We also just about fried in the sun, as the heat wave had struck and it was a clear sunny day. The umbrella came out for shade, but I put it away and got out my camera once the bands started playing. The changing of the guards was much more elaborate than I remembered, including several groups of guards walking by and playing musical performances for the crowd. When the guards in red coats and the big black furry hats broke into a Michael Jackson medley the crowd applauded and sang along, so that was pretty neat.
We left before it was all over because we were hot and hungry. On our way out walking along the Mall we passed the Canadian gates and spent some time deciphering the provincial coats of arms (I think we got 8 out of 10 correct). Our search for a bank machine led us over to Pall Mall before depositing us in Trafalgar Square, another place we'd wanted to hit. We grabbed some sandwiches at a nearby shop and sat in the shade of the trees across from Canada House in the Square for lunch. It was very nice.
After lunch came the requisite photos by the lions, which was a bit more difficult than I'd remembered. I guess I used to find it easier to climb when I was younger, because this time I needed Derek's help to get myself up onto the base of Nelson's column. By this time it was getting close to 1:30pm, which meant we needed to get back to Westminster Abbey for the tour. The tour itself was excellent. It's amazing enough to be in such an incredible religious building (in which you can't take photos -- sorry!), but to be let into areas normally roped off from the public was very cool. We were able to walk around up close to the tombs of some of the earliest kings and queens to be buried in the abbey, which made quite an impact on Derek.
After the 90 minute tour we stopped at the Abbey's small museum and the gift show before heading back to Trafalgar Square. Derek had spotted a poster on Canada House about an exhibition of arctic photographs that was open to the public, so we stepped inside, made our way through security and some beautiful hallways and saw the photographs. We walked further along on to the reading room, where there were photocopied Globe and Mails from 3 days earlier, a French newspaper, old pamphlets about visiting Canada, and several computers with internet access. It was in a beautiful hallway with a spiraling staircase, a chandelier and a grand piano. Very Fancy.
We may have been tired, but we still wanted to go inside Parliament, so we walked back down to Westminster. We told the guards at the gate that we'd like to see the Commons, were handed a green card and sent down a ramp to the far entrance. Inside we walked through metal detectors while our bags were x-rayed before stepping into position and having photo id cards printed instantly and hung around our necks. We were moved from bench to bench along a huge hall where we filled in information cards with our names and addresses, and then sent upstairs where we checked our bags and entered the gallery of the Commons. It was different than I expected, and quite different from Ottawa. We could only see half of the chamber due to the size and angle of the galleries, and we were behind glass. We'd picked up a couple information pamphlets so we could figure out who each side was, but as it was dinnertime we didn't see any of the big name MPs.
On our way out we asked a security guy which hall to take to leave (it was a bit confusing and we didn't want to get in trouble), and he asked us if we'd been to the Commons, and if we'd also like to see the Lords. After completing the same security procedures we found ourselves in an elaborate chamber of reds and golds, sitting on old red leather benches watching some very old men and much younger women debate an amendment on a bill. One side yelled 'Content,' the other 'Not Content,' and suddenly bells were ringing. Lords steamed in from the doorways and went into one of two rooms to cast their votes by walking past a table in the correct room. They also had a lot of laughs and a good chat before the results were revealed. Over 200 Lords had apparently cast their votes by the time it was all done. Very neat.
I think sitting in on the debates was one of my favourite moments of the trip. I spend my days reading transcripts of debates from 200 years ago, so it was amazing to sit in on contemporary debates that use the same procedures and language ('My honourable friend...') as they did in the early nineteeth century. By the end of the day we were exhausted, so it was an early-ish night for us both.
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