London, Cont’d

I wish I could claim that I had an itinerary chock full of all the highlights of London that I ran through from top to bottom today.  But I can’t, because I didn’t.  Instead, I got rolling in mid-morning and walked from my hotel to Wellington’s Arch, quite near Hyde Park Corner and just went from there. I ended up walking over to Buckingham Palace and the monument to Queen Victoria, up the Mall to the Admiralty Arch and Nelson’s Column, down Whitehall to Downing Street, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, back up to and around the Palace, the Royal Mews, the Queen’s Galleries, and finally ending up back at my hotel.

I remember seeing many of these things in the ’70, the last time I was in London, but I don’t remember them being quite so close to each other. That’s the difference in perspective between a 10 and a 40 year old I guess.

While I was hanging around at the Palace (which was originally built as a private home for the Duke of Buckingham and later purchased by the Royal family because it was nicer than their own digs) a platoon of mounted guards rode by on the blackest, biggest horses I’ve ever seen.  These animals were at least as tall as I am at the shoulder and the simply absorbed light; boy, were they impressive.

I would have also posted pictures, but the batteries in my camera died the moment I turned it on and the only shops I could find that were selling AA batteries wanted almost five Pounds (~$10) for four batteries.  I anticipate I’ll do a similar walking tour in a couple weeks, and I further imagine batteries will be a bit less expensive at one of my other stops.  I’m also going to try to find the Imperial War Museum again.

Somebody important from the Saudi government must be in town.  All along the Mall between the Palace and Nelson’s Column were flags, alternating between Union Jack and Saudi.

One thing I’ll say for this area of London is that they have certainly made it look regal. The parks are perfectly groomed, the tall iron fences are painted black with gold atop. Even though the skies were gray, everything looked quite good.