Wednesday, April 23, 2008

England Day 4 - London

Monday was our last day in London, and since we were leaving just after lunch, we carried our bags with us. We started our day by buying some scarves at the little market near Monica's house. It's still a bit chilly in London, so the scarves were pretty useful.









We then went into central London and had coffee in Covent Garden.From there we walked down towards the river, past Trafalgar Square, to Westminster and Big Ben.

I met up with a friend, Hinesh, who works in the foreign service, and he showed me around the building. To get in, they actually take your picture and print a photo ID, which I thought was pretty cool. I saw the room from which England ruled India, and a room that had the names of Indian cities underneath sculpted busts of the governors that ran them, which was pretty crazy. The building was beautiful and there were lots of beautiful murals and elaborate staircases. In one staircase, there are paintings in each corner representing the four continents (yep, just four at that point...) America is represented by a woman with a bow and a deer in the background. At one point I stood about ten feet from 10 Downing Street (which is where the British Prime Minister lives), and that was pretty incredible. If Gordon Brown had decided to go for a walk just then, I would have seen him.

After the brief tour and a short stop to have some Shepard's Pie for lunch, I went back out to meet my mom and head to the airport. And that was the end of our brief adventure in England!

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