Giving the eye from London's Eye

It was another slow morning filled with sleeping in and reading my British Politics book - though I was happy to be indoors as it was raining. Of course, it rains nearly everyday in Jolly ol' England so I guess I should be over it by now. We then attended class at one o' clock and discussed the merits of the play the previous night.

The real highlight of the day though was our tour of Parliament. The building is absolutely astonishing. It used to be a royal palace, and so practically the entire interior of the building is gold leafed. It also has hundreds of portraits of the royal family and important historical documents. My favorite room was one which showed, along the upper part of the wall, like a running border, the pictures of the various members of the Tudor family, with the most fascinating section being King Henry VIII followed successively by his six wives. We also got to see the House of Lords and the House of Commons, in which we were told that we were not allowed to sit in the temptingly plush leather seats. The House of Lords was gaudy with gold (especially surrounding the Queen's throne), while the House of Commons was comparatively simpler. What was really cool about seeing the House of Commons, though, was that the Queen herself is not allowed in the House of Commons. This dates back to the reign of King Charles I who, upon finding opposition among some of the members of the House of Commons, marched in with 200 soldiers and killed those who opposed him. We ended the tour in the main hall of Westminster Palace, that has been around since 10-- (60 something, 70 something... I can't remember), which has housed the trials of Charles I (who was condemned and beheaded) and other notorious figures of British history. The architecture and style of the room is significantly different from the rest of the palace, because it is one of the only parts that was saved from a massive fire in the 1800's, from which the rest of the palace had to be rebuilt.

Finally, we ended our evening with a ride on the London Eye! I had been waiting to get a view of the city from it - it was one of my "must sees" for my time in London. For those of you who don't know, the London Eye is a massive ferris wheel in the west end of London right on the Thames that takes about a half hour to rotate once around. Rather than being in an open air cart, it has closed off glass pods that fit about 15 people each and still have some breathing room. It offers fantastic views of the west end of the city! Being the charmers that we are, my friends and I, when told that the ride was about to take a souvenier picture of us, pressed our faces up against the glass for a special little shot. I bought a copy to show off when I get home.