My last full day in England we went to London again … Walked out of Waterloo train station …. (I think) we crossed the street and were walking straight toward the London Eye. … Pretty impressive in person.

Just after you pass the London Eye, you view, across the Thames, Parliament and Big Ben .. completely amazing. One of those situations when you can’t quite believe you’re really there … especially at 9a in the morning?

Just gorgeous.

(So nice of Londoners and other tourists to do this …. ALWAYS help out a tourist who wants their photo taken)

We crossed the bridge, walked passed Parliament and through Parliament Square to Westminster Abbey.

Oh my word – Westminster Abbey.

I think this was my favorite part of the trip. …. now, I don’t usually link to my ‘personal’ blog, but if you want the full blow-by-blow of our Westminster Abbey visit, please go here.

Or, just take a look at a couple of the shots I got outside (no photography allowed indoors):

After about an hour and a half at the Abbey, we walked up Whitehall (where #10 Downing street is) to Trafalgar Square . …

Stopping, of course, for the obligatory red phone booth photo … man, that thing smelled … blech!

One of the reasons I wanted to go to Trafalgar Square is because on one corner is St. Martin-in-the-Field church, which has free lunchtime concerts a few days each week – including Monday. …

We got up there early enough to have lunch first too … . in the Crypt.

That’s right. One of the church’s fund-raising tactics (to keep this piece of history in business and in one piece) is to have a restaurant (cafeteria-style) underneath the church where the crypt (headstones, graves, etc) is …

Check out this floor, just about under our feet while we were eating lunch…

The lunch was great … and then we went back upstairs to the church for a 45 minute organ concert….

Sooooo gorgeous.

It was such a beautiful experience … just sitting back and listening to music in this old British place of worship …

The front/top of St. Martin’s :

And a view of Trafalgar square, looking down Whitehall to Big Ben:

After our lunchtime concert, we visited the National Portrait gallery for a bit, then took a walk …

We found ourselves in St. James Park (just down the street from Buckingham Palace) …

On a Monday afternoon, eating ice cream in St. James Park. … one of the many unexpected highlights of my trip – and one that never would have happened if I had been more strict about my itinerary…

The weather was just perfect, the scenery was gorgeous, and the people-watching was prime!

I highly recommend letting a little relaxing slip into your travel plan … .

Through the rest of the afternoon, we walked around London a bit more (looking for a locksmith for Miranda) … visited Trafalgar square again, and the National Gallery, then walked back down Whitehall where we were going to meet near Parliament for our walking tour….

And there ….

We found this:

A Tamil protest outside Parliament …

It was. …. so interesting to watch and be that close to. We stuck around for a bit getting pictures, listening, watching.

I’ve never been that close to a protest (and never actually been part of one). Such an interesting little gem for my trip.

Even though the protest WAS interesting, it was soo crowded and loud, and I kept feeling like I was in people’s way ….

So Miranda and I headed over to Westminster Abbey (closed by this time) just to get some cute pics …

Finally, our last ‘touristy’ activity of my time in England: a walking tour of the Westminster/Parliament area “by gaslight”

2 hours, so informative. It had to be altered from the normal route due to the protesting. But still well worth the $$.