Touristy London

Trafalgar Square:

This is Nelson's Column, which was built in the 1840s to commemorate the death of Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.  The column is guarded by four lion statues.

Buckingham Palace, where the Queen lives:

The London Eye, also known as Millennium Wheel, because it was opened on December 31, 1999, to commemorate the new millennium:

The ferris wheel has 32 capsules, each of which can hold 25 people.  One complete rotation takes about 30 minutes.

Cooper and I with a mounted trooper of the Household Cavalry on duty at Horse Guards building:

Big Ben and Big Cooper:

This is Cleopatra's Needle:

I hadn't heard of it before, but we saw it on our bus tour and also from the boat tour we took.  Each time, the tour guide mentioned that it was over 3500 years old.  I was intrigued, so I did a little research and found out that the obelisk is 68 feet tall, it was originally erected in Egypt around 1450 BC and is inscribed with Egyptian hieroglyphs, it was given to the UK in 1890, it has nothing to do with Cleopatra, and it has a twin in New York.  So there you go.


Shakespeare's Globe Theatre:

Except that it's not the original Globe Theatre.  It's a "modern reconstruction" built in 1997 near the site of the original Globe Theatre.  And at least according to one tour guide, it's the only building in London allowed to have a thatched roof.

We crossed under the London Bridge on our boat tour:

It did not fall down.