Capital of the British Empire
London that is. So I finished my trip in London for a few days. The first thing I noticed about the big city is that it was real busy with people and vehicles, it seems to never sleep. However I could at least understand everyone; that was a huge plus, believe me, it got frustrating at times in the other countries when I couldn't read any of the signs and had to keep asking people if they spoke english before I could find my way.
From what I saw of London, it seemed to be very impressive except for the constant grey sky of course. I went up the London Eye, saw Big Ben, went to Trafalgar Square, visited the British Museum, saw Buckingham Palace, the Tower Bridge, the Tower of London St. Pauls Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Millenium Bridge, yada, yada, yada. So basically I saw a lot of stuff there. One highlight was going into the Canadian Embassy, next to Trafalgar Square, just to use the internet to book a musical for that evening.
They offer free internet to Canadians. How cool is that!
Back in the 1800s the British Empire controlled over a quarter of the worlds lands which is apparent if you ever visit the British Museum. It is full of dozens of sarcophagus' and mummy's, artifacts from Persia and Bysantium and even Greece and Rome and all other parts of the world. A lot of the items in there were purchased some time ago but I'm sure a fair bit of things were just taken from the lands they controlled at the time. It was nice to see the old stuff but it actually got boring after a few dozen rooms. The best part was eating a monster hot dog out front of it. I can still taste it. Yum!
The second day I went to a musical of Lord of the Rings which was playing at the famous Drury Lane Royal Theatre. It was out of this world. I was quite familiar with the story beforehand which helped me understand the musical a little better. I liked it so much that i ended up going to a performance the next night as well. So I ended up seeing the Lion King. Wow, that was amazing. It had a lot of the same songs by Elton John that are in the animated movie, but to see them played live with the performance to boot is just out of this world. It is amazing how many musical's this city offers. They have a section of town that is filled with dozens of beautiful theaters that play musicals and performances every night.
London seems to be a city that you could keep yourself occupied with things to do and see for weeks on end as long as your money doesn't run out. Things are somewhat expensive due to their insainly high priced pound. But it was a highlight of the trip and an excellent final pitstop before heading back to Calgary.
