A Princess' Fairytales: 『31 Days of Blogtober』09/08/2016 - 09/09/2016 From Buckingham Palace to The Tower Bridge

09/08/2016 Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey & Houses of Parliament

I started the day early again and had planned to go see the Buckingham Palace. I arrived at Green Park and took a rout through it to get to the Palace. It was such a nice walk and I had luck with the weather. Finally there was a blue sky, nearly clear of clouds but quite windy and still warm.

Green Park

The Canada Gates to the park are so impressive and pretty.

I don't know why, but I never noticed that The Mall is red.

The Mall

Can you see it? Can you? Yeah, it's the Buckingham Palace. It was so sunny I finally was able to wear my sunglasses. ^-^

Buckingham Palace

Through the gates ~

The Queen Victoria Memorial front and back view.

Taking a little break in the sun. The water around the memorial has such a pretty colour and it's so clear. <3

After the short break I walked to Westminster Abby.

Just look at all the details. I just love old buildings and cathedrals so much. It's just so fascinating what they build in those times.

Because I'm so fascinated by that I had to go inside. It's always so sad that's not allowed to photograph inside of churches or cathedrals. They are always so pretty.

A tiny glimpse of the inside or better the small garden in Westminster Abbey. the right photo shows a medieval stone coffin they found in the precincts.

The north face of the cathedral, which is only opened for special occasions and the royals.

I really liked the inside of Westminster Abbey and I even took the audio guided tour which was really interesting. What I liked most was the Poet's Corner, where a lot of poets, playwrights, and writers are buried or commemorated. I found the grave of Charles Dickens and saw the memorials for William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters and Lewis Carroll to name a few. The full list is available here.

After I left Abbey I walked to the Houses of Parliament (aka Palace of Westminster) and took a tour around it. This building is so impressive and huge. I'm in love with it. Again it's really detailed and just so pretty. I couldn't get enough of looking at it. It's in the style of Gothic Revival and mostly in the peculiar style of Perpendicular Gothic. I wish we had pretty political buildings like that.

After returning back to the side I started from I took a small detour to Downing Street and saw the best named bus stop ever. I mean who wouldn't want to take the bus from "Horse Guards Parade"?

Decided to go to the other side of the Thames and saw this cute frozen yogurt truck where you could even sit on it's roof. It was neon pink ind kinda glowed in the dark.

view from the southern bank of the Thames

I walked back to the northern side taking the Jubilee Bridge again and made my way back to the hostel to get something to eat and go to bed.

09/09/2016 Bank of Britain, St. Paul's Cathedral & Tower Bridge

Next day I went to see St. Paul's Cathedral and walked by the Bank of England which is the central bank. It's the 2nd oldest central bank in the world. And again it's so pretty.

Bank of England

Arrived at St. Paul's Cathedral, again nice, sunny and warm weather. The cathedral is so pretty it's in the style of English Baroque and is the 2nd largest church in the UK. It's located on Ludgate Hill, which is the highest point of the City of London.

This is the new St. Paul's Cathedral which was build by Christopher Wren, because the old one got destroyed in the Great Fire of London. It's design was influenced by Peter's Basilika in Rome.

I went inside and again it's not allowed to photograph there, which really is a pity. This cathedral is so pretty and impressive. It's really hard to describe, because you have to see it in person. The dome is a really pretty thing and again im in love. Who doesn't love Baroque? I'm just such a sucker for Gothic, Baroque and Renascence.

Again I took the audio guided tour which was super informativ and interesting. You could even climb the tower and visit the Whispering Gallery. The Whispering Gallery has a special acoustic and you can hear a whisper against the wall from the opposite side.

After a short break and catching my breath I made my way up the tiny stairs to the Stone Gallery, which is outside and you can look all over London.

After I arrived downstairs again I went to see the different chapels and made my way outside again to take a walk to the Tower of London. Because I stayed a bit too long, maybe something around two or three hours, at St. Paul's I hadn't time to visit the Tower of London the same day. But I still walked there to check it out. It's even huge from the outside so I decided to go there the next day. I took some pretty photos of it from nearly every angle.

Since I wasn't going inside I went to see the Tower Bridge. I walked along the river and took quite a few photos.

Finally on the bridge

My favourite photo I took this day. I'm just a little sad it wasn't dark enough to have the right effect.

view from the bridge

While I was walking over the bridge I suddenly heard sirens and I didn't get what was going on. First I thought it was the police or something else driving over the bridge but when I looked around I had to discover that I was nearly left alone on the middle of the bridge. Then I saw why and hurried back to where I came from. Gates where closed and barriers let down so no car or passant could get over the bridge. The bridge was opening.

I read about it in the morning and it said that the bridge opens just a few times around the year. I was so surprised that it was opening. At first I couldn't grab what was going on. haha~

Didn't get a good photo of the sailing boat which was passing the bridge. Just this blurry one, but at least you can imagine how it looked.

view from the bridge of the Tower of London

I just walked over the Tower Bridge changed sides and walked strait back.
Some more photos in the dark. The bridge is just so pretty and in the dark it's always lit so nicely.

because it's always necessary to take a stupid, scary photo XD

I walked along the river again to take a few more pretty photos in the dark and again I saw how the bridge opened and closed.
You can experience the closing by clicking on the video.