[September 29] London: Walking Tour of American Influence in London

Last Wednesday, I went on a walking tour lead by an American professor from California and my History of London professor. It was just 'for fun', as in not for class, and even though I knew I would be exhausted by the end of class, I figured it would be a really good chance to see and hear about some new things! The tour was designed to show American influence in London.


[I'm disappointed because a lot of the pictures I took on this walk have disappeared. They didn't load properly so although I can see them, I can't load them onto here.]


We began the tour outside of the Supreme Court where there is a statue of Abraham Lincoln! Picture disappeared unfortunately.


This tower is near Buckingham Palace and one of the professors said that during WWII Winston Churchill stood at the top of it watching bombs fall and it would drive his security guys crazy:

Right by this tower is a road that goes up to the Palace and it also doubled as an airstrip that the Royal family could be whisked away on if necessary.

The little window in the center of this picture under the green roof is apparently the window of the room the Secret Service used to be located in:

Around this area, which is Whitehall, the Prime Minister lives. There are tunnels underground and the Prime Minister apparently walks to Parliament all the way underground. Amazing, right?!? We saw gates to the PM's home and they're of course guarded, but one of the professors said that the suffragettes back in the day managed to break through them. Impressive. Picture missing, of course.

I'm honestly not sure what was happening here but there were some fancy military men yelling and clicking their feet around very ceremoniously, ha ha, so we watched:

A monument dedicated to the women of WWII:

Just a nice view:

And here is a lovely park where there are a few memorials and statues. There's a statue of FDR and Eisenhower (pics gone unfortunately). I thought it was interesting that FDR was standing whereas in his memorial in Washington D.C., the statue of him is of him in his wheelchair.

This is a memorial dedicated to those lost on September 11, 2001:

The tour involved a lot of walking in the RAIN. It rained the entire time and thank goodness everyone brought their umbrellas! My feet squished with water by the end of the walk, which ended with IES treating us all to Starbucks. 

Julian, my History of London professor, said that for someone to have a mailbox around the immediate downtown London area we were in (or was it in Chelsea? Regardless—) is.... drumroll... £10,000 PER YEAR. That's $15,000 to have your mail delivered. I cannot wrap my mind around it. 

I was also excited because I saw a Chanel, Tiffany's, and Louis Vuitton on this walk as well. Maybe it's not such a big deal, but we just don't have these stores in Washington State (said with hillbilly accent)! We also walked through a small mall that Princess Diana would do her shopping in sometimes. Sparkles and shiny pretties everywhere. It seems like Princess Diana's death is still a big deal here. I've seen postcards with her on them and then in a previous entry, you can see the memorial that was made for her in Hyde Park. 

To sum it up, I returned back to my dorm drenched and exhausted but with a few morsels of interesting pieces of information I wouldn't have known otherwise. I also felt very American and maybe a little bit proud of it... :]