Day 7: London

Paul was able to hook us up with a tour of the Westminster Parliament building.  It's technically a palace.  One of the girls from the SNP (Scottish National Party... the party I interned for while at the Scottish Parliament) was kind enough to show us around.  Unfortunately, I couldn't take many pictures but I did steal some from off the web and have some fun facts about the building...

We started in the central lobby.  It was absolutely stunning and had beautiful representations of Scotland, England, Wales & Ireland.  *Fun fact: constituents are allowed to come to building and meet their representatives in the lobby to discuss legislation or issues.  Hence the term "lobby your representative".

 The Central Lobby via

We went to both the House of Lords and House of Commons chambers.  I was shocked at how little each of the chambers are.

House of Lords

House of Commons

*Fun fact: Did you know that if you die Westminster Palace (where the Parliament is) they will change your place of death on your death certificate because if you die in a palace you are entitled to a funeral at royal expense...

When we left the building the girl taking us on the tour was nice enough to take a picture of us by Big Ben in the Westminster courtyard. We then said goodbye to Paul.  He was working remotely from Westminster that day.  It was so great seeing him.

After the awesome tour of Westminster we continued our quest to find me comfortable shoes.  We made a brief detour to see the changing of the guards at the palace.  I was underwhelmed.  I mean, it was a bunch of guards on horses... I was hoping for more. In our attempt to make it in time to see the changing of the guards... I really messed up my foot.  Running on cobblestone with flip flops was the worst idea in the world.  My foot was in so much pain and it was in pain for a good deal after.  I ended up having to wear a brace because of it.  But ohhh well. 

I eventually found a department store and bought a new pair of Toms. I now own an ungodly amount of Toms shoes. But the shoes did help my foot situation a lot!

After shopping we walked around Kensington and got lunch at a Lebanese restaurant and then took the tube to go see the Tower Bridge! This is the bridge most people think about when they think of the London Bridge. I saw it when I went with my cousins to London but I never walked over it.  Both of us loved it!  It also had a great view of the Tower of London. 

After our adventure crossing the bridge we headed to the airport to go to my favorite city in the world... Barcelona!