Pictures of our Holiday London Trip

These are some (certainly not all) of the pictures we took during our holiday trip to London and other sites nearby.

We flew out of Dulles Airport on Christmas Eve. The snow that wasn't expected until late in the evening came early, so our plane (seen here) did need some de-icing, but we were only delayed a half-hour.
Our hotel, Central House, was located in the Westminster neighborhood of London. There were many hotels along this street that looked exactly the same from the outside.
For the most part, public transportation doesn't run in London on Christmas Day. Fortunately, being in Westminster, we were in walking distance to a number of sites. Our first stop was Buckingham Palace.
The Christmas tree was a nice touch.
Here is the statue to Queen Victoria located in front of the palace.
From Buckingham Palace, we walked over a few blocks towards the clock tower containing Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. We crossed over Westminster Bridge (over the Thames river) briefly in order to get a shot of the entire building as night began to fall.
This is a nice picture of the Big Ben clock tower and the Christmas tree out in front of Parliament. Another evening shot of Parliament.
The day after Christmas is Boxing Day, another big holiday in England. Since we knew many of the sites in London would still be closed, we opted to take a day-long bus tour of southeastern England. Our first stop was Leeds Castle (seen here), built on an island in a lake. Numerous swans inhabit the shoreline.
The front part of the castle.
The back part of the castle. This section is sometimes used to host small conferences, and the attendees actually stay in rooms located on the upper floors. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the castle.
After Leeds Castle, the tour bus took us to Canterbury. Here is a picture of Canterbury Cathedral with a life-sized manger set up near the entrance.
The hallway outside of the entrance to the catacombs.
One of the stained-glass windows in a meeting room attached to the cathedral.
One of the many statues carved into the exterior wall of the cathedral. Pictures are not allowed in most active churches in England, so we took what pictures we could of the exterior.
A picture of the archway building that leads to the cathedral, which certainly stood out against the modern buildings on either side.
After leaving Canterbury, we made a quick stop in Dover, driving down all the way to the beach. In this picture, you can see both the white cliffs and Dover castle above the cliffs.
December 27 was our first day really travelling around the city. Our first stop, after picking up some discount theatre tickets, was Trafalgar Square. Here is one of the four lions that guard Nelson's Column.
A shot of Nelson's Column from the porch of the National Portrait Gallery, with the Big Ben clock tower in the distance.
We headed towards the Tower area of the city. Since the line to get into the Tower of London was already fairly long, we walked onto Tower Bridge instead.
London is definitely a tourist city in many respects. These helpful reminders of which direction traffic was travelling in were present on many streets.
After our visit to Tower Bridge, we went to St. Paul's Cathedral. This is a view from the front of the cathedral.
One of the attractions of St. Paul's is the dome of the cathedral. You can walk up 259 steps to the Whispering Gallery inside the dome, and then another 119 steps up will take you to the Stone Gallery on the outside of the dome. This is a picture taken through the stonework of the Millennium Bridge crossing the Thames. On the other side of the river on the right is the Tate Modern art gallery (a converted power station), and to the left (the white rounded building) the recreation of the Globe Theatre, Shakespeare's theatrical home.
For those who can handle the heights, another 152 steps (for a total of 530) will take you to the Golden Gallery, near the very tip of the dome. This is a picture of London looking towards the southwest. The large wheel is the London Eye, built by British Airways to also provide great aerial views of the city.
Later that evening, we went to see a performance of "Les Miserables" at the Palace Theatre near Leicester Square.
The next day was spent on our second day-long bus trip. Our first stop: Stonehenge.
The tall middle stone with the stone tip in the middle is one half of what used to be the center stone arch. The horizontal slabs of the arches are not just laid on top of the supporting columns--they have holes that fit around the stone tips.

The large arch stones on the outside were probably hauled cross-country over rolling wooden logs from an area 20 miles away. The smaller upright stones in the center of the structure apparently came from across the sea from Wales, about 240 miles away. Similar stones have been found on the seabed between Wales and England, indicating that not every attempt to sail the stones across the water ended in success.

Stonehenge is located on Salisbury Plain, a large stretch of flat land subject to winds coming off of the ocean about 30 miles away. It was the coldest place we visited during our trip.
It isn't hard to imagine how this became a sacred place, not only to the people who built it, but to those who came after them.
The next stop on our trip was the city of Bath. Located in a green river valley, it was founded by the Romans, who built a bathhouse around the hot spring that bubbled through the rocks. The green water below is the bathwater as it is today. The bathwater is warm enough so that warm vapors are quite visible in the chilled winter air.
The remains of Roman handiwork surround the incoming water.
All of the houses in Bath conform to a certain look (as seen here), but the decorations above and around each doorframe are unique.
A view of the Avon river in Bath. A picture of Bath Abbey as seen from the riverside.
The front of Bath Abbey. The figures (angels and souls) are either climbing up the ladder towards heaven or (in the case of one figure) headed back down.
Bath Abbey was the only church we visited in which pictures were allowed. This shot really gives you an idea of how tall the interior was. A stained glass window within the abbey.
Bath Abbey boasts a huge pipe organ, but even it looks small in comparison to the walls of the abbey. Like many of the churches we visited, certain members of the church or of British society are buried inside the church within stone crypts.
A picture of the altar in Bath Abbey.
A picture of the English countryside taken from the bus on our way back from Bath.
The bus made several stops to let people off close to their hotel. We opted to get off at Harrods, London's largest and most diverse department store, which was decorated for the season.
After browsing through Harrods, we took the Tube to Picadilly Circus, the Times Square of London, to look at the lights.
We were the only ones out enjoying the lights and the sights.
The next day we got up early to get in line for the Tower of London. This is a picture from the outside of the Tower.
It was the first really soggy day we had experienced since we arrived (hence the umbrella). This is a picture of the White Tower, built by William the Conqueror around 1070.
Two of the ravens that live in the Tower of London. Legend has it that should the ravens leave the tower grounds, the monarchy would collapse, so they are permanent residents.
Many prisoners were kept in the tower. This is a carving in the wall made by one of them, now preserved behind glass.
I don't think this requires any explanation...
Another picture of the White Tower. Note the wooden staircase in the lower left corner. Supposedly if the tower were attacked, the staircase would be burned to prevent invaders from reaching that door.
A view of the tower grounds.
The Tower Bridge as seen from the outermost walls of the Tower of London.
Another view of the tower grounds and the many visitors.
A reminder, intoned in an imperial tone in various Tube stations, that you may need to take a large step to get from the platform onto the underground train.
Here comes the Tube train now.
Each Tube station was designed and decorated differently. Some of the major stations require you to walk through several tunnels in order to switch from one train line to another.
Our tour guide for our Stonehenge/Bath excursion had suggested we see one particular exhibit in the Tate Modern gallery. We were unprepared for this huge sculpture which filled the space over our heads. The material is similar to the outer surface of PVC pipe.
A view up the Thames from the Millennium Bridge.
The dome of St. Paul's at night.
Our last day was another rainy day in the city. After snagging some theatre tickets, we headed towards Westminster Abbey, and took some pictures while waiting in line to get in.
The carving of Jesus and the twelve apostles above the entrance to the abbey.
The sundial clocks on the tower of St. Margaret's Church, built by the abbots of Westminster Abbey as a place of worship for servants of the abbey. Other carvings along the walls of the entrance to the abbey.
After going through Westminster Abbey, we briefly visited some of the notable holdings of the British Library (the Magna Carta, the first folio of Shakespeare's collected plays) before visiting the British Museum. We spent much of our time in the Egyptian and Babylonian exhibits. The famous Rosetta Stone
An example of one of the many human-sized wall carvings that lined several corridors of the exhibit. You can come up with your own mummy joke.
The reading room of the British Museum.
Our last evening in London was spent attending a performance of "Rent"
Planet Hollywood and the Hard Rock Cafe were located close to the theatre.
Another night life photo. The next day we woke up early and headed to Heathrow for the flight home.