Got to London yesterday. That was mostly a let lag recovery day, as is today actually. Hopefully tomorrow won't be. Anyway, I walked around Hyde Park which is right next to the hostel. It's amazing walking around this city with all these old buildings. There's so much history here, and the locals walk past it all without thinking about it. Pretty much every building has some history.
Here´s "speaker´s corner" in Hyde Park, the northwest corner, where people historically have ranted about politics. The building shown is just a place where you can buy ice cream I think.
Today, I took the tube to the east end of London, at the London Tower, and walked back through the whole old city. I got off the tube, and right there in front of me is a midieval castle! And it´s build right on an old Roman wall that dates to about 200 AD I think. I'm still definitely getting used to all this. William the Conquerer built the initial tower soon after he conquered, and various kings down the line added more and more walls around it, and a moat. You can almost imagine knights on horseback crossing the bridge over the moat, and archers defending the castle through the arrow slits.
The original tower built by William the Conquerer is the tallest part in the back with four towers.
I checked out all the sights on the way back. The architecture of Westminster Abbey and the houses of parlaiment is particularly interesting.
The G20 summit in going on in London, and the whole city is bolstering its defenses against the protesters. There are a whole lot of cops here, though none are very intimidating. They wear bright yellow reflective coats, don´t have any weapons, and are not exactly physically intimidating. The meter maids are invariably more intimidating. Anyway, near the banks in the old city, the protesters gathered. I walked down there, and there were two concentric circles of cops shoulder to shoulder around the demonstrations. I squeezed through to check it out, being careful not to talk so as to give away my American accent. It was a little crazy in there. Apparently, communism is the answer to ending the recession.
When trying to leave, the cops wouldn't let me. You can get in, but you can't get out! So a group of us were walking around the perimeter, trying to escape the fray. We eventually found a way out. I guess the cops wanted to control people leaving.
On the other end of the spectrum, as I arrived at Buckingham Palace to check it out, a crowd had formed with thousands of people on the street. They were waiting for Obama's motorcade to maybe catch a glimpse of him. Definitely a different crowd. Obama´s in that car.
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