LNYDP 2017 - Day 2

After a good 10 hours of sleep, we started day 2 with a ride on the tube to Westminster. This area is the heart of London where Big Ben (Elizabeth Tower), Parliament, and Westminster Abbey are located. When you walk out of the tube station, Big Ben is right there. It was foggy that morning which made for some cool pictures.

Our first stop was Westminster Abbey. We got there before it opened and the line was already quite long. It worked out well because that gave us a chance to admire the outside and get some pictures.

 

We toured Westminster Abbey, which was incredible. The history there is amazing. We really enjoyed this tour. After we left the Abbey, I thought we were headed towards Trafalgar Square. However, my sense of direction failed me and we ended up and Buckingham Palace, where the queen lives. We walked around the palace for a while and got more pictures.

Buckingham Palace was really beautiful. We then decided to head towards Jermyn Street and Piccadilly Circus areas to see all the shops and sights in those areas. We walked through Green Park to get to Jermyn Street. The park was quite lovely. When we got to the other side of the park, we saw our first red London phone booth and got some pictures.

We walked through the streets admiring all the architecture.

 

Jermyn Street has lots of high end shops that the royalty shop at. They have wonderful window displays of their goods that were so neat to look at.

Continuing on, we arrived at Piccadilly Circus which is like Times Square in New York. It was full of people going every direction, street performers, and large TV screens. We spent a short time here, but came back after dark when the place really livens up.

At this point, it was late afternoon and we were hungry so we decided to find a nice place to eat an early dinner. We found a cute Italian place that was delicious. The wait staff all sounded Italian and the restaurant was very cozy. The food was excellent.

Across the street from the restaurant was a theater, so I grabbed this long exposure photo with the traffic passing by. Notice the red lights are on the left side of the road.

We finally found our way to Trafalgar Square and got some pictures there. Right next to the square is the National Gallery. We decided not to go there and head back to Piccadilly Circus.

Piccadilly Circus at night. They had the streets decorated for Christmas with these huge angels.

  Eros at the center of Piccadilly Circus

We went back to the hotel after that. However, I decided to go out to get some long exposure shots along the Thames. I started walking towards the river from the hotel and ended up at the Southwark Bridge. I crossed it, then walked along the northbank. The shot below was taken looking south at the Southwark Bridge.

 I came to the Millenium Bridge and grabbed the next shot which has Tate Modern in the background.

 I decided to cross the Millenium Bridge, so I walked up to it. I had no idea that St. Paul's Cathedral was right there, so I got some pictures of it in the fog.

 Across the street from St. Paul's was a little cafe that was bright red. I thought this would make a nice shot and it turns out to be one of my favorites from the trip.

 This last shot is of the Blackfriar's Bridge, which was very near our hotel. As I was taking these pictures, a street performer was signing opera not far from me.