I'm going to go ahead and call this the last of the London posts. This will just be a few assorted pictures that didn't necessarily deserve their own post, but were still pretty neat.
The ubiquitous double-decker red buses. A few of the old school ones are still out and about, but for the most part, they have been replaced with these shinier newer versions.
And the standard red British telephone boxes. Sadly not as common as they once were, which is true for pay phones everywhere I suppose. I remember the days back before cell phones (or mobile phones if you're British) became popular and my mom (hi Mom!) made me carry around 50 cents for a pay phone call.
A lot of London neighborhoods, particularly the older ones/the ones that were more fashionable back in the day are centered around these little square gardens. This particular example is Russell Square near the British Museum and the University of London.
Space toilet! These things are all over travel shows for London, but this one was honestly the only one I saw. You have to pay to go in, but it does this whole magical disinfecting thing so you know it will be theoretically clean. And no, I didn't try it.
Who knew train stations could be so pretty? This is London St Pancras station, located just across the street from King's Cross. St Pancras is the London hub of the Eurostar, the train that goes through the Chunnel to France. It is also _really_ nice inside the station. King's Cross, the main London station for UK train service, is not nearly so nice.
The tube! Also called the underground, but never called the subway. In Britain, a subway is an underground walkway, usually via tunnel, built to allow pedestrians to bypass a busy intersection or to get from one side of a big highway to the other. The underground is awesome and I love it. Way more efficient than the MBTA up in Boston or the Metro in DC. The longest I had to wait for a train was 3 minutes, and each station has electronic displays to notify you of how long until the next train arrives. And with an Oyster Card, a preloaded plastic card much like a metro card or a Charlie Card (DC & Boston respectively), taking the tube is super affordable and easy-peasy. Plus, anywhere in London, you will be near a tube station, and the iconic Underground map is really easy to understand, so it is easy to navigate, affordable, and super tourist friendly. If you do get confused, there are staff on hand at every station to help you figure out how to get where you want to go.
Hello, American chains! You'll often find Burger King, Starbucks & KFC (often accompanied by Pizza Hut) overseas, and often in a row like this. I personally don't go to any of them unless I can help it because it makes me cringe thinking about how much cheaper any of these places would be in the States.
This is the Marble Arch, located kittycorner to Speakers Corner in Hyde Park. The Arch was once an entrance to Buckingham Palace from the Mall (see the Trafalgar Sq. post), but was later moved here. If you've ever read any 18th century chick lit, you'll be familiar with Hyde Park, where everyone who is everyone goes to see and be seen.
This end of the park opposite the Marble Arch is known as Speakers' Corner, where every Sunday, anyone with something to say can stand on a soapbox (or other device of your choice, but you have to be standing on something to elevate your height by at least 6") and speak to the masses. Anything is fair game, although the police may warn you about excessive profanity usage. But watch what you say about the Queen, but it is still treason to insult her here. (Now I'm totally envisioning Eddie Izzard standing here singing that "God Attack the Queen" bit from his Dressed to Kill routine.)
This is meant to be the big grand entrance to the Park, but of course with a park as big as Hyde Park, it is difficult to really have one "main" entrance.
Marble Arch is located on the north end of Hyde Park, while the Wellington Arch (pictured below) marks the south end.
Until 1992, the Wellington Arch was the second smallest police station in London, with one located in Trafalgar Square beating it out for the smallest.
Here's a close up of the quadriga on top of the arch. It shows the angel of peace descending on the chariot of war. It is also the largest bronze statue in Europe. Right in front of the Wellington Arch is the Royal Artillery Memorial.
The memorial honours the casualties of the British Royal Regiment of Artillery from World War I. It was one of the first memorials to use realistic depictions of war and caused a good deal of controversy when it was unveiled. During the war years, the British government outlawed all images of dead soldiers, but the monument includes a depiction of one laid out for burial in defiance of censorship laws at the time because the creator felt it was important to bring the reality of the war home to the British people.
This is Apsley House. Address: 1 London. Ok, so officially it is 149 Piccadilly, but the house has been referred to as Number One, London for over 200 years because it was the first London building people coming in from the countryside saw/passed. This was the home of the Duke of Wellington. There is a statue of him just across the street in the park.
Speaking of statues, over in Piccadilly Circus is a particularly well-known one.
The statue of Eros is very well-known in London. It even shows up on most maps because it is a really handy landmark. Except that it isn't a statue of Eros at all! The statue tops the Shaftesbury Monument Memorial Fountain built in honour of Lord Shaftesbury, a well-known Victorian era philanthropist. And that statue itself? It is actually meant to be Anteros, Eros's brother and the god of selfless love or requited love. When the statue was put up, some people were kind of offended by the fact that he's nude and a pagan god, so then everyone started calling it a statue of the Angel of Christian Charity. The name never stuck, and people just called it the Eros statue.
This is Cleopatra's Needle. It is a legit Egyptian obelisk, which kind of irritates me because it is out eroding in the rain and smog of London. Hence the scaffolding you can kind of see at the bottom between all the tree branches. The obelisk is part of a pair; its mate is now in New York City's Central Park. The two came from Heliopolis originally and date back to around 1450 BC. About a thousand years later, they were moved to Alexandria by the Romans during the reign of Augustus. So they actually have nothing whatsoever to do with Cleopatra. Flanking the obelisk are two statues of sphinxes.
The sphinxes were originally intended as guardians of the Needle, but apparently that message wasn't passed on to whoever they contracted to install the things. Instead of facing away from the needle to watch whoever might approach, the two sphinxes spend their days staring at the needle instead.
And how about this really ugly concrete building? This my friends, is the American Embassy in London. Recently added to the list of protected buildings for its "interesting use of concrete." That's right, our embassy is so ugly, it can now never be renovated to be less ugly. But not to worry, the US has plans for a new embassy further outside of town and have plans in place to sell this one.
And with that, I declare the run of entries about London over. Sure there is more I could say and more pictures I could put up, but I think that'll do. We'll start in on Istanbul later.
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