June 23, 2001: London

Mom and I took a tour of London. We first went to St. Paul’s Cathedral, where Princess Diana and Prince Charles were married. It was a huge church. They said the congregation had to bring their own chairs to church, so that is why you won’t see pews in the church. The Duke of Wellington and Florence Nightengale are buried at this church.



Mom and I went to St. James, where Prince Charles and the boys lived. It’s an old brick building. Had our picture taken with one of the guards.


We got to see the beginning of the Changing of the Guards ceremony, which started at Prince Charles home and proceeded to Buckingham Palace, which is a few short blocks down the street. When the queen is in residence, she has her own flag flying above the palace. She was at her weekend home, so she wasn’t here today.


In November, there will be a big celebration for her 50 yrs of being a queen.


We saw Westminster Abbey, which is where Princess Diana’s funeral was held and were all major events are held.


Then, we took a cruise down the Thames River and saw Big Ben and the Tower of London.


We found out on the tour that the people vote for the House of Commons members, and in turn, the House of Commons votes for the Prime Minister, who actually is the leader of the country, not the queen.


The choosing of royalty is based on the oldest son or daughter.


We got to see the barge race today, as that only happened once a year.


We went on a tour of the London Bridge and got to see the Crown Jewels, Queen Elizabeth’s coronation ceremony in a video, and where people were executed by having their wives beheaded.


After the tour, Mom and I took the subway to Kensington Palace where Princess Diana lived  after she divorced Charles in 1996 until she died in 1997. There were some flowers in the gate. It overlooked Hyde Park. We got to see the beautiful gardens outside of it. Then, we walked to Nottinghill, which wasn't much to see.


We walked down this street behind Kensington Palace that had a lot of embassies. We saw Princess Diana Children’s Memorial Park, as we walked from Kensington Palace through Hyde Park. We walked for miles on Bayside Road to Oxford St.


We walked down Bond Street, which had the fancy stores like Gucci, Bally, and Prada.


London’s population was 8 million.


We had pizza for dinner.

We saw the World’s Largest Ferris Wheel.