Top 10 Things To Do In London England - Listings 6 to
10
What to do in London?
6 (-) The Changing of the Guards
The Changing of the Guard takes place in the forecourt of Buckingham
Palace at around 11am. The St. James' Palace detachment of the Queen's
Guard bears the Queen's Colour if she is home or the Regimental Colour
is she has gone out. The guard marches along the Mall to Buckingham Palace,
where the Buckingham Palace detachment has formed up to await their arrival.
From there the climax begins. For more:
7 (36) Big Ben
Big Ben – the world's greatest clock, (Big Bell actually, Big Ben
is the name of the greatest bell) has to be heard, seen, photographed
and remembered for you will probably see it many times again. Every time
you do see Big Ben on the media you will think back to standing there
waiting to hear the ‘dong’.
Big Ben is not the tallest clock in the empire but it’s the best,
the icon, probably the most televised clock in the world, even Londoners
love it. It could have had its own TV series but the government feared
it might move to Hollywood to pursue a movie career.
London would not be London without Big Ben. From the pennies that it
uses to keep it on time to it's enlighten face smiling down on the cold
inhabitants as they struggle across the windy Westminster Bridge.
When parliament is in session a light emanates above Big
Ben's face.
8 (37) The National Gallery in London
 Look
at the Beautiful Pictures at the National Gallery
Walk around the aisles of the National Gallery and expose yourself to
some of the greatest European art on the planet. Housed in a majestic
building in Trafalgar Square the National Gallery is surprisingly unstuffy
and relaxed. Get up close and personal to Monet's Water lily pond, Van
Gogh's Sunflowers, Rembrandt's portraits, and the spectacular Da Vinci's
'Virgin of the Rocks' and Raphael's 'Madonna of the Pinks' to name a few.
The National Gallery is home to 2,000 masterpieces of the Western European
art. The Van Gogh room is a must.
The permanent collection costs nothing which is amazingly when you consider
the priceless nature of the art on display. Admission prices are applied
to special exhibitions. No pictures or video are allowed.
You'll recognise many of the works on display but there are guided and
audio tours. You can make up your own tour and choose at random from over
1,200 paintings on the Collection Tour, or select from a range of family
and themed trails.
The "60 Minute Tour" features the highlights on offer at the
Gallery. It is available in English, French, Italian, Spanish, German,
Russian, Polish, Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese (Mandarin) and Korean.
The audio guide is free with a London
Pass
9 Natural History Museum
Known for its underfed Dinosaur at its entrance the Natural History Museum
itself is large and quite impressive. Have a good look at the columns
and floors for the detail contained within their architecture.
What really matters of course is what awaits you inside. The awesome
Whale Hall starring the biggest creature on earth, past and present, the
endangered Blue Whale, the spectacular Darwin Centre Cocoon, the exciting
Attenborough Studio, the big facts about the rise and fall of the Dinosaurs
and the eruptive studies of volcanoes and ground shaking work on earthquakes.
If that's not enough there are special displays that show case topical
insights into the natural world.
10 (15) Westminster Abbey
Every year over one million people come to Westminster Abbey to explore
it history, marvel at it's architecture and artifacts and worship at its
daily services. Westminster Abbey is a very special place with the current
building dating back 700 years and its predecessors dating back to over
a 1,000. Benedictine monks first came to the site of Westminster Abbey
in the middle of the tenth century. They established a tradition of daily
worship which continues on to this day.
Since 1066 English Kings and Queens have been crowned here and 17 monarchs
have been buried here. In fact, there are a total of 3,000 or more bodies
buried within the Church and Cloisters accounting for most of the significant
ex-people in England's history. Over 600 monuments and memorials help
to testify to their import. The impressive list of dead people is only
matched by the architecture and sculpture within the Abbey. On mass Westminster
Abbey's tombs and memorials comprise the most significant single collection
of monumental sculpture in the UK. The Church just oozes with royal dead.
However, where most of us might keep our skeletons in the cupboard. ..Westminster
Abbey keeps its bodies under foot.
The impressive Gothic Church we know today was built by Henry III in
1245 and is a treasure trove of paintings, stained glass, textiles and
other artifacts. The Library and Muniment Room contain collections of
historically important archives, printed books and manuscripts.
It is easy to arrive at Westminster Abbey not quite know which way to
turn. Audio guides are available in eight languages but for a small fee
you can and should sign up to the highly-popular verger-led tour. For
well over an hour you will be guided gently around Westminster Abbey to
the Shrine (containing the tomb of Saint Edward the Confessor), the Royal
Tombs, Poets' Corner, the Cloisters and the Nave.
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Top One Hundred Things To Do In London, England
