Second day

It was the first day that we woke up in London, so we were really excited.

We woke up very early to see the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace is the official London residence and principal workplace of the British monarchy. The original building was constructed as a country house in 1705 by the duke of Buckingham. King George III bought the house in 1761 for his wife. A flag is hoisted each time the Queen is in the Palace. The palace is not only home to the royal family; there are also a number of staff members living here. The palace has about 600 rooms, including a throne room, a ballroom, picture gallery and even a swimming pool. 

We were surprised by the Changing of the Guard because it's a nice ceremony. It takes place daily at 11 o'clock. The New Guard parades along the Mall towards Buckingham Palace and during a ceremony replaces the Old Guard.

The ceremony, which is accompanied by music played by a military band, always attracts throngs of onlookers.

Next to the Buckingham Palace there is St. James Park. It is a huge park with a large lake. There are many animals such as squirrels, pelicans, ducks… who were introduced to the park in the mid 1600s.

After that we went to Trafalgar Square.The square is surrounded by many great buildings . At the center of the square is the tall Nelson's Column which was built to commemorate the victory of Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar against the Spanish fleet in October 1805. Nelson was wounded during that famous battle off the Spanish coast. His body was taken back to London and buried in the St. Paul's Cathedral.  It also contains a large number of statues and two fountains. On the north side is the National Gallery, built between 1834 and 1838. It houses a collection of more than 2300 paintings. We could see Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet or Leonardo Da Vinci's paintings. They were amazing! People liked the best The Sunflowers by Van Gogh and the landscapes of Monet.  

Then we went to visit the Houses of Parliament. In the middle of the 11th century, King Edward the Confessor had moved his court to the Palace of Westminster, situated near the river Thames.In 1834 a fire destroyed the Palace of Westminster. After the fire, a competition was organized to create a new building for the two houses of parliament. We were shocked when we finally saw the Big Ben. It was originally called St. Stephen's Tower, but it was soon named after the tower's largest bell, the Big Ben.

Next to the Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament we could visit Westminster Abbey. It's more a historical site than a religious site. Since 1066 every royal coronation, with the exception of Edward V and Edward VIII has taken place there. The abbey also serves as the burial ground for numerous politicians, sovereigns and artists. We also visited a beautiful cloister with many tombs. We could see the children from the choir leaving the cloister in a very ordered queue. They were all dressed with black capes, which reminded us of the Harry Potter film.



After this last visit we took the tube - which is how the underground train is called because of its shape- and went to our host houses. It was a long but productive day!