London Weekend: Random Pictures, part 1

Big Ben. (Don't forget you can click on any picture to enlarge it!)



A couple of shots of Millennium Bridge, which the locals call Wobbly Bridge and refuse to walk across. The cucumber looking building in the first shot is called the Gherkin for obvious reasons!


A replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre


The London Bridge....is SO boring looking that it should fall down and soon.



Trafalgar Square. Legend says that if Big Ben ever strikes 13:00 the lion statues in the square will get up and walk around.


Westminster Abbey. I also paid to tour this church and it was well worth the money. No pictures allowed but I got to see where so many Kings, Queens, and famous people were buried and memorialized. It is pretty amazing how many dead people they fit in there! All jokes aside it was pretty amazing how much history this one building holds.


This is me being a goofball and trying to take a picture of myself. I am in the green with the camera in my face, if you can see me. I am on the top deck of the tour bus I rode around in for one of the days I was there.


The Tate Modern with Millennium Bridge in front.


The Marble Arch near Hyde Park. Excuse the bad framing as I was zooming by it on the bus!


Speakers Corner at Hyde Park.



A newly built statue of Nelson Mandela


Good Old Winston Churchill

London Weekend: Random Stuff, part 2

As if London doesn't have enough statues, here is a man pretending to be a statue and doing a darn fine job of it. He fooled me at first!


The oldest remaining statue of Queen Elizabeth I


Just thought it was funny.......



The Royal Mounted Guards on display next to a sign that reads "Beware. Horses may kick or bite." Guess they don't like their jobs!




The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. See how dark it is? That is because it rained all day both days I was there. Any sunny pictures you see were taken Monday morning before I left for the airport because, of course, the day I am scheduled to leave the sun comes out. How rude! It was kind of fun to see London in the doom and gloom though because it adds to the historical effect.




The London Eye which I didn't ride due to the weather.




St. Paul's Cathedral


My hotel, The Strand Palace, was in a great location along the main roads and near a lot of attractions. I was always able to find my way back to it with ease. I stayed in the tiniest little hotel room I have ever seen though.


The Jubilee Bridge

London Weekend: The Tower of London and the Tower Bridge

The Tower of London! I payed the exorbitant fee to tour the entire complex and it was AWESOME! I love this historical stuff. I got to see where Anne Boleyn was beheaded, where Sir Walter Raleigh was imprisoned, and where Kings and Queens for centuries stood and slept!


Carvings on the Tower's prison walls done by the captured men and women, many who were there because of religious beliefs or false accusations. They were all so hopeful and inspiring even though their creators were waiting to die.


The memorial that rests on the site where Tower prisoners, including Anne Boleyn, were beheaded.





Inside this building is housed the crown jewels. You couldn't take pictures but there were some darn impressive jewels on display. It is hard to fathom the wealth that the English Crown possessed.




Traitor's Gate....people who were imprisoned in the Tower were brought in by boat. This is how a young Elizabeth I was brought in when she was imprisoned here.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this beautiful bridge. In the second picture above, you can see the lifts going up to let a ship pass.

London Weekend: Buckingham Palace

A guard was on duty because the Queen was inside!
One of 150 statues that still exist of Queen Victoria; this one is located outside Buckingham Palace. Over 40 of them are located in India.

More Africa Pictures!

Male Kudu. the antelope species in Africa are all so majestic and well decorated. They have spiral horns, stripes, and a cool factor that just puts the American deer to shame I am afraid!

Female Eland. They get to have horns because they fight with other females. Go girl power!

Wild elephants! Cool, huh?

You have got to love the telephoto lens people! I am not very skilled with it so I can only imagine how much more beautiful these shots could have been if I had known what the heck I was doing!


Namibian sunrise!

White Rhino mother and cub! That is one big cub.....these are the wild rhinos we found when we went rhino tracking one morning in the bush.





Hippos! This is as close as I got sadly, but I am still counting it as a sighting!


Wildebeest!

Spotted Hyena








I wish I was a better camera woman so I could have got both the giraffe and zebra in focus. When I go back, I am letting Brian handle all the pictures!


Male Oryx. Doesn't he have the most beautiful face and coloring?

Hardebeest

The DeBeers Diamond Mine at Jwaneng



Warthog mom and baby. Of everything I saw in Africa, I would have to say these little warthogs were one of my favorite animals. They are so darn cute running through the tall grasses with their tails in the air and their butts shaking. And they were always in family groups with babies so it just tickled me every time I saw them. They are hard to catch on film though.


Male Eland. These are the largest antelopes in Africa and man are they big. Think Ford Truck big.

baby giraffe!



Warthog crossing sign! LOVE IT!

In the more rural areas, people set up their crafts at these makeshift markets along the road and hope to attract tourists.


Termite mounds are ALL over Africa and some of them are as tall as trees. They are busy little guys.

Bat eared foxes. All those "hills" behind them are termite mounds!