Big Ben

Today was just like any other day, really. I got up around 9 a.m., showered, ate breakfast, watched some tv... and walked all the way into central London.

Yep, that's right. I walked 6.8 miles into Central London... all the way to Big Ben. I had wondered how long it would take me, and it turns out, it took me about 2 hours and 45 minutes. Admitedly I did get lost once and had to wait for an awful lot of traffic signals, but needless to say I was looking forward to getting to Big Ben and relaxing in the grass for a while.

For a visual, here is the map of the route I took:

Once I got to Big Ben, I didn't really have a plan. I bought some pasta from the local Tescos and sat down with my pal Churchill and ate some lunch.

Afterwards I started wandering around, snapping pictures. I didn't really want to wander too far, and I decided that while I had many, many 'standard' pictures of Big Ben, I hadn't really tried to 'photograph' it properly. So I spent the next 2 (that's right, 2) hours wandering all around Big Ben, trying to get as many different photos of Big Ben as possible.

So, here are 11 of my favorites. Get ready for a whole-lotta Big Ben!

Here's Big Ben and his old pal, Winston Churchill. Notice the lack of pigeon crap on Churchill - his statue has an electrical current running through it to keep the birds off.
I don't remember who this bloke was - but he's got a fancy cape.
I also don't remember who this guy was. But he's tall and has a very large head.
Again... don't know who he is. I probably should've written this down.
It almost looks as though Nelson Mandela is godzilla and he's attacking Big Ben. Raaaawr!
Here's Big Ben through the iron-gates of the Parliament Building.
And another view over the side of the fence. No tresspassing.
Here's the statue of Boudica (that's how Wikipedia spells it, so lay off), and Big Ben.
...And another close up.
The very very top of Big Ben and the lovely lamp posts off the Westminster Bridge.
And finally, sunset over the Thames.
And just for fun - 'What'cho looking at, fool!'

I think from now on, I will try and do this with a lot of different monuments. It was actually quite fun trying to think of new ways and angles from which to shoot Big Ben.

I took some other photos today, mainly of birds and night-time at Trafalgar Square which I will post at a later time. Didn't want to interfere with all the Big Ben photos...