Today I took my final for the English Gothic Architecture class and then we hopped on the train from Cambridge to London King's Cross station. The nice thing is, the hotel we are staying at is literally a 2 minute walk from the train station so no taxi was needed.

We dropped our bags off in our hotel room and headed out for a walk. We briefly went in the British museum for an hour to get a feel for it and that way we would be able to know what exhibits we really want to see when we go back this weekend. 

From the British museum we walked down to Trafalgar Square and then walked down to the Palace of Westminster (Parliament) just in time for the sunset. 

Fun gothic architecture class fact: (because let's be real...when else in life will knowledge about english gothic architecture come in handy...) Did you know that a minster is what they used to call a large church building that housed a monastery? That's why it's called Westminster...because that's the area in the west of London where the western London minster was. And the difference between an abbey (like Westminster Abbey) and a cathedral is that an abbey is generally built just like a cathedral, but it is private and not open to public for worship. Abbeys were only used by monks, and by the public on special occasions (like coronations and royal burials and royal weddings at Westminster Abbey). While the public was not welcome in abbeys as a general rule, cathedrals are open to the public for worship and they could also have a cloister/monastery attached. So in essence, abbeys and cathedrals are built the same and look the same but abbeys were only for the monks and clergy, while cathedrals were open to everybody. And the above information is only with regards to English cathedrals and abbeys. 

So here are some pictures of our day:

Of course I have to post the pictures I got of the sunset over the Thames River. When I'm in London, I feel like I'm in New York City. It is so familiar to NYC that I kind of feel like I've been here before. I'm referring to the 'feel' of the city, not the layout - NYC is a planned city and London isn't, so it's much more difficult to navigate London.

Behind me in the picture is the London Eye... the huge ferris wheel on the Thames.

The picture below is one of my favorites.

And now here are some pictures from the British Museum. I have to congratulate the British on amassing their massive collection of everyone else's cultural treasures. Haha :-)

And now back to the British museum...

An Easter Island statue!!!!

And the Lewis Chess set!!!

And it's the cast from Napoleon's death mask!

And back to London at Trafalgar Square

You can't get a more British picture than this - a union jack flying, a red telephone booth, Big Ben in the background, a pub on the left, and a red double decker bus.