Tour of Big Ben

ok, what I should be typing here is about my great tour of Big Ben tower, BUT I missed it!!

Such a bummer. Getting a tour of Big Ben is for residents only. Must have a UK address to make arrangements for the tour. I have one friend who, very graciously, made arrangements for a group of us to receive a tour. We have to go through our "MP" which is similar to your State Representative in Washington. We all had to turn in our details: place of birth, legal name.....etc. A real pain to get organized. Anyway, my tour was for Monday at 11:30. Very strict appointment time and date. I had a doctor's appointment that morning in Chertsey that I had moved up so I could make my train. Was going to have a 23 min window after I arrived at Waterloo station to get over to the government building by Big Ben. Close timing, but doable. I Got to the train station on time, bought my ticket after a VERY SLOW man who was buying a senior rail card - took forever. Anyway, my train was a couple of minutes late -- not good -- cutting into my 23 min window. train Actually departed 10 min late --- really not good-- and by the time we arrived in Waterloo and I made a mad dash through the train station --- I arrived at 11:35. the tour had already departed and the door guard would NOT let me go through, nor would he escort me to the tour. I was turned away. I was dejected and mad at the train company. How dare they!

SO, If I ever get to see the bell at the top of Big Ben I will write about how cool it is, but for now here's a photo.

Note: this photo was NOT taken this week. We are in the humm drums of grey winter skies in which the sun sets at like 10AM so just know that we are not experiencing such pretty blue, clear weather.