Look... Big Ben, Parliament

As I mentioned before, our flight was delayed arriving into Gatwick. This meant our original full day of sightseeing was shortened to a few hours. Prior to leaving for England, we paid and printed our tickets for the Gatwick Express train to Victoria station and so we were determined to use those tickets!

We boarded the train and settled into our 30 minute journey into London. I was immediately taken at the number of rail lines crisscrossing the land, up and over highways, right behind rows of homes, rushing through tunnels and fields. I was slightly jealous too... all these rail lines to traverse England, Scotland, and Wales, but back here in Ontario, not so much.

Once we arrived at the station, I took a few minutes to hunt down an attendant who would install the ramp so Mike could exit the train. We got our bearings and headed in the direction of Buckingham Palace. This was one of my must do stops on our journey, well for obvious reasons.

Who should I see on our way to the Palace

I had planned to stop in at the palace shop, but on account of our delay, the shop was closed. Oh well, maybe that's a good thing for the old pocketbook after all!

The first building we saw was the Royal Mews, which houses the horses, coaches, and livery used by the Royal family.

Continuing up Buckingham Palace Road, we came upon the palace itself.

Directly across from Buckingham Palace is The Victoria Memorial.

We continued past the palace and into Green Park, which houses the Canada Gate and the Canada Memorial. The Canada Memorial was erected in homage to the one million Canadians who served with the British forces in WWI and WWII.

We left the monument and headed up the Mall towards the Charles I statue and roundabout.

We turned down Whitehall and headed south towards Big Ben and passed Downing Street.

I didn't take any pictures here on account of the large police presence.

By the time we made it to Big Ben and Parliament, the sky was starting to darken.

We crossed the street and headed to Westminster Abbey. It had since closed for the day, but we were fortunate to take some exterior pictures.

Where Duchess Catherine entered on her wedding day.

By this time, we were starting to tire, so we headed back to Victoria station. We shared a large Cornish pasty for dinner before heading back out on the train to Gatwick.

What little we saw of London was lovely and we plan on returning... some day.