Westminster by gaslight

On my last trip to London I got to do something I've wanted to do for quite some time: a walking tour. There are numerous walking tours around London, I've heard about them for the past five years, but have never been on one. This time it worked out. Several members of the crew and I decided to take the Westminster by gaslight tour, which started at 7pm.

For those that don't know (I certainly didn't before travelling to London) Parliament and Westminster Abbey are not in London. In fact, Westminster is its own city in the heart of London. Where Parliament is housed, and Big Ben, is not in the city of London. Westminster itself is very small, maybe a square mile, but alas, it is a different city. So we toured it, at night, while the streets were lit with old world gas lamps, the like of which have been there for centuries. And touring it at night was absolutely spectacular.

At the completion of the tour we headed into Parliament to see the MPs (members of Parliament) in action. Unlike our own Congress, the MPs are often in session until 11pm or later. This was out lucky night as they were in session at the completion of our tour. First off, the inside of Parliament, the little that we got to see, was amazing. The building is absoulutely beautiful inside and out. When we first entered we past this huge hall where the Queen Mum and Winston Churchill, among others, laid in state before their burials. The Queen Mum was the most recent, in 2002.

We went to both the House of Commons and the House of Lords to watch the MPs in action. Unlike our congress, the Houses are set up true debates, where the varying parties face one another and square off on the issues. The night we were there, the House of Lords was having a lively debate over private religious schools. The short time we were there we couldn't quite gather what the issue was, but it was interesting nonetheless to see how the English government works.

Back to the walking tours. There are numerous tours everyday covering all kinds of subjects. One of the most famous walks follows the trail left by Jack the Ripper. Of course, that tour happens at night to add to the mysteriousness and spookiness of the topic. There are many ghost tours at night, many of them involving stopping at several pubs (but of course!). The two tours I am most interested in (but I have to be there on the right days, as some tours are only offered one or two days a week) will be no surprise to you: a tour covering Harry Potter and real "magical" areas of London and another that covers the turf Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu pounded while searching for the Holy Grail in the da Vinci Code. Can't wait to give those two a try.

If you are interested in learning more about the walking tours, go here.