London!

Clockwise from top: The City of London, London Eye, The Palace of Westminster, and the Tower Bridge

In honor and celebration of my fathers birthday, I made this post. It has long been his greatest wish to visit the magnificent city of London in Great Britain, but he is yet to realize this dream. I hope to help him imagine as though he has already been there with this post.
London is a masterful blend of modern and ancient architecture. From the Palace of Westminster with its Neo-Gothic Architecture, to the main city itself, London is an area of pure contrast.But it is this contrast that purely defines the city.
and hence, I begin a travelogue...

DAY ONE:

After that incredibly boring airplane ride, my relief to be out of the freezing interior of the plane was immeasurable. With great dignity masking boundless eagerness and joy, I stepped my first step into the famous city of London, and I looked about. Everyone was bustling to and fro, the look in their eyes enough to inform me that they had not time for such inferior persons such as myself. Of course, I do not think of myself as inferior, but to the Londoners, anyone who they did not know was considered inferior, and I thought I should just play along with them.

St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel

 It wasn't long before I found a cab to take to my hotel: St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel. Brick red in color, the ancient architecture had enthralled me and I immediately knew I was to stay there. Adding to its attractiveness was the fact that it was attached to a train station and a clock tower. My room was brilliant, although the cost of it did lighten my pockets quite a bit.

I left after a quick breakfast into the cool morning air. The weather was brilliant, if you did not count the characteristic gray clouds shrouding the sky and the glum looks dominating everyone's face.

My first stop was the Palace of Westminster and the Big Ben. Work on the Palace began in 1042, but the devastating fire of 1834 destroyed a large part of the original building. From 1834 to 1868, it was rebuilt, and the Clock Tower was introduced.

It is interesting to note a common misconception: The "Big Ben" is not the Clock or the Clock Tower; it is actually the bell that chimes. It weighs 14 tons and was cast in Whitechapel and is named after Sir Benjamin Hall, the Chief Commissioner of the works when the Clock Tower was finally completed in 1858. Actually, The Big Ben is the second bell for the Clock Tower: the original broke during a tests ringing.

It is a continued tradition that the British radios record the Big Ben's chiming everyday.