two days in london: day two

click here if you haven't read day one yet!

Day two in London started off with a drive over where we parked right before the low emissions zone. Basically, you have to pay a daily fee to be allowed to drive in the low emissions zone if you don't have a hybrid or fully electric vehicle. there's also a congestion charge you have to pay to drive in the parts of the city that are most congested -- all this we learned from a very friendly Uber driver who took us from afternoon tea (turns out, I love cucumber sandwiches) to our first stop at Tate Britain.

A classic London Black Cab. Did you know that they're wheelchair accessible?

The museum had plenty to explore -- including a Van Gogh exhibit. The majority of the galleries were free to wander, and I spent a few hours doing just that before we moved onto our next destination.

The main atrium at Tate Britain. I wish I had a wider angle lens with me to capture this photo, but this was shot on my 35mm.

One of the more old fashioned galleries at Tate Britain. I wanted to capture the interaction of guests and the artwork.

We walked from Tate Britain over to Westminster. This park was right in front of Westminster Hall and along the Thames River. It was a good place to relax on this sunny day, and the wind blew around pollen that filled the air and hovered delicately for a moment before it fell.

Spotted in front of Westminster Hall.

Big Ben was under construction, so it was covered in scaffolding by the time we got here.

Quintessential London.

We finished our day off with an Evensong service at Westminster Abbey. Since we were visiting during service time, photos inside the abbey were not permitted. We happened to be standing in line in front of a student visiting from Hong Kong. He was pretty friendly and we said bye to him after the service.

The architecture inside the abbey was stunning. Where St. Paul's Cathedral was embellished with golden accents and intricate paintings, Westminster Abbey gleamed with white marble statues that filled the space. The organist played a lovely accompaniment to the choir, and the priest read a couple of passages in between songs.

One view of Westminster Abbey.

We drove back into the English countryside (which is beautiful in it's own way, but still quite different than the countryside of Scotland) at the end of our time in the city. I'll make a post about Scotland soon!