Anna's Adventures in Oxford: Arrival in London and the Houses of Parliament

We arrived in London two days ago in the late morning. It took us quite awhile to get to our hotel in Kensington via the Underground, and so did not do a whole lot. We did, though, wander around the Kensington gardens and Hyde Park, as well as scope out the shopping on Kensington High Street.

Yesterday, we saw the Houses of Parliament--especially fascinating for a student of politics like myself! We started off in the Royal Robing room, where the queen puts on her robe and crown once per year to officially open Parliament. This part of Westminster Palace was rebuilt during Queen Victoria's reign, and is absolutely gorgeous. Everything is either dark wood, covered in gold, or beautiful portraits. After that is the Royal Gallery, with portraits of various monarchs. The queen also walks through here on her annual visit to Parliament, en route to the House of Lords. The House of Lords is also exquisite, with loads of gold (especially on the queen's throne!). The queen gives a sort of state of the union speech here each year. The rest of the year, the members of the House of Lords meet here to discuss various bills and debate issues.

After this, we entered the House of Commons. According to our guide Sally, "This is where the true politicking happens." There is no more gold--just wood. It is much less lavishly decorated than the other areas. Here, the elected members of Parliament meet (these are the career politicians, rather than the Lords, for whom their role in government is a side job), also to debate bills and issues. The room is much too small for the 650 members of the House of Commons. This was purposeful. The room was rebuilt after London was bombed during World War II. Winston Churchill helped design it, and required that the room be small because he wanted politics to be "hot and passionate," and believed that the size of the room would shape the politics. It is also in this room that one per week for half an hour, members of the House of Commons get to ask the Prime Minister any questions they want. The Prime Minister has to try to answer these questions the best he can. The event is televised, and according to our guide, quite interesting and dramatic.

After the tour of Parliament, we were fairly tired and still feeling jet lagged, so we just wandered around for awhile and did a bit of shopping.