We started off in Westminster Hall in the Palace of Westminster! This is Parliament! Westminster Hall is where we gathered...and the only place we could take pictures. Westminster Hall is an enormous room...and it was completed in 1099! I read that it has the largest surviving single span medieval timber roof in all of Northern Europe. The Palace of Westminster (the entire Parliament building) was a royal palace for Kings and Queens of England for about 1,000 years. As Parliament grew in importance, it became the usual meeting place for the politicians...so the Palace was given to them as their permanent home in 1550!
People to People almost always meets with a past or present member of Parliament, but not always are you actually meeting with them IN Parliament...often it's at a school. This summer, only 3 delegations were invited into Parliament...and we were one of them! It's so beautiful!
We first were introduced to Neil Parrish, a current member. Everyone was real quiet before he started to speak and he said, "We haven't gotten to the 'shush' moment yet." Then he made some jokes about the beautiful English weather (rain!) and told us how Parliament is divided into the House of Commons and the House of Lords. He is from the House of Commons. He is also a farmer, so he works on an agricultural committee.
Next we were introduced to Patrick Nicholls, a former member of Parliament, who now practices law. He told us more...
England is a Constitutional Monarchy... Members of Parliament are called "MPs"... and they meet 'about 30 odd weeks a year.' The Queen comes for the opening of Parliament. She is the Head of State, but acts on the advice of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister must keep the Queen fully aware of what's going on. One of our students asked about her agreeing with the PM's decisions, and we were told that the Queen wouldn't go against him because the Prime Minister is the representative who the people elected (although the PM himself is selected...but the party is elected) and she is not elected.
Patrick told us he was a MP for 19 years. He ended his talk by expressing his sincere appreciation for Americans and what we did to help Britain.
We walked a bit through London and then headed to lunch at the Medieval Banquet.
Then...the Tower of London! I hope everyone went to see the Crown Jewels...they are fascinating. They have been on display there since the 17th century. The Beefeaters (true name: Yeoman Warders) were walking around and also the guards. Jane and I watched the "Changing of the Word" ceremony, which included 6 guards exchanging word that the Crown Jewels are safe. Interesting. The delegates were able to explore the Tower in their own groups.
From there, we went on a cruise of the Thames (pronounciation: Tims) River. It was beautiful...
The Gherkin
This was put up for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee...she saw it for the first time when she was cruising down the River Thames.
This is the boat the Queen was on during her Diamond Jubilee.
After the cruise, we walked to dinner and to the Theater district...where we saw the musical, The Wizard of Oz. It was fabulous! I heard some of the guys saying they didn't think they were going to like it...and how they loved it!
We got back to the hotel at about midnight...after getting up at 6:30 a.m.
We fell into bed and it was the end of Day 8!
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