Visiting Westminster Palace

Yesterday I was lucky enough to spend 8 hours on a bus. Four hours to get to London and four hours to get back. The four hours in-between the travel was totally worth it, as I got to tour the Houses of Parliament!

The House of Lords and the House of Commons as well as the Queen's Robing room and all of the parliamentary offices and meeting rooms are all located within Westminster Palace, right below the clock tower that houses Big Ben. 

Westminster Palace is right next to Westminster Abbey, where William & Kate were recently married. Here are a few photos of the exterior of the Palace.

  

Once our group made it through security, we were to meet our local, Yorkshire MP, who was to meet & greet us up in one of the committee meeting rooms. I thought MP meant some sort of military police man, but it turns out MP stands for Member of Parliament. So, yeah, I met an elected member of Parliament! MP Smith took us upstairs to a formal Parliamentary meeting room where he told us a little bit about himself and answered any questions about how the British government worked. Afterward, he took us to the private Parliamentary terrace so we could take some photos. 

 MP Smith on the terrace with the London eye in the background.

I'm on Parliament's terrace! 

And another picture of the London eye from the terrace.

After our 45 minutes with the MP, we headed back to the main hall for our official tour to begin. Inside the main hall (one of the remaining original buildings - last king to live in Westminster Palace was Henry VIII) is a very large and beautiful stained glass window.

And within this hall is were VIP English are Laid in State prior to being buried. Most recently, Margaret Thatcher lay in state in this hall. As has Queen Elizabeth...

and Winston Churchill.

I wasn't able to take pictures during the tour, but in my next post I will be detailing the Parliamentary rooms we saw and some of the history behind each room.