More London

First, Traditional London:

Covent Garden! (Look kids!) Big Ben!  Tower Bridge!  (Look kids!) Big Ben...again!  Tower of London!  (Yeah, I didn't realize it wasn't a tower.  I thought it was part of Tower Bridge.  This is embarrassing, especially given it's my best friend's favorite part of London.  She's weird, it's ok.)

Now, the London I got a kick out of:

Top left: It's a fish on a light pole.  By the river.  I don't know, I like it, shut up.

Bottom left: "Behind every great idea, there is a substantial amount of coffee!"

Center:  The dragon is the symbol of London.  Under the dragon you see Queen Victoria (who, btw, I never knew was a little fatty queen.  Our guide said he attributed it to her preference to take constitutional rides in a carriage as opposed to the traditional constitutional walks, but that is neither here nor there).  No one was ever higher than the King or Queen except the divine, so you often see angels above the royalty, but never anything else.  Except here.  Because London doesn't give a shit.  When the King or Queen wanted to pass through London they had to get (mostly ceremonial) permission from the mayor of London to come in (which they always granted because, you know, they liked to live).  The Queen still performs this ceremony on occasion.  You go dragon!

Top right: Prince Harry's castle.  I mean, King Henry VIII's castle where William lived before he got married and in which Harry now lives.  So Sar would care because Anne Boleyn lived there.  I care because princes.

Bottom right: The German ambassador to London's best friend was his dog Giro and in 1934 he died.  The German ambassador, Leopold, was so distraught he asked that Giro get a full military burial.  To keep the crazy German's happy before WWII broke out, London agreed.  So the streets were lined with SS officers saluting as Giro was buried in central London with a swastika flag draped over his tiny coffin.  A few years later, in the middle of the blitz, Leopold actually requested that the German air force avoid the area of London where Giro was buried.  Even more amazing is that they did!  One day the British military advisors were out walking through London, contemplating whether they would be forced to surrender and the story goes that one of them pointed at Giro's tomb and said "That dog is the only damn Nazi ever entering London!"  And he was right, at least until after the war.