LONDON
PICADILLY CIRCUS
It was the first ting I saw when I came out into the city. I didn't want to look like a tourist as so many people had told me that you are a target for pick pockets when you look like a tourist, so I walked resolutely (yet aimlessly) around and came across lots of the tourist bits you see on TV. I didn't want to wander too far from Picadilly because as far as I was concerned that was how I was heading home. Eventually after making my way back, Picadilly Circus revealed itself to me like this, and I had to be a tourist and get the shots.
BUCKINGHAM PALACE
The center of London has this style of dignified conservatism. Not all of London is like that, but in the center of town you see it in all the old architecture. The important heritage buildings are large and ornate, and Big Ben looks like it's dripping with gold leaf, yet it all somehow comes across dignified, conservative and sensible. Buckingham Palace is fittingly the crown of London's 'dignified, conservative and sensible' architecture. To me this says a lot about a culture when you consider that the British empire was the largest, most powerful empire in human history.
THE EMBANKMENT
There are plenty of nice things to look at and photograph along the Embankment. Here these enormous, georgous old buildings are taking center stage, right next to something large and modern that looks cheap and tacky by comparison. I'm not sure, but I think the modern building is actually a train station.