Things I learned from a London photowalk

Deciding to make the best of the fantastic late summers sun we had in England last week I booked a last minute bus ticket to London, so I could spend the day doing a photowalk.  I quickly became a we as my friend Jorge was to join me.

We ended up walking much further than either of us had planned, a total of just over 8 miles.  Our route took us from Victoria all the way to Westminster Abbey, via Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, St Pauls, and then across the Millennium Bridge back to Westminster via the South Bank.

During the day, after seeing a Facebook update that I was plodding the streets of London, another friend, Izuhbel joined us for a part of the walk.  Izuhbel tried to get us into and up 3 different buildings opposite "The Old Bailey" so we could have a better angle to photograph the "Lady Justice" statue on top, but maybe not surprisingly she failed in all 3 attempts.  We did all manage to get a mint humbug from the third building, so it wasn't a complete loss.

I learned quite a few new things during the day, including...

• the queens guards are all about 12
• the queens guards appear to have no apparent height standards
• ice cream vans have been banned around St Paul's Cathedral
• Trafalgar Square has no lighting (at all) at night
• walking 8 miles around London really makes my feet hurt
• there is a scarecrow alive and well in the centre of London
• a quarter of the lights on the London Eye are not working
• Waterloo foot bridge moves and is unsuitable for taking long exposure images
• London police officers, even the ones with semi automatic weapons, are quite happy for you to take their photo
• its possible for someone to identify a National Express coach type from a poorly taken photo of the interior at night
• scaffolding is a good business to be in right now
• taking a long exposure night photo of the houses of parliament that includes any detail in the clock face is extremely difficult
• the 15 seconds maximum exposure time of the canon g12 is not nearly long enough
• National Express coaches have an uncomfortably little amount of leg room

And now for a few of my favourite photos from the day time part of our trek.  Night photos to follow later in the week.