Of our many sunsets on this trip possibly the busiest was our first real evening in London. We had been in church at St. Paul's and were kind of sad that everything was closed and we would just have to go back home. But then walking around the corner we saw: Big Ben. Yep the giant clock featured in so many movies Peter Pan to James Bond. It really does toll out the hours with that song we all learned on the piano. It is essentially what one expects: an enormous clock. 
What I had not expected was that it is actually attached to parliament. You know, seat of modern democracy parliament. First time since the Greeks parliament. We learned that the parliament was actually a palace. Parliament got formed and the royals were miffed that they had to share some space with the new branch of government until a fire destroyed the palace. The royals moved out to a newer better palace and parliament got rebuilt and got to use the whole space. Incidentally, the lease is still in the queen's name so there is always the possibility she could decide to move back in. 
We decided against coming back to see Parliament in session but enjoyed the beautiful view before scuttling off to see Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace.
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