The City Walk

Amy, Sydnie, Laura and I did this walk Tuesday night. We had a blast! It was so fun to go explore around the city. We could definitely tell this is more of a commercial area rather than residential; since we did it in the evening, parts of the walk seemed almost deserted. All the businessman were just leaving from work. The main features of this walk that we noticed were statues and tall city buildings rather than gardens or natural areas. it was really cool to see buildings that I've heard about, but didn't actually know where they were/what they were/what they looked like. It was so awesome to see Lloyd's! I had no idea how cool of a building it is. It was so huge and kinda had this futuristic vibe to it; it almost looked like building had its plumbing inside out. I had heard about this building, but it was interesting to find out exactly what it was: a famous insurance market that was started in 1680. We also got to pass through the Royal Exchange Buildings - started as a meeting place for merchants in the 1500's apparently. And I'm also glad I got to see the Bank of England - Sydnie really wanted to see this because it was in Mary Poppins! I really liked to see how these places have so much history and are so old, yet they're still in use today and are still play a major role in London's economy. It just emphasizes London's identity as a unique blend of old/traditional and new/modern.

And of course, we got to see some sites of pure historical significance. We got to see the Monument for the Great Fire, which I didn't even know existed.It was a huge column that was there to commemorate the Great Fire of 1666 which burned down huge portions of the city; it was really cool that it was built on the actual spot where the fire started. And I had no idea it was built by Christopher Wren! He really was famous for more than just St. Paul's - we also saw St. Mary-le-bow Church, designed by Wren as well. He was definitely one of the most famous architects of London. And of course, at the very end of the walk it was awesome to get another view of the Tower of London!