Parliament Tour

January 16, 2013,

Parliament on the day of the tour (it was finally sunny for a change!)

Westminster Hall - this is where Obama spoke to both the house of the commons and the house of the lords last year.  It is not heated and was even colder than outside! Burr!

     Today we went on a tour of parliament.  It was absolutely incredible! Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside, besides in Westminster Hall, but it was unbelievable.  The amount of money that went into the building is insane! To think that the royalty once lived in parliament as their home makes any hollywood stars home look like slumdog millionaire.  After burning nearly every calorie my body had shivering in the north pole, more formally known as Westminster Hall which wasn't heated, waiting for our tour guide who was late, we started our tour by rushing to the house of commons.  We needed to hurry because they were having a parliament meeting there later in the morning. (By the time we were back at our flat after the tour the meeting was on TV, talk about cool!) The house of commons appears large on TV, but it is actually very small. It's about the same size as a basketball court but a little shorter in length.  There are over 600 parliament members (PM's-people who participate in parliament meetings), but the room can only fit a little over 400.  There are never meetings where everyone can make it due to other obligations, usually with the government in their respective countries, so they never run into complications with lack of room.  The parliament members are from all the different countries of the United Kingdom: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.  In order to participate in a meeting the PM's must swear an oath to the Queen of England (or do something in the name of the Queen) and the 5 PM's from Northern Ireland have never sworn the oath, so no PM from Northern Ireland has ever participated in a meeting.
     After leaving the house of commons we went through various hallways passing statues of famous prime ministers, such as Winston Churchill and Margret Thatcher.  Imagining that in years past people that had once made world changing decisions walked the same halls that I was walking on today is a slightly mind blowing thought. The next room we went to was the house of lords.  This is the room where the Queen gives her Queens speech every year.  We walked through the room where she gets ready before walking into the house of lords to give her speech.  There was a chair that was made for Queen Victoria in that room.  While in Minnesota it is a big deal to become legal to gamble at age 18, at age 18 Queen Victoria was named Queen.  Gambling $5 in a slot machines is just a little less responsibility than gambling the country of England, just a little.  Fitting her age, Queen Victoria was very short, so every chair that was created for her had a footstool so she could climb into it with a 'Queens grace.'  Any painting of Queen Victoria was in had the famous footstool as well.