What do a shard, a circus and a rooster have to do with each other? And your Monday Fortune Cookie, 11/25/13

BE DIRECT, USUALLY ONE CAN ACCOMPLISH MORE THAT WAY

SNARKY RESPONSE:  Yeah, good luck with that. How often have you thought "direct" was another word for bossy, bitchy, or officious?

Be direct, usually one can accomplish more that way.

Correspondingly, the shortest direction from Point A to Point B is a straight line, however, my bus tour of London was far from a straight line, and I was so busy snapping pics that I hardly heard our guide. I figured, and rightly so, that I could always Google the various landmarks and then put the names with the photos. There was just too much to see not to be captured by the images flashing by my bus window. Unfortunately, a moving photo platform makes for a lot of blurry images, but I managed to get about 1,000 pics decent pics.

And NO, I'm not going to subject you to them all, but here are a few of my London favs.

Piccadilly Circus - London's Times Square

Did you know Piccadilly comes from the word "piccadil" which was the name of a frilled collar used in the 17th century? And the "circus" part comes from the traffic round-about or circle. Circles are the traffic intersection of choice in the parts of England we travelled. Some were just small circles of grass and or shrubs, some had decorations in them representative of the locality. Imagine not ONLY having to ride on the wrong side of the road but negotiating traffic circles at every major intersection? I'm so glad I didn't have to drive.

Trefalgar Square celebrates the Battle of Trefalgar and Nelson's Column dominates the square. There are four plinths or platforms for commemorative statues, three occupied and the fourth left empty, currently used to display a variety of sculptures. Currently the Big Blue Cock holds pride of place. Rather jarring compared with the more traditional sculptures surrounding it, but definitely eye-catching.

Speaking of eye-catching - any Whovians will recognize this shot. The Doctor and Clara were deposited in Trafalgar Square in front of the National Gallery.

And how could any trip to London not include a shot of Big Ben and the London Eye, or better yet, BOTH in one shot!

Buckingham Palace was as impressive, stately, and beautiful as expected.

On the opposite side of the architectural spectrum is The Shard, designed by Renzo Piano

And finally, can you name this famous bridge in London?

Not London Bridge but Tower Bridge. I was delighted to get some really good shots of it from the side of the river and feel this is the cream of the crop.

I will continue featuring pics from my trip in future blog posts, so be warned. I hope this won't scare you off because I'll be including other topics and such among the pics. After all, I took 1,000 PHOTOS! I've got to do something with them, right? LOL

See you next week!