Saturday, May 17, 2014

House of Parliament

The Houses of Parliament and the Westminster Palace were interesting to learn about. They have two houses like us, House of Commons and House of Lords. In the House of Commons the members are elected and serve a term of 5 years, and the House of Lords are appointed for life. The House of Commons have more power than the House of Lords. The monarchy is not allowed into the House of Commons, I thought that was interesting that the Queen is banned from there only after she has been crowned. I learned so much today about this my brain is on over load, I will try and get this as accurate as possible! They vote by sitting on one side of the hallway, the right side is the agree side and the left side is the side the opposition sits. All votes have to be unanimous at all levels. The vote starts at the House of Commons, moved to the House of Lords and is the vote is not unanimous at that level the bill will get sent back to the house for reconsideration. Commoners can not sit down in the houses of parliament except in very small areas. You have to have an important tushy to be able to sit down! 
The bell in Elizabeth's Tower is named Big Ben, it weighs nearly 14 tons and it chimes on every hour. Each session is recorded via a stenographer and is published in a book and stores in the tower of Elizabeth.  
This was by far my favorite building from the outside, I took so many pictures on my camera. It blows my mind how people made is these buildings. It is so detailed I would think that it would take a century just to design the metal work!


Westminster Abbey has the most amazing sculptures inside of it! It took 500 years to build from start to finish, and I can see why! The tomb of the unknown warrior is the most visited tomb and it is the only tomb no one is allowed to walk on, not even the queen. After every royal wedding the bouquet is laid at this tomb after Queen Elizabeth, because she lost her brother in WWI and his body was never found. Every royal wedding, funeral and coranation is held at the Westminster Abbey. So many famous people were buried here, there were over 3,000 people who were remembered or buried here among those are: Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, King Edward the confessor, Winston Churchill, CS Lewis, Edgar Allan Poe, and many kings and queens. This place is by far the most beautiful place so far. 

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