Hi, I'm Rick Steves,
back with more of the Best of Europe,
this time we're having a jolly good time
with lots of royal pageantry in London.
Thanks for joining us.
This time we'll see the old London
and the new London...
Enjoy some of the city's traditional pomp...
Hop a double-decker bus
to Christopher Wren's magnificent St. Paul's...
Shop for a jaunty hat...
Check out the vibrant scene in SoHo...
Ponder some of England's greatest names
in Westminster Abbey...
Discover treasures in the British library...
And straddle the zero meridian in Greenwich.
But first, we're checking out
the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.
Beautiful weather, lots of royal pageantry,
and a huge excited crowd.
The changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace
is a fine introduction to London.
While no longer ruling a vast empire,
London is still a capital of regal traditions.
This time-honored ritual still stirs English hearts.
And while you have to be very tall
or very early to actually see the guards change,
I get a kick out of watching what seems like
every tourist in London gathered together
in one place at the same time.
Today, England's Royal family calls Buckingham Palace home.
But for centuries, they lived closer to the River Thames,
where, in the 11th century, king Edward the confessor
built the first palace of Westminster.
Over the centuries, that palace evolved
to become this building
and an icon of modern democracy.
Eventually, representatives of local communities, or commons,
gathered here to be near their king.
They began meeting independently as the house of commons.
And to this day, Britain is ruled from here,
in the houses of Parliament.
Visitors are welcome to queue up for a free look
at the uppity House of Lords
or the rowdier House of Commons in action.
Like so much
of the most medieval-looking architecture in Europe,
this is actually over-the-top faux medieval.
It's neo-Gothic, built in the 1800s, the Romantic Age.
All across Europe, Neo-Gothic was a reaction
against the Neoclassical Age of Revolution,
which challenged royalty and religion.
With this less cerebral, more romantic style,
Victorian England reaffirmed its royal and Christian roots.
People call this famous tower Big Ben,
but it's actually the Queen Elizabeth Tower.
Ben is the 13-ton bell behind the clock.
Here's a fun way to make your sister envious.
Hi, Jan. This is Rick.
Audio post card from London.
[ Bell ringing ]
[ Chuckles ]
An enormous Royal Palace
once stretched all the way from Big Ben
to Trafalgar Square at the end of this street.
While the palace is long gone, its name survives -- Whitehall.
Today Britain's most important street.
The British Empire, which, at one point,
ruled nearly a quarter of the world's population,
was managed from here.
And a Whitehall walk is filled with reminders
of England's proud and hard-fought history.
Stately reliefs and stern buildings
seem to celebrate the empire upon which the sun never set.
[ Shouts command ]
[ Men shouting ]
As it has for centuries,
the Royal Horse Guard still keeps the Royal family safe.
And if you're here at the right time,
you'll enjoy the ritual changing of this guard, as well.
Prime ministers, like Winston Churchill,
have long lived and worked on Whitehall.
Here, Churchill's wrapped in the iconic trench coat
he wore as he led Britain
through the dark days of World War II.
Duck under sand bags
and descend into the Churchill War Rooms.
This was the secret underground nerve center
of the British government's fight against the Nazis
in the desperate battle for Britain.
Shut down after victory in 1945 and ignored for decades,
it's open today as a fascinating time warp
for visitors to explore.
Audio guides give it meaning.
Man: On the morning of 16 of August, 1945,
the day after V-J day, at the end of the war,
the map officers tidied their desks,
switched out the lights for the first time in six years,
and went home.
And that's the way the room stayed.
Steves: You'll see the room where Churchill
famously took his short naps.
In this room,
the progress of the entire war was followed
as day-by-day movement of troops
and convoys was charted.
And this room was the communication hub
from where Churchill maneuvered Britain to ultimate victory.
The adjacent museum introduces you to Churchill the man.
It brings the colorful statesman to life,
complete with his trademark cigar, bow tie,
cognac -- he loved his drink --
and famous hat.
You'll get a taste of Winston's irascibility,
wit, work ethic,
even the industry of kitschy knickknacks he inspired.
Back out on Whitehall,
there are monuments to other great English war heroes,
and at the end of the street at Trafalgar Square
is a memorial to the greatest English war hero of them all.
The one-armed, one-eyed, and one-minded
Admiral Horatio Nelson looking out to sea.
The year was 1805.
Napoleon, with his mighty army,
was poised just on the other side of the English channel,
preparing to invade.
Meanwhile, a thousand miles to the south,
off of the coast of Spain,
Admiral Nelson defeated the French fleet
at the battle of Trafalgar.
Because Britannia ruled the waves,
Napoleon was stopped.
Bronze battle reliefs,
made of melted down French cannon,
decorate the column.
These huggable lions are a hit with visitors.
Trafalgar Square marks the very center of London.
Big Ben is just a short walk down there, past Admiral Nelson.
Buckingham Palace -- straight down that street.
SoHo, where all the nightlife is,
just six blocks over there.
And the National Gallery has
the greatest collection of paintings anywhere in Britain.
Right there is St. Martin in the fields,
a church that's famous for its classical music concerts
and the charity work it does in this community.
As big as it is, London's easy to get around in.
And once you're oriented,
riding its double-decker buses can be both efficient and fun.
For me, enjoying the view from the top deck
is one of the great treats of this city.
We're entering the historic core of London,
the one-square-mile district locals call simply "the City."
While only a few thousand people actually live here,
its nine-to-five crowd numbers half a million.
This is Britain's Wall Street,
thriving with big time commerce
and packed with banks.
"The City" is also packed with history.
This monument commemorates the devastating fire of 1666,
which started here and burned down nearly all of London.
These reliefs show,
in heroic terms, how city leaders came together
determined to rebuild.
The great architect Christopher Wren
was chosen to spearhead the project.
And the city that rose from the ashes of that fire
was decorated by the Wren-designed spires
of some 50 churches.
Christopher Wren spent four decades,
the rest of his life, working on his grand vision.
The centerpiece -- this mighty cathedral, St. Paul's.
Today, it's the symbol of London's resilience.
Its rise from the great fire
and of London's survival of the blitz of World War II.
The church is one of the world's biggest.
Wren accentuated its spaciousness
by the lack of decoration.
Notice the simple ceiling
and the clear glass lighting everything evenly.
Today, only the west end of the church
keeps Wren's original vision.
In the 1800s, Queen Victoria called St. Paul's
"dim, dingy, and ungodly,"
so the east end of the church
was then slathered with Victorian bling,
beautiful Victorian bling.
While the church's survival in World War II
was almost miraculous,
the apse of the church did take a direct hit
and was destroyed.
Today, it's rebuilt as the American Memorial Chapel
to honor our nation's contribution
to the defense of Britain.
We see Jesus, Mary,
and George Washington.
The American iconography includes stars, stripes,
and eagles.
And behind birds and plants native to the USA,
it's a U.S. Rocket, circa 1958, shooting up to the stars.
The British are grateful to their World War II allies.
The roll of honor lists the 28,000 American servicemen
based in Britain who gave their lives.
Climbing the dome is like
climbing a 30-story building with no elevator.
And the reward,
a commanding view of London.
Christopher Wren spent nearly half his life
working on St. Paul's.
At age 75, he got to see his son crown his masterpiece
with this golden cross.
London has thriving shopping districts.
Oxford street is lined with big department stores.
It's fun to feel the energy of this dynamic city.
And Piccadilly, the city's most touristy square,
has a magnetic attraction all its own.
With its tipsy yet somehow balanced
statue of Eros in the center,
this is where worlds of temptations
fan out in all directions.
While Piccadilly seems tacky,
just a few steps away is a more elegant slice of London.
And to enjoy this, we're joined by my friend
and fellow tour guide, Brit Lonsdale.
This is a lovely street to come down
if you want an alternative
to all the big shopping centers.
Jermyn Street, right?
It is, yes. Jermyn Street.
Named after Henry Jermyn, who was the Earl of Saint Albans.
And it's full of lots of beautiful, little,
very individual, quintessentially English shops.
It's really worth coming down here,
even if you haven't got the money
to buy all the wonderful things that you see.
Just if you want to window shop,
it gives you a little elegant slice of London culture.
And a lovely flavor, yes. Yes, very nice.
We're walking past Swaine, Adeney, and Brigg.
And this is where members of the Royal family
buy their umbrellas, gloves, and whips.
Whips? Oh, for horses.
Yes, of course.
Steves: Bates Hats still sells bowlers and top hats
as it has for a century.
This is Bates,
one of the lovely old shops on Jermyn Street.
And there's some wonderful hats here.
This is a lovely top hat that you can see here.
That's the sort of thing that you might wear
if you were going to the races.
But it's going to set you back a bit.
So what would this cost me?
About £330. Worth every penny though.
It's beautifully made.
Just under $500.
Nice, a top hat for the races, okay.
Lonsdale: Now, the hats that you can see
hanging on the wall here, these are Panama hats,
and they're the sort of thing that you might wear
in summertime, when you're watching the cricket.
Okay.
You know, traditional British occupation,
the crack of leather on willows,
sitting on the village green with your Panama hat.
This is a bowler hat.
Years ago, this is what you wore when you went to work.
It was a standard item of hat wear.
If you worked in a financial institution in the city,
in the oldest part of London, you would wear a bowler hat.
If you were a banker, you had to have a bowler.
Oh, definitely, definitely.
Mm, more laurel and hardy, I think.
[ Laughing ] Laurel and hardy.
A little more laurel and hardy than banker.
Steves: Simply wandering around London as evening approaches
and people come out to play is an experience in itself.
SoHo is particularly lively.
The people watching is fascinating.
And talk about variety.
Steves: This is thriving with restaurants.
Yes, we're in SoHo.
It's full of excellent restaurants.
It's a big center for media, the arts,
there's a big gay community here.
Always humming, always buzzing.
One of the marvelous things about London
is that it's such a mix.
We used to have an enormous empire spanning the globe,
and as a result,
lots of different nationalities came here.
This part of London is the part that we call Chinatown.
Okay, so, dim sum, this is the place.
Definitely.
And of course, SoHo's all about theater.
There are at least 30 theaters within a 10-minute walk
from this spot, running the whole gamut.
Musical, comedy, Shakespeare even.
We're staying on a delightful and peaceful street
in South Kensington.
Hotels in London are expensive.
Choose carefully.
In my London guidebook,
I recommend the family-run Aster House.
It has a friendly staff,
and my room provides a good home base.
To stretch my budget,
especially important here in London,
I stock it with a few groceries.
The conservatory has a sunny Victorian elegance.
And a genteel breakfast here
is a fine way to start your London day.
A short taxi ride away is Westminster Abbey.
This most historic church in the English-speaking world
is where kings and queens have been crowned and buried
since 1066.
While it was first built in the 11th century,
much of what we see today is 14th century.
When there's a royal wedding, the world looks on as,
amid all this splendor,
thousands of Britain's glitterati gather
under these graceful Gothic arches.
The centerpiece is the tomb of Edward the Confessor,
who founded the abbey.
And surrounding Edward
are the tombs of 29 other kings and queens.
This is the tomb of Queen Elizabeth I.
Her royal orb symbolizes
she was queen of the entire globe.
The abbey is filled with the remains
of people who put the Great in Britain --
saints, musicians, scientists, and soldiers.
For lovers of English literature,
strolling through poets' corner
can be a pilgrimage in itself.
King Henry VII's Lady Chapel,
with its colorful windows and fanciful banners,
has the festive air of a medieval pageant.
The elaborate ceiling is a fine example of fan vaulting,
a style that capped the Gothic age.
At the far end, a wall of modern stained glass
marks the Royal Air Force Chapel.
It honors the fighter pilots of all nations
who died defending Britain in 1944.
With saints in stained glass,
heroes in carved stone,
and the remains of England's greatest citizens
under the floor stones,
Westminster Abbey is the national church
and the religious heart of England.
London's subway, fondly known as the Tube,
is one of this planet's great people movers,
and it's easy to master.
To avoid slow-moving ticket queues,
buy your Tube pass from machines.
Then simply swipe yourself in and out
until your prepaid account needs topping up.
Follow signs to the right platform.
Visualize the layout of the city, and remember,
lines are labeled north, south, east, or west.
Each train line has two directions
and, therefore, two platforms.
Signs list the line, direction,
and stops served by each platform.
Because some tracks are shared by several lines,
signboards announce which train's next
and how many minutes till it arrives.
Final destinations are displayed above the windshield.
And always...
Man over pa: Mind the gap.
Once onboard, you can track your progress.
Confused?
Many of the locals speak English.
Our stop is King's Cross.
Helpful signs show the best street exit for you,
saving lots of walking.
The British Library's right this way.
The British Library is the national archive.
The statue of Isaac Newton
measuring the immensity of the universe
symbolizes the library's purpose --
to preserve the record of man's endless search for knowledge.
The massive building fills
180 miles of shelving with over 12 million books.
For sightseers, only one room matters,
the Treasures Room.
It showcases early gospels on papyrus,
the first complete New Testament,
written in Greek from the 4th century.
Illuminated manuscripts
with pages lovingly illustrated by monks,
some of the finest art from Europe's Middle Ages.
And the Gutenberg Bible from 1455.
Gutenberg's revolutionary movable metal type
made printing affordable.
By bringing information to the masses,
this innovation helped power Europe into the modern age.
The Magna Carta from 1215
documents the first steps towards government by people
rather than kings.
And the king was forced to hang his seal on it.
Cases are dedicated
to the titans of English literature,
showing, for instance, early editions of Shakespeare's plays.
You'll see precious musical manuscripts --
a handwritten score of Handel's Messiah,
a Beethoven work tracing his stormy creative process,
and handwritten Beatles lyrics.
Ponder the evolution of maps.
In 1350, this view came with Jerusalem at the center.
By 1550, with this,
you could plan your next trip to England.
London is growing,
and its underground is growing with it.
Historically, most London attractions have been contained
within its downtown circle line.
But there's a new Tube network emerging,
and it's clear London is shifting east.
Each morning, a thunderous high-tech work force
surges into a district called the Docklands.
Once a gritty industrial harbor,
then a neglected no-man's-land,
today the Docklands has been transformed.
It fills a peninsula created by a bend in the Thames
with gleaming skyscrapers
springing out of a futuristic people zone.
Canary Wharf Tower is one
of the mightiest skyscrapers in all of Europe.
Workers enjoy good public transit
and plenty of green spaces for relaxing.
The entire ensemble sits upon
a vast underground shopping mall.
In the 1700s, the Thames Riverfront was jammed up
with shipping in downtown London,
while this end of town was an industrial zone
with the stinky industries -- glue making, chemical works
and so on -- conveniently located
just downwind from the rest of the city.
In order to relieve
all the congestion in downtown London,
they decided to replace the industries out here
with what became the world's ultimate port.
The Docklands organized shipping for the vast British empire.
Evoking the days when Britannia ruled the waves,
the old West India warehouses survive.
But rather than trading sugar and rum,
today, they house the Museum of London Docklands
and a row of happening restaurants.
London's Docklands illustrates how,
in order to fully experience the energy of a great city,
you often need to get out of the historic old town
and explore its modern business district.
Further down the River Thames is Greenwich.
Since many of its sights are free,
and it's cheap to get here on the Tube,
it makes for a great budget day out.
While still well within the city limits of London,
Greenwich feels like a small town.
Visitors enjoy lively market streets
and fascinating museums.
Tudor kings, who ruled in the 15th century,
favored their palace at Greenwich.
Henry VIII was born here.
Later kings commissioned the top architects --
Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren --
to beautify the town and palace.
Old Royal Naval College was originally a hospital
founded by King William and Queen Mary in 1692
to care for naval officers.
Today, the Navy's gone
and the lavish place is open to the public.
Originally intended
as a dining hall for retired Navy officers,
this sumptuously decorated room features
one of the largest painted ceilings in Europe,
112 feet long.
It's a big propaganda scene,
glorifying the building's royal founders
and their defeat of the French.
Under his foot, William's crushing a dark figure
with a broken sword -- Louis XIV.
He's handing a red cap, representing liberty,
to a woman holding the reins of a white horse,
symbolizing Europe.
Another woman hands him an olive branch,
a sign of peace.
The message -- which you can see without craning your neck
with the help of this handy mirror --
King William has granted Europe liberty by defeating the French.
A stately park turns an adjacent hill
into an inviting people zone.
From its bluff, visitors enjoy
sweeping views of Greenwich, the Docklands,
and the distant London skyline.
Crowning the hill is the Royal Observatory,
founded in the late 1600s by King Charles II.
Its purpose -- improving maritime navigation
by more accurately charting the night sky.
Visitors gain
an appreciation of how exciting breakthroughs in astronomy
and timekeeping led to Britain's mastery of the sea.
For ships to know their location while at sea,
mariners needed to know the precise time
from a reference point on the globe.
With this, they could solve what was called
"the problem of longitude."
After a huge effort, in 1760,
John Harrison built this clock and figured it out.
And by 1772, this fine timekeeper was portable
and functioned without a pendulum.
Critical because pendulums don't work at sea.
Along with marking global time,
Greenwich marks the Earth's prime meridian.
Outside the observatory,
visitors line up to grab a photo as they straddle the line,
to be at precisely zero degrees longitude,
with one foot in the east hemisphere
and the other in the west.
A trip to London makes it easy to see
how this city truly is where the world comes together.
I hope you've had a grand visit with us here in London.
This is one city that's certainly worth
coming back to again and again.
I'm Rick Steves.
Until next time, keep on travelin'!
Yeah!
What's not to like about that?
Very dashing, huh?
Not quite dashing is the word. [ Laughs ]
Woman: See you at the next stop.
Man: Oh, he's --