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Monday, September 2 Big Ben

"Big Ben is one of London's best-known landmarks, and looks most spectacular at night when the clock faces are illuminated. You even know when parliament is in session, because a light shines above the clock face. The four dials of the clock are 23 feet square, the minute hand is 14 feet long and the figures are 2 feet high. Minutely regulated with a stack of coins placed on the huge pendulum, Big Ben is an excellent timekeeper, which has rarely stopped. The name Big Ben actually refers not to the clock-tower itself , but to the thirteen ton bell hung within. The bell was named after the first commissioner of works, Sir Benjamin Hall. This bell came originally from the old Palace of Westminster, it was given to the Dean of St. Paul’s by William III. Before returning to Westminster to hang in it's present home, it was refashioned in Whitechapel in 1858. The BBC first broadcast the chimes on the 31st December 1923 - there is a microphone in the turret connected to Broadcasting House."

You can't go up into Big Ben or anything, but the trip would not be complete without a shot of oneself standing in front of it.