Houses of Parliament

I didn't plan on taking a tour of the Houses of Parliament, and it was a sort of spur-of-the-moment decision that I made upon actually seeing the beautiful facade of the building, and I am extremely glad that I took the tour! I can't say my tour guide was very informative - I managed to pick up a few scrambled facts about the building and the parliament - but I might chalk that up to the fact that it was a large tour and it was hard to hear with a few screaming toddlers in our herd. It might also have been the whole British accent thing. It was still very cool to be able to an important governmental building and be able to sit in the same chairs that representatives sit in, etc. The building itself is absolutely grand. I honestly thought it was much older than 19th century, perhaps medieval, but that just shows what I know about London history I guess! :)

I grew up in St. Petersburg, which has a lot of impressive palaces with gilded walls and tons of sparkliness, but I honestly loved the Parliament house more. It has a very refined interior - Victoria's husband sure did know how to decorate.

The food in their cafeteria isn't half bad either!

The guides are enthusiastic and interesting. There are a lot of tours all going at the same time however this was not a issue. Be prepared to be on your feet for 2 to 3 hours to take in the interesting history these awesome buildings hold. Security is high,however this is only to be expected. You will take a journey through the history of monarchs and politicians, the tour at times is extremely amusing of stories of pomp and ceremony of centuries past!!! I could not help but touch the stone walls as you can feel the history within them.

The gift shop at the end of the tour (the English do this so well!!!!!) has some interesting items to purchase , well worth a nose around.

I would not recommend this attraction for children under the age of 12. They would just not get the history.

The tour is extremely well organized and guided. There are many tours going at once. We had a great guide and the stories, history and traditions are well worth the price of admission. People with young children should not go on the tour. We had a two year old that was very disruptive. It can be hard to hear because of the multiple tour groups.