England

So I am excited to tell you all that next weekend I will be heading across the big pond to England. There are a couple 10s over there and I thought it would be a good place to play, rather than forcing my way back into playing 50s and 75s. Also playing indoors on a hard court suits my game rather well, so I'm hoping I can use that to my advantage. But as I've done before I'll tell you all some facts about England, and me being a geographer I like to learn about places. So buckle up your seat belts, we're off to the England.

England, if you haven't heard, is part of the United Kingdom which consists of Wales to the west, Scotland to the north, and Northern Ireland which is across the Irish Sea to the northwest.

England, Scotland, and Wales first formed to become Great Britain, and then Great Britain and Northern Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom.

Her Majesty the Queen is the oldest daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. She became the Queen at 26 years old and is Head of State of the UK and 15 other Commonwealth realms (Australia, Belize, Jamaica, and the Bahamas to name a few).

The Queen is not allowed to enter the House of Commons because she is not a member. (Funny how someone who use to rule the world is not allowed to enter.)

The land area of the UK is a bit smaller than that of Oregon.

The capital is London which has a population of about 8.6 million. That is a few million more than New York City, NY.

Palace of Westminster

The London Eye is the tallest observation wheel in the world (135 metres/443 feet), and it takes 30 minutes to make a full rotation.

Big Ben does not refer to the clock, Big Ben is actually the 13 ton bell inside the tower which is called St. Stephen's Tower.

St. Stephen's Tower is located in the Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament where the House of Lords and House of Commons meet.

The UK has the 6th largest economy in the world.

The London Underground, aka "The Tube" opened in the mid 1800s and was the first deep underground electric railway.

Today, The Tube has about 150,000 passengers on average riding every hour.

So hopefully you enjoyed the ride. But most importantly I hope you learned something. I never knew some of those facts. But thanks to Google and all the UK fact websites for giving me the info. Now that I feel like I have a better understanding of the country I have to go make some calls to set up tea time with the Queen. hee hee.