So What Country Am I In?

We've had some people ask about the difference between England, Great Britain, and the UK. It is quite complex actually. There's a great video on you tube that I'll post a link to later that explains it all, though I'll give the highlights here:
-England is pretty much one entity, and a country
-Great Britain contains 3 sovereign nations: England, Scotland, & Wales and is more a geographic term than a political one
-The United Kingdom contains all of the countries in Great Britain, plus Northern Ireland. It is a political term and is correctly called The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
-The British Isles include all of the above, plus the Republic of Ireland and several smaller islands like the Shetland and Orkney Islands, the Hebrides, the Isle of Man and a couple others.
-Then there are the Crown Dependencies, the British Overseas Territories, and the Commonwealth Realm,   which include Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many, many islands.
-All of those together are ruled by what is essentially a corporation called 'The Crown'.


Got it? OK, then there are the 2 Londons...


There is the City of London, and there is London. The City of London predates all of the above and was the original walled city founded by the Romans. A deal dating to William the Conqueror means that the City of London is a separate city from London with it's own mayor, The Lord Mayor of London, own government and some of its own laws. There's a lot of weirdness about the arrangement, and generally you don't  know when you go from one to the other, except when you see one of these:



There are dragons on major roads, facing out, that mark the border of the City of London, and London. I thank our real estate agents for pointing these out.

The older tourist sites are generally in the City, and the newer ones are in London. There was once a competing city of Westminster, but that eventually grew to surround the City of London and eventually just became known as London. They still call the borough of Westminster a city actually, and it contains Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and so on.

Here is the link that explains UK, and there are separate ones to explain the 2 Londons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrObZ_HZZUc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1ROpIKZe-c

Other pictures from the last couple days:

Millennium Bridge, the Shard, and the Globe Theatre (far right under the bridge)

Closer shot, Tower Bridge in the distance

St Paul's from Millennium Bridge

The Globe Theatre

Buckingham Palace