My Private Parliament Tour- It's OK to be Jealous

After the Tate and the Westminster Abbey, I met up with my fellow Kuwait panelist, Adel Darwish, for a private tour of the Houses of Parliament.

Not only was it a private tour, it was a VIP private tour.

There are more than 200 journalists working at the Parliament and only 49 are part of the elite "Lobby System".

And guess who is one of those elite journalists?

Yes, Adel.

We start off at the modern glass Portcullis Building across from The Parliament. From there we take a secret entrance (okay, it's not secret, but just go with me) under the busy streets above and- voila- we're at the Parliament without every going outside.

First thing is first though. Before we can start, we must drink. We head to the press members only bar and have a few rounds with other print and tv journalists. Everything there is off record- so sorry guys! ;)

Then we move through some winding staircases with cartoons of famous politicians dating back to the early 1800's. You have to love the British in their ability to make fun of themselves.

We reach the top of the winding staircase, go through some other small doors, and suddenly Adel is opening up the door to the roof.

I can't believe my eyes as I am literally stepping onto the roof of the Parliament.

How cool is that?

See- here's proof!



The view is absolutely spectacular up there- even on a rainy day. You are so close to Big Ben that you can really appreciate the large, grand, and beautiful clock.

And to your right is the view of the Thames and the Eye.



I was ready to throw my hands up and be done with the tour at that moment. But no, we had more touring to do. We went through the halls where committee discussions are held and through staircases commemorating past Kings and Queens as well as PM's. I gave a special salute to Pitt, who "lost" America, as Adel said. :) The Houses of Parliament are very English in the tiny corridors that are so easy to get lost in and the beautiful green carpeting speckled with gold designs. Walking through the halls you feel like you were a part of history.

All that walking made us thirsty- so we put our Lobby access to use and went to the MP Only bar.

One of the coolest perks about being a Lobby journalist is the access to the Members (short for Members of Parliament) Bar for 'lobby term' interviews. But we weren't there to interview any MP's - although I did meet a few of them- we were there to get our drink on.

We went from the small pub out to the terrace and were greeted with (another) beautiful view of London.




The Members bar stretches for a good 100 feet down the riverbank. The Thames is directly in front of you and looking to your left you have a wonderful view of the beautiful facade, the Big Ben, the Thames, and the Eye.

It was incredible.

After four (or five?) glasses of white wine I cut myself off and high tailed it back to Fulham for the Opera.

Thank you so much Adel for being such a wonderful host and tour guide. It was an incredible experience!