Schwarzenegger pays tribute to ‘true action heroes’ on London visit

En route home from Moscow, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger stopped off in London for sightseeing, shopping, photo opportunities and a visit to an army barracks where he greeted some real action heroes.

During a two-day stay at the five-star Claridge’s hotel, the governor took time to pose with Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, who sit — cast in bronze — on a bench at the end of London’s swank, designer-clustered Bond Street.

Then on Thursday morning, his motorcade drew up outside 10 Downing St., where he visited with British Prime Minister David Cameron, who told waiting reporters: “He’s come to help me terminate the budget deficit.”

After a brief conversation reportedly on budgets and Afghanistan, the two leaders visited nearby Wellington Barracks, home of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, who recently saw action in Afghanistan.

“I’m always interested to hang out with heroes,” Schwarzenegger told the troops. “You all are the true action heroes because you are risking your life. You are risking your life every day when you go out to the front, so I say, “Thank you, thank you, thank you, for the great work that you are doing.”

The governor also admired the men working out in the barracks gym. “I was amazed when I saw your guys pumping up in the gym with those deltoids and those biceps and the six-pack. Wow, you guys are really in great shape,” he told the 300 guard members he addressed in the barracks yard.

In addition, Schwarzenegger visited a rehabilitation center, saying of a soldier recovering from serious lower leg wounds: “That to me is really tough and brave … the mental adjustment to go through this pain and torture and … rehabilitation training. I admire that.”

After the band played “The British Grenadiers” and troops marched off to change the guard at Buckingham Palace around the corner, the gubernatorial motorcade departed for the airport.

The governor’s trip has been financed in part by remaining money in the account of the California State Protocol Foundation, a fund to which special interests with business before the state have contributed to bankroll his international travel. State regulators recently changed the rules of how such donations can be used, limiting the governor’s ability to ask special interests for such travel funds. The money he has used on this trip was raised before the new rules took effect.

The governor’s staff said he would pay some costs out of his own pocket. They said they did not yet have a breakdown of the expenses and thus couldn’t say how much Schwarzenegger would be paying .

Stobart is a staff writer in The Times’ London Bureau.