London, Friday- Apparently I forgot to write this day while on the trip, so I will do my best to remember. Thank goodness for lots of pictures!

We both woke up a bit earlier than normal thanks to the time change, but only at like 6a or so. We has separate rooms at out London Hotel, mine a single on the 3rd floor and Nerina’s a double on the top floor- which was 6 flights up. We went down to the breakfast room where there were two ladies attending to guests. You could choose from the full English Breakfast, toast, juices, cereal, coffee, teas, and fruit cocktail. It was really nice and I usually got the English breakfast minus the bacon because it was like Australian bacon which is more hamish. We set out on this rainy day to the Tower of London to get there when it opened as the guide books recommended. Apparently the lines to see the Crown Jewels get crazy long as the day goes on. We got in with our London Passes right away and first checked out the old mint that was right by the gate. Then we headed to the Jewels, which you couldn’t take pictures off, but were amazing. They could have done with more discrtiptions of all the gems and weights, but I can see why they don’t exactly want people to linger. All the crowns, orb, and scepters have a moving walkway around them. They also had coronation gold tableware, the baptismal accessories they use. So much bling! There wasn’t a line when we went in, but inside you have to walk the exhibits in a queue. We then checked out where the royal menagerie was, then went into the White Tower where they have a bunch of floors of armor, weapons, and cool stuff like that. The tour through the building ends in the basement where they have canons and a gift shop.

The Tower of London covers a lot of area and there is a bunch to see there. It was a legit defense castle, the royal residence, had the royal menagerie, was used as a fort to train the military, was a prison, torture and execution grounds for wealthy, the royal mint and more. There is a lot of sorrow and mystery in these buildings. We then went to other towers where prisoners were kept and saw the ravens. Legend has it that as long as they have a raven at the tower, the monarchy will stand; so they keep at least seven here at all times. We had a lunch of sandwiches at their cafe, then were happy we saw it all and headed to the dock on the Thames. We took the river cruise(thanks to our London Pass!), complete with brief description of buildings, bridges and monuments, west and got off at the Parliament building. We walked a few blocks to Westminster Abbey, also free entry with our London Pass, but the line was too long in the rain so we elected to not go in. We walked down the street to a Big Bus stop and decided to wait for the hour until it next came in a pub and down the road. It was a really cool pub and Nerina got some neat pictures of it. I had a nice cider; from New Zealand! We then got on the Hop On/Hop Off Big Bus and did the big, main loop of London again, but this time without getting interrupted by a protest. They had prerecorded channels in a bunch of languages, but also an in person guide on the top level telling about sites, monuments, and history as we explored the main area of London. We passed Mayfair, the most expensive neighborhood in London house price wise (where our hotel was-fancy!!). We passed a park with the oldest trees in London. We passed the restaurant where Gordan Ramsey trained, Scotland Yard, a bunch of embassies including the Australian one. We got off to go into St. Paul’s Cathedral, but they were closing for the night, so we caught the next bus and kept going around until our hotel. We had dinner at another English pub and had an early night.