Loving London

After a quiet dinner at a fabulous restaurant called Giraffe last night we took it easy. Today we decided to pack in as much as we could. We found a little breakfast place around the corner and had a yummy breaky of scones and fresh fruit! Ah finally, fresh fruit! We then headed to Buckingham Palace as it is just down the street. When we arrived we found throngs of people and barricades. Lining up close to the front gate we waited, and waited, and.....finally we could hear the sound of drums in the distance. Red flashed far off and finally a band could be heard as men in traditional uniforms including bear fur hats marched past. We watched the changing of the guard but it was so packed we decided to move on. Heading up the street, simply called The Mall, we passed St. James Palace and continued on to Trafalgar Square. After a short photo stop we walked down to Westminster Abbey. What a beautiful building. We explored around the Houses of Parliment where we saw "the clock". Although fun fact: Big Ben is actually the name of the building and not the clock like most people assume!

We stopped for a lunch of Japanese stir fry before heading out for our walk to the Tower of London. As it happens it was much further than we thought! We just kept walking but the wait was worth it. The Tower Bridge is amazing, and even more so at night! What I thought would litterally be a tower is an entire castle community. It is surrounded by walls and has wall walks between the towers. The oldest building has portions from the year 1000, and in the lawn there are wall ruins from the Romans. It is just what an old Medieval Palace should be; stone walls, low ceilings, winding staircases, amd old toilets....yep, falling right to te ground 2 stories below! Besides having maybe one of the first toilets it also has one of England's first wall fireplaces. Before the fireplace was in the middle of the room and the smoke would fill the room and then escape through any holes in the roof. The Tower of London was spectacular. By the time we left the White tower, the oldest building in the walls, the line up for the crown jewels was much more reasonable so we queud up! What a disaster! You line up and then when you get to one room everyone just rushes forward then we walk 8 across to get to a doorway that fits only 2 at a time. Once you get to the display cases there are so many people you can't see and then people are pushing from each direction to get closer. Needless to say I couldn't wait to get out of there. We wandered around outside and though I was hoping to hear more about the supposed ghost of Anne Bolyn, I was out of luck and they were closing so we headed out.

We decided to take a break and eat dinner so we stopped at a pub where we both ordered steak. As luck would have it, it was Steak Club Tuesday and our meal included a drink for super cheap, our whole bill was £16. My dad was confused and thought the bartender missed a meal! Nope! :-)

Since we were miles from home we took the metro to Picadilly Circus for a look. It is much better at night when all the lights are at their brightest. We wandered through Leicester Square and had a Haagen Daaz ice cream before heading back to the metro (at £4.30 each time I might add....huge rip off). Now back in the room we are both exhausted!

Our plan tomorrow is to get a day pass for the tube which is a mere £8 each (eye roll here). We are going to go to the Camden Markets, SOHO, and maybe some random places not yet discovered!