Yesterday we finally paid to enter a tourist site. We went to the Tower of London.
The name of this fortress is a little misleading. It’s more like a group of buildings than a single tower. And there are actually several towers. We spent the whole morning exploring the grounds. The central building is called the White Tower. It was full of armor armour and weapons.
There are many stories of imprisonment and execution at this place, but the most exciting part of being there was seeing the Crown Jewels. I was less than a meter metre away from the largest diamond in the world! Pictures were not allowed inside the building. Here is the outside of the building:
After leaving the Tower of London, we got on a river boat for a short trip to Westminster Pier. One of the crew gave a running commentary of things we were passing. He was hilarious. And I FINALLY got to hear a British accent!
Once we landed, we headed for Buckingham Palace. I wanted to get a picture next to those guards that don’t move. But when we got there, there was a charge to get in. We walked around the perimeter and saw some guards, but they were on the other side of a fence and no people were standing next to them. Dang.
Denis posed for a picture in front of the main gates. He didn’t hide his disappointment in the picture. I had to post it because it was so funny.
We finished the evening by going to the Piccadilly Circus area again. Then we walked back to the hotel, getting a grocery store dinner again.
Today we get picked up from the hotel at 6:30am London time. That’s 1:30am Baltimore time. Yippee!
Ha! I love the picture of Denis and all the people behind him. Soon the British will be on to you tourists and there will be a charge to stand there and get you picture taken.
What is that string around your neck?
That string is connected to an audio commentary device. Unfortunately, it didn’t really allow for ADD touring. Once you started a commentary, you were supposed to look at things in the order in which the guy was talking about them. Each segment was fifteen or twenty minutes long. I would have liked each feature to have its own ID number that I could type in and just listen for a minute or so.
Yea – you DID get to see the Crown Jewels!! Bring me back anything pretty? he he (Never mind – I fear you would be thrown into the Tower Prison for the rest of your natural life for that. Doubt 1-800-I-GOT-BAIL covers oversees incarcerations…)
Hope you are napping now and not reading this – you need to be bright eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow for Day One of the you-know-what class.