London, Day 3!!

Since we were both up pretty late last night we were slow moving this morning. Our plan was to take the river boat to the Tower of London and take the Tower Bridge tour. Have I mentioned there's some really old stuff in this city? There are four main towers: The Jewel House (where the Crown Jewels are on display), Tower Green (the execution tower), The White Tower (houses an amazing collection of armour) and The Bloody Tower (torture chambers - yeah fun, right?). The Tower was begun in 1066 so it's been around for a while. Walking through the halls, gardens and pathways really take you back in time. To think that so much of what is within these walls have been around for hundreds of years. Even 300 hundred years ago it was a popular tourist attraction. Noodle that!! If these walls and artifacts could talk, oh the stories they'd tell.

Next up was the Tower Bridge. It is amazingly beautiful and the detail is exquisite!! Our tour was quite informative and interesting. It took 8 years to build and opened in 1894 - it's actually a youngster in this city. LOL 

We grabbed a bit to eat before jumping back on the boat. There was a tall ship regatta in London this weekend and we were hoping to get down to Greenwich to see them. The ride to that part of the city was another half hour so we settled in to listen to the commentary of the captain. He was awesome. We could've listened to him for hours. When we arrived at the pier and saw all the people waiting to board it freaked us out a little. Plus we couldn't seen any tall ships anywhere... Oh, they were down around the bend. More walking. At this point the clock was ticking and our dogs were barking (we'd done A LOT of walking the past few days) so we made the executive decision to just stay on the boat and ride it back to the pier by the hotel. There are so many pubs along the way - and old ones too. He had stories for all of them. Some of the architecture is very interesting to put it mildly. 

See the little pub (The Grapes) right smack dab in between the residential flats? Guess who bought it? Ian mcKellen, who played Gandolph in Lord of the Rings. Pretty cool huh? There were tons of these little places along the waterfront. Along with stories about drowning pirates. Fun times!!

We ended up eating dinner at the hotel tonight, keeping things quiet and easy. And since we're packing up and catching a train to the Lake District in the morning we had an early night tonight. Hoping I can get to sleep a little earlier tonight. Our time in London has come to a close. It's been fun and we saw and experienced a lot of neat and interesting things. We weren't here long enough to do everything we wanted to but that leaves more to do for another visit.

Don't know how available wifi will be up in the boonies so regular posting may be a challenge, but I'll keep journaling. 

Til next time, Cheerio!!