We did so much in London these past two days! Yesterday was a very busy day. We woke up early and took the tube to our first stop, St. Paul's Cathedral. It was pretty busy - lots of school groups, including some who looked like preschoolers. The Cathedral was beautiful but we don't have any pictures from inside because photography isn't allowed. In the Cathedral, we saw the Dome which is one of the largest domes in the world. We also visited the Crypt where we saw the tombs of the Duke of Wellington and Lord Nelson.
Our next stop was to the Tower of London. We saw the Crown Jewels (most of the jewels were copies, not the original ones; also, only one of the crowns actually had any jewels in it, the rest just had the crowns without the jewels and pictures of what they would have looked like with the jewels set in). We visited several towers, including the Bloody Tower and the Beauchamp tower. We tried taking a Yeoman Warder Tour but there were about 60 people in it and we really couldn't hear anything, so we just wandered on our own. We also saw the ravens which are one of the things that the Tower is known for. The legend is that Charles II was told that if the ravens left the Tower, the kingdom would fall.
We then went to the Shakespeare Globe Theatre. We only visited the exhibit inside as there was a performance going on and no more tours were being offered for that day. After the Globe Theatre, we walked to the London Eye. There were only a few people in line so we decided to buy tickets. We had a really good time, except for the 2 annoying kids in our cabin. We got some good pictures and were able to get a really good look at all of London. After the Eye, we walked past Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament and on to Westminster Abbey. Unfortunately, it had just closed so we couldn't go inside. We went back to our room to rest for a little before our 'Blood and Tears Walk'. The walk started at 9:45 and included the tour guide - an Irish actor, two ladies from Florida who were in England for a wedding, and ourselves. The tour was a lot of fun - we learned about several London serial killers and saw some historical places like where Sweeney Todd killed a man and where Jack the Ripper killed his victims. Taking the tube back to our room at midnight was a little different - we saw some interesting people...
Today we visited Hampton Court Palace which is where Henry VIII lived. We got a free audio guide and visited Henry's apartments, Mary II's apartments, and the Georgian Private Apartments. We then went on to visit Wimbledon and the nearby park. After that, we finished up some souvenir shopping and are now at our hotel. It's going to be an early night because we have to leave the hotel at 5am for our 7am flight to Paris!
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