"Mind the Gap"

Mom, Morgan, and I traveled to London yesterday morning from Sheffield.  We are staying at the Hilton on Edgeware Road.  We bought 2 day London Passes right away and attempted the tube.  Which by the way is freaking awful if you don't know where you are going...or even where you are.  So that was stressful, and with my anxiety and all the people underground...lets just say I didn't handle it well.  But we finally got to the hotel, put down our stuff, and went to St. Paul's Cathedral, Christopher Wren's masterpiece.  And a masterpiece is was.  The ceiling were so sparkly and golden with all the biblical mosaics.  We climbed over 500 steps (glad mom finally made it up!) to the Whispering Gallery which is basically an observation deck.  However, we were that much closer to the ceiling artwork.

Then we raaaaaan to the Tower of London and got there 30 seconds too late.  I begged the lady to let us in, and I explained we had just battled the tube for 30 minutes to make it to the Tower.  And guess what she said!? ..."no."  So I had nice things to say about her back.  So we walked along the outside perimeter and took pictures of the Tower grounds, the Tower Bridge, and the Thames water.

When we got back to the Hilton, we went to the 23rd floor to have an Asian cuisine dinner and a bottle of wine.  We could see all of East London while it turned from afternoon to night time.  We have a perfect view of the London Eye..and then noticed a car was missing at the top...hmmm.  We decided we wouldn't to the Eye after that...

Day 2 was much more eventful.  We went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard.  There must have been 2000 people there watching.  I love the furry hats and all the horses!  We walked by the parliament building which was humongous and Big Ben was absolutely beautiful at the top.  Then we went down to the Thames and hopped on a river cruise to the Tower.  We saw Shakespeare's Globe Theater, the Aquarium, the London Eye, and much more architecture along the river.  Then we got off and went into the Tower of London where we took a tour with a "Beef Eater."  He told stories of be-heading...pretty much everyone at the Tower.  There were 1500 unidentified people buried in the chapel walls that have no heads.  They are buried along with queens who were considered traitors for treason against the king.

Then we went to the Jewel House where we saw the Crown Jewels....AMAZING! I've never seen so many diamonds and such BIG diamonds.  I now know how big I want my engagement ring to be one ;)  jk I'd drown if I fell in the Thames.  Then we went to the White Towers, built in 1066 by William the Conqueror.  That had all the past king's armour and swords.  The armour was interesting because you could tell a lot about that king by how his armour was designed.

We ended to day in Harrod's with a quick peek, and then an Italian dinner underground at Kensington.  We are leaving for Paris early in the morning on the EuroStar and staying in downtown historical Paris :)  See you on Friday, America!