A Day In London

We spent an awesome (but long!) day in London yesterday. Our first part of the journey was a train trip into London from Beaconsfield. We took the overground train into Marylebone Station (check the Monopoly board!) and then took the underground (Tube) ride to Baker Street (famous for Sherlock Holmes) and then on to Tower Hill. When we emerged from the train, there was the awesome sight of the the Tower Of London in front of us. I had forgotten how incredibly formidable this sight is - the tower actually looms over the hill with 2 exterior walls and an inner sanctum which known as the White Tower.

We went around the side of the entrance to get a full view of Tower Bridge which is a wonderful sight also. Years ago, I was lucky enough to be in London one day when the tower bridge actually raised up to let a tall ship through, and I have never forgotten how incredible that was.

When we got into the Tower, we went on a tour for the start and then ended up breaking away and going in to see the crown jewels. These are a little bit surreal - it is a difficult things to describe when you see the diamond that has been cut from a 3,200 carat piece of diamond. Makes my ring look tiny! There were jewels, jewels and more jewels. The photo here is from googleimages because you are not allowed to photograph inside the crown jewel vault. The doors to the vault are around 1m thick and there are guards and Beefeaters everywhere.

We went around the whole site for about 3 hours and even went to the dungeons! Then we headed over the Millennium Bridge to the Tate Modern Art Gallery. After that, we headed off to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner. This is a cool themed cafe where the walls come to life! Everywhere there are rainforest animals that make noises and move. Every half and hour the thunder comes and the animals roar, honk, bellow and tweet all around you. It was so cool!



By the time we arrived home we had been out for 10 hours and we were VERY tired indeed but we had had a wonderful day!