London, England - Part 2

Hey cool people,

I am doing laundry right now, so I have some time to sit-down and actually write about what has been going on:

On our way to see the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London

Day 6 Sunday, May 24th - Today Lydia and I went to check out the Tower of London. I didn't really know what to expect from the Tower, except it housed the Crown Jewels, but this was something Lydia really wanted to see. With that being said, the Tower was pretty incredible and took us almost all day to see everything. We decided to start with a free guided mini-tour to learn a little about the history about and what all occurred in the Tower. The most impressive part of the Tower was getting to view the Crown Jewels. The Crown Jewels are just jaw-dropping ... I mean the size of some of the jewels ... there are diamonds in the collection at over 545 carats and 317 carats .... just priceless gems!!!! After we left the Tower of London, we walked around and grabbed a quick snack from a near-by food cart before catching the bus back toward hostel.

Tower of London

Day 7 Monday, May 25th - Lydia and I spent the day exploring the Natural History and British museums. It was suppose to rain and we had thought that this would be a decent, free way to spend the day out of the rain. We started the morning at the Natural History Museum. It was ... alright. Natural History isn't my favorite historic topic, but it did have some interested exhibits. Overall, the museum mainly showed the history of plants, animals, and life in general.

Natural History Museum

British Museum

After we left the Natural History museum, we went to grab a quick bite to eat before walking over to the British Museum. I was really excited about this museum. The British Museum is world renowned and focusses more on human history and culture. It was absolutely incredible, and I could have spent days in there exploring every exhibit. Some of the highlights were seeing the actual Rosetta Stone, the history of money exhibit and the Parthenon Gallery. To actually see of the artifacts you read about up close and personal was just breathtaking. The British Museum alone makes me want to come back to London again someday.

NOTE: I think museums are one of those things I should do on my own from now on; I don't think Lydia enjoyed it or was as interested as I was.

After the British Museum we bought a waffle from a food cart as a snack before heading back to the hostel for dinner.  

Buckingham Palace on our walk back to our hostel

Day 8 Tuesday, May 26th - Today was busy. We stopped and checked out many highlights of London as we made our way toward Tower Bridge. We started out the day by taking a walk through St. James Park to make our way to the Gates of Buckingham Palace. We made it there to see the end of the changing of the guard. We stopped to take a few quick pictures before walked over to Parliament Square, where we got to look around the Supreme Court of the UK. One, this was an unintentional visit, it just happened to be free and open to the public to visit. Two, it is quite interesting that that is the Supreme Court for a number of independent nations around the world.

After we left the Supreme Court building, we walked over to Westminster Abbey. We decided not to go inside because it was a little pricey for the limited budget we had set for ourselves. The outside, however, was still very impressive.

We walked past Parliament and along the river toward St. Paul's Cathedral. We didn't go inside, again, because it was pricey to get in. From St. Paul's Cathedral, we walked across Millennium Bridge and took a couple shameless selfies, climbed the 311 steps of the Monument that commemorates the Great Fire of London before finally ending the day by taking a tour of Tower Bridge. Again, this was something that Lydia really wanted to see. For me, it was, while an impressive structure, just another bridge. Now, I will admit however, the tour was cool and the view from the top was impressive.

Crossing Millennium Bridge with St. Paul's Cathedral in the background

The Monument to the Fire of London

Lydia and I with our certificates for climbing the 311 steps to the top of The Monument

Tower Bridge

View from Tower Bridge

The past couple days have been pretty amazing. Tomorrow is supposed to be the State Opening of Parliament, so we are hoping to get a spot in front of Buckingham Palace to see the Queen when she leaves the palace to make her way to Parliament.

We finally leave London for Dublin/Ireland on Thursday night, May 25th, and I am extremely excited for this next part of our adventure.

Cheers!