Day two London was the culmination of 24,000 steps of historical landmarks. Our first stop of the day was the Tower of London followed by Tower Bridge (Becky’s favorite), Westminster, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, St James Park and then we ran out of steam. Even with the tube, there is a lot of ground to cover.
In the middle of what has become a more contemporary looking city in parts, is a 1800s throwback called the Tower of London. This and the neighboring Tower Bridge were our favorites. Maybe it was because the weather was perfectly sunny for that part and later turned gloomy and rainy.
The Tower of London is actually more realistically a castle of London. There really isn’t a tower in the true sense of the word on the grounds. Maybe only 4 stories high in places, I suppose it must have been a towering fortress in the late 1800s.
Home to the Crown Jewels, I was actually more enamored with the sculptured gold! There was an indulgent and over-the-top display of Lions, Unicorns and fig leaves sculptured into what we later found was a punch bowl 4 ft in diameter.
The Tower Bridge is certainly a tourist thing to do! For around 10 £ you can climb to the top and experience the glass floor that suspends you over the middle of the bridge. It’s seemingly absurd that you can get so much fun taking pictures of yourselves on a glass floor that looks through to the cars and water below. – we had our 15 minutes of acting like a 10 year old and loved every second.
To be fair, we didn’t give Westminster and the surrounding areas the time it deserves. There are World Cyclist championships in London right now and most of the streets around that area are blocked off or hard to navigate. That said, others family members with us on the trip were able to get in to Westminster Abby for a mass. They said it was an experience that is well worth the time. Ironically, the choir was from Michigan that day!
