May 26th

Home 3:10pm

London 8:10pm

We woke up after a good night's sleep at the Greenman Bestplace Inn. We were the first in our room of 8 asleep and I didn't wake up until my alarm went off - so the window open to the street, 24 hour bar music and 6 more people coming in randomly throughout the night... I slept through all of that! I guess we're getting used to it.

Our day started early because we wanted to try to get enough things in through our London Pass to make it worth it - and today alone we're only 4 pounds or so short of that goal. We took the tube down to the Tower of London first. We got there around 9:30 and decided to go with the 10:00 tour, but it certainly wasn't worth an hour of our time, so if you're going, don't do that. Just grab a free map and explore on your own. After the tour we went to see the crown jewels and the armory. The jewels were FANTASTIC. Completely unbelievable! I love the royal scepter which has the first star of Africa in it - the largest diamond in the world. The crown was pretty amazing too, with the second star of Africa and a ruby and a sapphire that were huge. Certainly cool. We found out later that the crowds we experienced while we were in there was nothing compared to the flocks of school groups that came and crowded us out of the tower close to lunch time. GO EARLY. After the jewels, we walked through the armory, but really the first half is probably the only part worth anything I thought, though the top floor does have the beheading block and axe... which is cool. Go in the chapel too and make sure you're not with a tour group so you have a bit more time to look around before you have to race off to the jewels before everyone crowds it. We decided to move on since the tower got so busy after we exited the armory, but we're going back tomorrow morning to explore the place on our own since we missed a lot that we thought the tour might cover.

Since the Tower Bridge is right next to the Tower of London, we went there next. It wasn't very crowded and it's worth seeing I think. They showed in great detail the history of the proposed designs, final designs, the building of it and history afterward. The views from the walkways are good, though you can't take great pics through the plexiglass. From up there we figured out where our other destinations were though and found them easily. The engine room was really cool too so don't skip it! We walked down to the HMS Belfast, and having been on a couple of battleship tours before, I figured it wouldn't take long, but I was wrong. A great deal of the ship is part of the tour and it's really neat. You can go pretty much everywhere in the ship and there's lots to learn about. It wasn't very crowded when we got there, though as we were leaving, a huge school group was coming in, so again, try to go early.

We then went over to London Bridge to do the dungeons and tombs of London tour. I'm really glad we got this "free" on our card because I think it's a waste. The "history" of these "dungeons" is lost in the actors' roleplay stuff, but the haunted house style experience was neat and the actors were good and the audience was well involved. Ryan got picked out to do something or another and decided to be difficult :P The actress played along and I thought it was pretty funny. There are two parts, a less scary part and then a more haunted house part and I chickened out of the last part, partly due to fear of dark and people jumping out at me, partly because my feet and back were hurting and I was hot, but mostly because I figured that whoever jumped out at me was likely to get a solid punch or two and that's not very nice.

We ran across the Southwark Cathedral and went in. It's free for everyone, but our London passes got us free guidebooks, though I don't think you need them since most ever explanation of stuff in there is on the wall beside it. There's a lot of neat things in there - cool tombs, stained glass, monuments and general Gothic architecture and cathedral grandeur. I really enjoyed it, and I think Ryan was ok with it, but by this time, his back was hurting too so he wasn't in such a great mood.

We decided to do one last stop to the Monument, but we got there too late and will have to go tomorrow morning after our little Tower trip part two. It's very tall and I'm sure it has a lot of narrow, windy stairs... UGH. We stopped and ate before catching the tube back to our hostel, and now once again, Ryan is asleep. Not sure what we're doing tonight, but it will most likely be uneventful. :) Time to rest and get ready for tomorrow! Tower of London (again) and All Hallows (the oldest church in London), the Globe theater, Kensington Palace and Peter Pan's statue, Parliment and Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the London Zoo coming up!

- Sara