We woke up the next morning relatively early. We heard that it is wise to get to the Tower of London before the crowds. Lines to get in can be hours! We arrived at 9 and found only a few people in line. It did seem to take a long time for the few people in front of us to pay... So I can see how the lines could move slowly and build up.
Being honest, I had budgeted 1-2 hours for the Tower. WOW. I so underestimated it. We walked in and I was immediately 10 times more excited than I anticipated. We made a bee line to the crown jewels. Apparently, there can be a back up and long wait to see the jewels. There was no line when we arrived but there was one when we left. Either way, I looked on with envy at the beautiful gems.
Next we just sort of aimlessly wondered around. I tried to make it a habit to not over research and plan for this trip but I wish I had read up on the Tower a bit more. It was so interesting and I felt like I was only getting a blurb of the information available. We really enjoyed the torture exhibit and the rooms within the tower. We took a Beef Eater tour and absolutely enjoyed it. I wish we had done this right after the jewels because at this point the Tower was full of people. The Beef Eater did a great job at projecting his voice.
Mid Sneeze on one of the Spiral Staircase
We ended up spending over 5 hours at the Tower and still feeling like we needed more. It was one of my favorite spots in London. Starving, we crossed to the other side of the bridge and ate outside of a restaurant. They had food trucks with Fish and Chips and a bar truck. It was a nice place to sit outside and enjoy the beautiful (sunny) day. The food was alright. It seemed like one of the better options in the area.
Of course, we crossed over Tower Bridge next. What a neat experience! I couldn't believe I was really there. After crossing over, we headed to Borough Market. Unfortunately, we had just ate. Huge mistake. We decided to come back another day when we were actually hungry. It was also extremely crowded. We saw no empty seats.
Onward to Shakespeare globe. We went inside but you couldn't really see much unless you bought tour tickets or show tickets. We did neither but it was nice to say we have been there. Afterwards we walked to Tate Modern. Very neat to have this museum free to the public. It was a cool space. We didn't hang around too long. Just enough to go into a few exhibits. This is another place I wish I had knew more about. I usually like to look up a museums highlights or get an audio tour.
Our legs were killing us so we decided to head back. We crossed over the bridge, found the tube, and headed home. We may have taken a brief nap at the hotel and decided to head back out.
We woke up hungry so we started walking. Wow. At 5:00, the sidewalks are full of people drinking pints. It was very different from back home. This happened every day at 5:00. So interesting. We explored the M&M, Disney store, etc. Basically just walking around enjoying the tourist part of London. They were filming the world premier of Minions. We stuck around and watched for a minute and even saw Sandra Bullock.
I believe we ate at The White Swan. It was okay. We were intimidated by the amount of people drinking beer outside the pubs. We thought that meant there was a long wait for a table (as it does in America). We were wrong. Usually the dining part was not full. You just have to go in.
After this we decided to ride the infamous city buses. We picked one, heading towards Big Ben. Got seats in the front at the top. Tourist seats. Rode for about 30 minutes. It started turning dark, sketchier, and further away. We got off, waited 10 minutes and caught the next bus back. We did get a bit scared being lost. The area we were in looked not so nice but now I realize we were just being silly. It was probably perfectly safe.
We got some great photos of London at sunset via the bus. We got off at a close stop and walked back to the hotel
