This morning we got our breakfast in the room, we grabbed some yogurt from the Sainsbury at the Victoria train station. We have a Nespresso machine in the room so coffee is not a problem
We have tickets to see St. Paul's Cathederal this morning, the tickets will let us in betweek 8:30 and 9:00, We took the tube from Victoria station to Mansion House station. It was a quick walk from the station to the Cathederal. St. Paul's is where royal weddings and state funerals are held, it is also the center of the Anglican church. Its definitly a B.A.C.
It took us about an hour to visit the entire church, including the crypt where Nelson and Wellington and other great figures from Britian's past are intered.
The Cathederal is again huge, lots or ornate decoration, and art work all over the place. A unique feature of this church is that there is a monument dedicated to the US troops that lost their lives during WWII. The cathederal was damaged during the blitz but the british people were determined to rebuild it.
After the tour of the cathederal we went took the Rick Steeves walking tour of London, from St. Paul's Cathederal to the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. When we got to the Tower of London, I was honestly surprised, this site is huge, not only is the white tower in the midde of this castle but also residences, and a very large building to house the Crown Jewels.
The white tower in the middle of the castle walls is what you most think about when you hear the tower of london, but its only part of what is called the tower. The white tower today is basically a museum that displays the armor of english kings including both the skinny and fat versions of Henry VIII, Charles II and for a number of princes, and for their horses as well. We got to climb up to the top of the tower to get a good view of the city.
One very interesting part of the tower is the Traitors Gate. This is a gate right on the Themes river where they would bring criminals that were to be held, and possibly tortured and put to death in some of the most gruesome ways possible. Three queens were brought here that way then put to death, usually by beheading.
The next stop on our tour is the Crown Jewels, there is an entire building dedicated to displaying them and their history. Its quite interesting and the jewels are spectacular. To keep the crowds moving in front of the crowns they installed conveyors that move at just the right speed to give you a good look but keep anyone from gawking too long and holding up the line.
After looking at all the bling we took a walk around the grounds, and then up to the battlement to take in the best views of the Themes and the tower bridge (which many wrongly call London bridge - London bridge is the one in front of Parliament / Big Ben).
After visitng the Tower we grabbed some lunch then headed back to the beginning of the Rick Steeves walk, we took the tube to our starting point and walked along fleet street back to St. Pauls Cathederal, along the way we made a few interesting stops, walked through some of old Londons narrow alley ways and then make a quick detour to the Old Baily (The criminal court house - its the one that gets blown up in V for Vendetta).
As we walked toward St. Pauls it started to rain then it started to hail probably for a good 5 minutes. The ice was large enough to bounce from the pavement, probably the size of small stones. Once it stopped though it quickly melted and became just rain. We then took the tube from St. Pauls station back to Victoria station and then to our Hotel.
We went to a local seafood restaurant tonight, just to get a taste of London fish and chips, Krista has the haddock and I had a white fish that we've never heard of before.Plaice. It was good, quite fresh but a little meatier than haddock, it didn't flake like haddock does it was closer to the texture of salmon.
We then called it a night, it was a long day of walking through the streets of London.