God gave us a beautiful day to explore London, and we used every minute of the day. We started with a really nice buffet breakfast at the hotel. Then we found our bus stop and hopped on for our "hop on-hop off" tour.
The view front our hotel window
The first bus we were on had a live guide. He was very entertaining and, of course, quite knowledgeable.
He explained how where we were staying wasn't really London, it was West Minister. The queen lives in West Minister. She has to actually ask the mayor of London's permission to enter London. London is where the great fire occurred.
The first thing he brought to our attention was Big Ben...but we couldn't see it fully because it is being renovated and is covered with scaffolding.
We saw Parliament
We tried to go in, but by the time we got there, it was closed. Definitely a bucket list item if we ever make it back to England.
There were many buildings and monuments that I've totally forgotten what they were.
This building had something to do with the book, "The DaVinci Code"
We saw Drury Lane--ie where the "muffin man" lives.
and Punch and Judy fame...
We learned that the beautiful bridge that we thought was London Bridge is actually the Tower Bridge.
London Bridge is just a plain looking bridge. (both are located on the Thames)
We hopped off at the Tower of London and spend quite a while there.
We had a wonderful time at the tower. The Beefeater who led our tour was extremely knowledgeable, and entertaining. He was hilarious!
The moat
The chapel. Everyone, except for one man, are buried here without their heads.
One of the ravens. There is a law about how many ravens have to live at the tower.
The spot where they think King Henry 6th died.
Such a fascinating place! So much history. The Beefeater asked Americans to raise their hands. Afterward, he said, "See. You can still be proud even if you have no history!"
We hopped on the bus and continued around London.
M&M world...3 stories of nothing but M&M's
One of my bucket list items was the Rosetta Stone. It is housed in the British Museum. We were supposed to go there our first day, but United Airlines messed that up! We rushed to be able to make it there.
We caught the very last bus back to the hotel, walked to dinner(John had meat pies and I had Falafel burger), and then walked around the area. We back into our room and crashed, having walked about 8 miles that day! Such a wonderful, wonderful day. I feel to blessed to have been able to experience it! Being with John, by ourselves ,was sweet icing on the cake! We had the most glorious time!
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