Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, and Piccadilly Circus

Another wonderful day in London!! Some quick facts: 1) The weather is gorgeous, we've had nothing but sunshine 2) We are masters of the underground/tube 3) People keep looking at us because we smile so much, I guess the British are more reserved :)

Today we decided to abandon our pub walk/crawl idea and tour the Tower of London instead. What a great decision! I thought the Tower of London would just be some big old tower, but it is in fact a royal palace complete with inner and outer fortress walls. It was originally constructed in 1066 by William the Conqueror. We took a guided tour by one of the famous Yeoman/Beefeaters, saw the Crown Jewels, and an exhibit on royal armor. Personally, I love reading about so many of the people who stayed/died in the Tower, including Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey. Two saints are also buried there including Sir Thomas Moore.

Mom with the Tower in the background, the grass used to be the moat

First look at the Tower, the inner pillars with weathervanes mark the White Tower, or the Palace

Guard Tower

Beefeaters, Tour Guides and Guards of the Crown Jewels

Tower Bridge

Henry VIII armor

Sorry it's not rotated. This is a statue of an important Roman, the wall behind it was built around 980AD and parts were used to build the Palace.

After the Tower, we hopped on the tube for St. Paul's Cathedral. On our way, we stumbled upon one of the pubs that was on our original pub walk list, Ye Olde Watling. It was originally built in the 1660s for workers building the Cathedral and was a great place to stop for a pint.

Notice all the men in suits having a pint? It's 1:30pm on a Tuesday :)

A few blocks away was St. Paul's. I could not believe how incredibly huge it is! Sir Christopher Wren was the architect and was the first person to live to see a finished cathedral he/she designed. We couldn't take pictures inside, but you might recognize it from Princess Diana's wedding to Prince Charles in the 80s. What surprised us the most was that around the high altar there is a tribute to the American soldiers who died in WWII. It was really moving to see this memorial in such a prestigious place.

Don't know what the problem is with pictures rotating, will try to fix for tomorrow

West Door of St. Paul's Cathedral

 
Continuing our busy day, we took the tube again (with a transfer) to Piccadilly Circus. This place reminds us of Times Square and is truly the place to be at nighttime. We had a delicious dinner at Grace and then saw the musical Thriller-Live!

Piccadilly Circus

Tomorrow it's on to Paris! I can't wait to see the City of Lights.
Until then,

Karli and Kelly