The London Tower was at one point in time is where the Royals lived. It's also where some Royal executions took place! Anne Boelyn and a couple other famous traitors lost their heads on the grounds of the Tower. The biggest attraction though is the crown jewels. All the crown jewels are kept here in a huge vaulted room. They were a sight to see, but unfortunately you can't take any pictures. There were crowns and sceptors from kings and queens past. I can't even imagine how much everything we saw was worth. They don't tell you the value of anything, but it would be interesting to know how much the value of just one of the crowns would be. We also saw all the old armor and lots of weapons which Austin thought was pretty cool!
The Fuller's in front of St. Paul's Cathedral
We headed to lunch near Trafalgar square at the Silver Cross and had another great pub lunch. Then we hopped on the tube to go see St. Paul's Cathedral. The cathedral is probably most known for the place where Princess Diana and Price Charles got married. The church was huge and I can't imagine walking down that very long isle! We dared to climb the 530 steps up to the top of the dome with Austin walking and Maddie on my back. We did it though and we all made it back down. There were a couple breaks along the way, so it wasn't too bad. Austin made it up and down all those steps all by himself. It was a great view from the top!
Me and the kids at the top of St. Paul's
View from the top of the Golden Dome
Janell and Brad left the city after St. Paul's so they could get home and we could head to dinner. We had a great time exploriing part of the city with our friends! We decided to take the kids to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner which they really enjoyed! We took the tube back to the hotel and again everyone crashed! We were so exhausted at the end of every day.
On Sunday we decided to try to take it a little easier and do the Big Bus double decker bus tour. The kids loved riding on the open top bus, but they really loved not having to walk everywhere! It was a great view of the city and we just hopped off everytime there was something we wanted to check out and then hopped back on. The first place we hopped off was around Buckingham Palace. The Change of the Guard was the next day but we wanted to get a few pictures before there were a million people around the gates. It was impressive! We took a tour of the Royal Mews which is where the Royal horses and carriages are kept. We stopped to have some lunch in the park and the got the bus over to the Churchill War rooms and Museum. We toured the underground headquartes where Churchill lived and ran operations during WWII.
The Queen's Golden Carriage
An entry from one of the secretary's journals in the Cabinet War Rooms
After all that bus riding and touring we were ready for a good dinner! We had dinner that night at the Hard Rock London and the food was great and the kids enjoyed all the music! We were all pretty tired so we treated ourselves to a cab ride back to the hotel! I think every day in London started with us leaving the hotel at about 9am and not returning until about 9pm! It's hard to see it all in just 3-4 days, but we sure tried!
The kids are Hard Rock. They look pretty tired!
No comments:
Post a Comment