London Day 7

Our final full day in London (we left the next morning) started at the Tower of London.

Even though we stopped for a warm beverage at Starbucks before we entered and I wore another one of my new scarves, there was nothing we could do to stop the extremely chilly, sorta rainy, utterly 'gross' weather. But regardless, the Tower of London was fascinating.

The first thing you need to know about the Tower of London is that it's not just one tower but a bunch of towers and buildings and houses and so on.

The Beefeaters (who live there with their families) had long warm capes to keep out the chill. I should have asked to borrow one of them instead of asking Fix to run up behind this Beefeater for this picture.

The White Tower was under renovation so we didn't see Henry VIII's armor. But we did see the stunning crown jewels and the spot where they kept prisoners before chopping off their heads...

And of course the ravens. Who, thankfully, did not bite us.

My favorite part about this place is that there were layers upon layers upon layers of history there. A wall from the 4th century would be built next to a castle built in 1078 next to a Tudor living area, etc. etc. Standing on one of the outer walls, we had a great view of the Thames and the Tower Bridge - a comparatively modern structure built in 1894.

Fix got a chance to pretend he was a guard. It took us all morning and part of the afternoon to take it all in and I would highly recommend this stop if you are heading to London soon. Just go on a sunny day.

That afternoon we headed back to The British Museum to take in some more history. But first we stopped for the obligatory telephone booth pictures.

Fix on his cell.

We particularly wanted to see this cylinder that shows Cyrus's decree. I will spare you all the other pictures we took of ancient writings/relics.

We met back up with Zuni (who was at class all day) to eat some yummy Italian food at a restaurant near Covent Garden. The tiramisu (my favorite dessert) was heavenly.

On the way back to Zuni's flat we stopped at platform 9 3/4s to push our way to Hogwarts.

We didn't want to find our way out of town, but we had to. An adorable little boy was waiting for us at home. So, that's the end of our London trip. Thanks once again to everyone who helped us get over there and to Zuni for being an excellent host!