London Day 2

Day two wore me out! It started the same – picked up near our hotel and dropped at Victoria to meet our tour. The first part was mainly driving around. We stopped at Westminster Abbey, but sadly we did not get to go in. We took photos and then grabbed some hot chocolate from the Methodist church café. We loaded back in the bus and went to Buckingham Palace Guards to see the guards and horses before going to the changing of the guards at Buckingham. Next stop was lunch. We had chicken and vegetable. The food was good. We had time to go into Convent Gardens to look around. We had to wait on the tour bus to come back. It was bitterly cold. We were standing on Drury Lane and even singing about the Muffin Man could not warm us up. We didn’t find a bake shop, but be did find a candy store. We went in to stay warm, so we felt obligated to buy something. Peanut brittle seemed a like a good choice.

Once the bus came back we went to St. Paul’s. It is beautiful. Hearing the history of the changes was interesting. It was spared of too much damage during the bombings. The crypt was very interesting. The architect was buried in the building, but he didn’t have a monument – his monument was the building.

Next was the tower of London. Wow, it was so very cool. The crown jewels were pretty and very intriguing, however, I thought the armory in the tower was the bestt. I liked all the stories that were told, but I especially liked looking at the armor. All those knight stories I have read just came to life seeing all those suits of armor. It was really a very cool visit. There were thousands of steps up and down, but it was worth it. Once again it was really cold. We had to wait to get on the boat that would take us to the London Eye. I am terribly afraid of heights so, I wasn’t crazy about riding it, but if I was going to, I wanted to get on it before dark. We managed to be on it during the entire sunset. I really hope the photos come out. I spent most of my time sitting on the bench. I just did not feel comfortable walking around or going to the glass. I was really glad it was over when it was. Dean loved it.

We bought another subway ticket and managed to get back to Paddington. We stopped at a fish and chips place near our hotel. We were exhausted. We had walked a lot and climbed a lot. Doing all that when it is cold seems to wear you out that much faster.