More on London

On Day 2 in London we knew we were going to have to tackle the underground in order for us to be able to really get around to see everything. Looking at the tube map I had no idea how the trains connected so I chose the line that seemed like it would takes us in the general direction we wanted to go. It dumped us off by the river. As we walked along the Thames we saw The Tower Bridge. I knew The Tower was near the Tower Bridge and I definitely wanted to go there so we headed towards it.

You can see Tower Bridge in the back of our photo below. It was like a dream for me. I couldn't believe I was in London. At that moment it hit me. After reading so much history on the city I was finally there.

Then as we were about to cross Tower Bridge I saw The Tower. Its directly behind us in the below photo. I kept thinking, this is where Henry VIII once was and where Anne's head was chopped off.

It was early so the sun was in a bad spot for pics. This was the best shot we got of Tower Bridge. It doesn't do it justice. It was fun to walk across.

And below is the The Tower entrance. I was in complete awe of this place. Just to think of how it was here a thousand years ago. (On a gory note they had a place under the bridge where they said all the dead bodies dropped in the Thames would wash up, lovely.)

Walking in...drum roll please.

I couldn't get over the doorways. I loved the arches and super old wood doors.

The staircases were tiny, steep and super narrow. Its amazing how much they would let you explore. We even got to walk through some of the dungeon torture chambers where they had examples of devices like the Rack. It gives me the chills when I think of all the torture devices and how many were tortured over religious beliefs/differences.

Most of the outer walls are the chambers where prisoners were held...the middle White Tower is where the kings generally would be when they were there. (Zack is standing in front of it below.) Inside was a huge Henry VIII exhibit where they showed real weapons and armour of his. It would have been better to see it all except by then it was packed and there were way to many smelly foreigner's.

Our feet were killing by the time we left so we went back to our hotel to sleep.

After napping for like 2 hours we got ready and headed back out. We weren't in the mood to hit up more tourist spots so we headed to South Kensington to walk around a bit. If I ever go again Kensington is where I would stay. There were tons of museums like the one Zack is standing in front of above. The buildings in London are so beautiful you can walk forever and never get bored. We ended up at Kensington Gardens which is a huge park with English gardens and walkways all over. Kensington Palace was closed on the inside but we did walk along the grounds to get a view of it.

We ate at 2 totally authentic Italian restaurants. The owners and waiters were all Italian with heavy accents and the menu's were practically written in Italian with simple English explanations. Another thing we noticed, they don't do American sizing. Dishes are served small and with just enough to make you full, not stuffed. The only problem, we ordered Tiramisu and they thought we both wanted one.