My husband and I left for London on Friday, September 2nd. Our plan was to fly all night…land in London…catch a ride to our hotel…sleep for a few hours…freshen up…and hit the town. It would have been a good plan, but as you might imagine, nothing ever goes according to plan.
- It is incredibly hard to force yourself to sleep at 7 pm. So, of course we stayed awake during our entire flight to London.
- We landed around 6:30 am. We might as well have been zombies. Had we been properly rested, we might have thought through the next decision a little more thoroughly.
- Since we’re tired, we immediately decide to grab a taxi. We don’t bother to ask how much it will cost to get from point A to B. Looking back, we probably should have asked…you know, to set our expectations.
- Our taxi driver takes us on a seemingly endless cab ride through London. I wish I had been more awake…he was telling some pretty good stories and sharing some pretty useful tips – I just wanted to sleep.
- We finally arrive at our hotel. My husband pays our driver what we believe is way too much for a cab ride (we later find out that it’s just a bad idea to take a taxi from the airport to our hotel). We accidentally leave his jacket in the car.
- The doorman opens the door for us – welcome. Although we’re greeted, they inform us that our room won’t be ready until 3 or 4 pm. Sad face.
- We check our bags and decide to take a walk…not like we’re in the mood to go very far, but we can’t just sit in the lobby all morning. After a couple of hours stewing in a local coffee shop, we decide to check to see if they have any rooms available. As it turns out, our room is now available. It’s 10 am.
- Yippee…we finally make it to our hotel room and collapse for a nice two hour nap. Back on track, we get up from our nap…shower…freshen up and hit the town.
After our expensive cab ride, we decided that it was in our wallet’s best interest to use our legs and the underground metro system as much as possible. Maps in hand, we made our way to the Tower of London.
I became a bit obsessed with taking photos through windows – I loved the framing, but also imagining the perspective of a royal prisoner looking out the tower walls.
This is going to sound really dorky, but we absolutely love The Tudors. Unfortunately, I didn’t pay very close attention during my high school European History class, but after watching a little Showtime, this bit of British history really came alive. It was so neat to then walk the very grounds that royalty once walked…or were beheaded such as Anne Boleyn.
Here’s my husband posing for the camera in front of Tower Bridge – this might actually be one of my favorite pictures of him. I promise there are pictures of me…just not quite as many and most of those pictures are on my husband’s droid.
On top of many of the tower walls were these interesting looking monkeys (and in some cases leopards and lions). Various animals are placed around the Tower, mimicking how they would have been seen originally. In fact, I read that until 1810, there was a school of monkeys in the Monkey room. These animal sculptures are now part of the Tower’s Royal Beast display.
Confession – I have no idea what the photo above is…but I thought it might be a good candidate for the Coffeeshop Blog’s Teeny Tiny World action.
From the Tower of London, we could see some of the high-rises from the financial district where we were staying – Liverpool Street. Here you see what is commonly referred to as the Gherkin.
After seeing the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, we walked/rode the metro over to St. Paul’s Cathedral – more to come tomorrow. Ha ha, now that I think about it…at this rate, you’re probably going to be seeing vacation photos for the next month. Enjoy!
