Day…what day is it? I don’t know but we are still in London

Rain. 

More rain.

Buckets of rain. 

Showers of rain.

A swimming pool of water gets dumped and we were right under it. 

We are used to it so we took it all in stride but we did get soaking wet. Today’s agenda was the Tower of London and seeing the beautiful Crown Jewels along the hop on/hop off tours. The coronation feast dishware was quite the scene to behold. One ornate golden platter was 1 meter (~3feet) in diameter! Sorry, no pictures were allowed of the jewels and fine dishes. But we got these:

The Crown Jewels are located in the center of the Tower of London, which is a fortress/castle with a mote!  Lots of people were held and executed here. Again, go read about it. It’s got an interesting history.

London’s parliament building. It’s massive. 

St pancras

 

Big Ben, which we all should know that’s not the official title. It was St. Stephen’s Tower up until 2012 when it was renamed Elizabeth Tower on the occasion of Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee-celebrating 60 years on the throne. Such a long reign. 

The first Hard Rock Cafe in the world

West end theaters playing some of the greatest musical theater. 

Les mis- the world’s longest running musical

The tower bridge, not the London bridge, though this one is neat

The monument to the great London Fire of 1666. It was the baker’s ovens that weren’t properly extinguished. The baker to the king, that is, which led to such a huge loss across London. The city burned for 4 days and with how close buildings are the fire swiftly jumped from structure to structure just burning. Go read about it if you have time. The monument was built and opened in 1677.