Monday, May 28, 2012

London day 2

This city is kicking my butt! There is so much to do!!! Our day started at 10am. What do you want? we're on vacation:). Our breakfast was at a a local Starbucks equivalent called Costa.



We decided to purchase some boat tickets and head east on the Thames. Before we left, a shot with Big Ben.



And we were off. The temperatures were in the 80s again. We were supposed to have afternoon showers but they never materialized.


The queens's jubilee celebration starts next month. The entire town is completely decorated. One whole side of this building had a image of her original coronation.


Shakespeare's Globe theater. We stopped by later in the day and they had plays going all week but in foreign languages only. Next week was Henry the fifth in English.


Next was the Tower bridge. I keep wanting to call it the London bridge but that isn't correct.


We surmised it was called the tower bridge due to its proximity to the Tower of London.


We disembarked the boat shortly after the bridge so we could take a closer look. Kiri was proud of this shot because she worked a red bus into it:). She said it made the picture more British.


We made our along the river walk until we came to the tower. This is outside the south wall.


Kiri wanted to go inside so we purchased tickets and headed in. This place is huge, and we spent a large portion of the day here.


Tower guards called Beefeaters lead the tours.


There is so much history here you need a few books to cover it all.


I stepped away to capture the big picture. Kiri is on the right in black.


They have ravens roaming the grounds. This one was working the crowd. I got a closer shot with my other camera. No kidding, they have signs posted saying the ravens bite.


Next we got in line to see the crown jewels. No cameras allowed unless you want these guys chasing you.


You can only take so many rubies and diamonds! Can we stop at the snack shop?


First a tour through the armory. How about a 6 foot sword?


We called this guy the Viagra knight.


All the king's horses.


You see a _lot_! of this at the tower. It's how they kept in shape.


Just a minor weapon armory.


It took awhile to find the castle walls.


"Why yes, it is a big cannon.". It took awhile to talk the wife into taking this shot. Something about immature... Blah...blah


We headed on after quite a few hours here. Soooo much to see. Kiri wanted to do a city walk. We arrived at the first stop called "The monument". Believe it or not you can climb up in this. 11 floors or so. But it was already 5pm and they were closed.


Rather then continuing to the other stops we said we do this walk another day and headed back to the river walk.


We headed across the Millennial bridge. To check out the Globe theater we had seen earlier.


Looking back to the North.


I talked Kiri into a artsie shot outside the theater.


We re-crossed back to the north side of the Themes and headed to the hotel to freshen up. We cut through the Victoria gardens on the way back. The temperature was perfect!


We were starving at this point so we headed out to find a good pub.






After a few beers we found out their kitchen was closed for the evening. Oops, no food and plenty of beer makes you tipsey:)



It's ok, there is always another pub just down the street.


I turned off the flash to avoid looking like a tourist:). I'm sure they didn't notice:)


Yea! Stuffed pies just in time!


After stuffing ourselves to the gills we wandered back to the hotel to collapse. Leicester Square. London's version on Times Square.


The Ministry of Defence Arch as seen at 11pm.


Long, but great day! Must get some sleep before tomorrow. We have to get up early!

More tomorrow:)

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1 comment:

  1. Awesome. I am glad you are having such great weather and getting to do so many fun things.

    Your pictures are just great and kudos to Kiri for getting that red bus in the shot. Made it perfect.

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