I'm going to apologize in advance for any mistakes in this because I did not bring my glasses with me on this trip and I'm doing this on my phone so my eyes start to go a little blurry after writing for a minute or two. :) Today I had a full-day London sightseeing tour and it turned out really great! I had to be at the Victoria Coach Station at 7:45 this morning, so of course I was there at 7:30 (never hurts to be early!). My tour group got on a coach and we started our tour. Because we had made "great time" getting started, we had a quick stop for some photos at Westminster Abbey while our guide gave us a brief history of the Abbey. Then we hopped back on the coach and went to the Tower of London. Our guide gave us a brief overview of the history befor handing us over to a "beef eater" to show us around (I don't remember the official name for them, but they are the guards that live there). He took us around and gave us a much more comprehensive history of the Tower, which actually consists of 20 towers. Then we had some free time to go into different buildings, so of course I went straight for the Crown Jewels. The one thing I wanted a picture of at the Tower of London was the Crown Jewels but of course you can't take pictures of them. They are spectacular! After I saw them I headed to the gift shop and then to our designated meeting place with our guide. Once everyone was back, we walked to our river city cruise. Personally, I didn't get much out of that. When that was finished we headed to Buckingham Palace to view the changing of the guard ceremony. We got there in time so we were able to see the guards and band walking toward the palace. Once they had passed us, we walked closer up to Buckingham where our guide told us more about the history of the building and ceremony. Here's a couple of fun facts I found out, on September 9th of this years, if Queen Elizabeth is still reigning she will be the longest reining monarch beating out Queen Victoria, who reigned for 63 years. Also, the reason why businessmen wear black shits is because when Queen Victoria's husband Albert died she went into mourning and asked everyone else to and every since then businessmen have worn black instead of the bright colored suits they used to wear. After Buckingham Palace, we went to St. Paul's Cathedral, which is where we got an hour and a half for lunch. I found a pizza place close by and ate there. Once I had finished I had enough time to go to the mall nearby and go to the top floor, which is an observation deck so you can see the dome of the cathedral. The city of London actually has a law stating that any new buildings being put up can not obstruct the view of the dome. After lunch our guide gave us a tour of the cathedral and then let us roam around for a bit. I went to the gift shop to buy some postcards of the inside of the cathedral since you can't take pictures from inside (I did manage to sneak one though). Then, our guide brought us back to our coach with a little pit stop by the London Stock Exchange, which is the largest in the world, in one day there is 1.98 trillion U.S. dollars transacted there. Once we were on the coach, I got dropped off at the London Eye for my ride on it. It was such a beautiful day so I'm very happy it stayed like that for my London Eye ride as well. Then once that was done, I got a taxi and went back to my hostel for the night (which was at about 5:30).
Westminster Abbey at 8:30 this morning.
Our "beef eater" in his uniform.
A view of the White Tower from outside the walls.
This is where the Crown Jewels are kept.
The band and guards going to the palace
Buckingham Palace (along with my tour guide on the right)
St. Paul's Cathedral dome from the observation deck on the mall.
My sneaky picture of the dome from the inside
The London Eye
The view of the parliament building from the eye.
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