London...April 22, 2011 (Part 2)

*** Still having technical difficulties with the photos.  I'm not sure why....I will be able to dedicate more time to figuring it out this weekend...Until then just posts, no photos...Sorry!!!

When we were finally ready to go out we couldn't decide what to do.  London is very expensive so we wanted to make the most of the tours we bought.  We ended up taking a cab to the Tower of London (at the concierge's suggestion) around 2:00 p.m. When we arrived there we were told that we wouldn't have enough time to see it all, so we decided to wait until the next day.  We ate fish and chips from a vendor outside the Tower.  It was not very good!  My son and I are forever turned off from fish and chips. 

We walked around the perimeter of the Tower of London and came upon the Tower Bridge.  The Tower Bridge has stood over the Thames River since 1894 and is one of the most well-known bridges in the world.

We did the Tower Bridge Exhibition and enjoyed brilliant views from the high walkways.  The exhibit has information about the history of the bridge and how it was built, and most importantly fantastic views of the river. 

We were unsure what to do with the remaining daylight hours...we didn't want to pay for a tour on the ON/OFF Bus ans waste it because we couldn't go into places.  (The next day we found out we could buy a 1-day ticket and upgrade to a 2-ticket for only 5GBP for adults and 3GBP per child.
We would have gotten the tickets for the Thames River cruise and done that on Friday evening, but we didn't know.)

Instead, we walked along the river all the way from the Tower Bridge to our hotel.  We stopped along the way at several places:

• HMS Belfast (military ship)
• Hay's Galleria mall
• Southwark Cathedral and park
• Shakespeare's Globe Theater
• Tate Modern
• the OXO Tower
• the Royal National Theater
• Waterloo Pier
• the London Eye

Some of the beautiful bridges we admired were:

• London Bridge
• Southwark Bridge
• Blackfriars Bridge
• Waterloo Bridge
• Millenium Bridge

We walked and enjoyed London, differently than we'd ever done before, for several hours.  When it became dark we went back to the hotel to shower and change for dinner.  WE quickly left by taxi to Covent Garden.  We strolled around a bit, we listened to the performers and ate a casual dinner of pizza at Covent Garden Pizzeria.  We sat outside in an open courtyard and took in every moment of our first day in London.  After dinner we strolled around the are a little more and then on to Picadilly Circus.  We had dessert and coffee there at a small coffee shop. 

We didn't stay long because we were beyond exhausted.  It was time to go to sleep!