2017-06-22 Europe: June 25 - Tower of London and the City of London

Chloe was awake about 5:00am…having trouble adjusting to the time difference. After breakfast we headed out to the Tower of London.

Tower of London

We had “Skip-the-Line” reservations for the Tower. However, in order to get the tickets we had to get into a really looooong line.

Line to get Skip-the-Line Tickets

After a marathon crawl through the line to get the tickets our first stop at the tower was the Crown Jewels…a pretty awesome amount of bling…no pictures allowed. Then we hit several other sights including the Bloody Tower, the White Tower, the exhibit about the menagerie where animals used to be kept at the Tower, and the ramparts. Chloe was not interested in having her picture taken with a Tower Yeoman Warder, or Beefeater (the iconic guards with the red coats and Tudor Hats}. However, she did have fun taking pictures of the ravens.

Raven at the Tower

There is a superstition that "if the Tower of London ravens are lost or fly away, the Crown will fall and Britain with it." So they always make sure there are ravens at the Tower.

The Shard in the Background

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More Tower of London

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After our visit to the Tower there was plenty of time for some walking in along the Thames and through some neighborhoods. We saw the Tower Bridge which is near the Tower of London.

Tower Bridge and the Thames River

In front of the Tower was a giant sundial.

Around the sundial was a bronze ring with depictions of key moments in Britain's History.

Arrival of the Vikings

1085 - Founding of Westminster Abbey

1387 - Pheasant's Revolt

1940-41 - Blitzkrieg

A walk along the Thames River revealed some very modern buildings in the business center of London including The Shard, The Walkie-Talkie and The Gherkin…all nicknames based on the shapes of the buildings.