London- The first of many trips!

Over the long July 4th weekend, we got to have our first trip to London! It was a trip of conquering public transport! We started our trip by taking the train from our local train station (a 20 minute walk away). It took us to Cambridge then we hopped on another train that took us straight to London. Our hotel was super close to the train station so we walked another 5 minutes to there. The train was much less intimidating than we thought it would be.The hotel we used was Tune Hotel, it's a very budget hotel but worked perfectly for us. Its location was the best part since it's really close to the train/tube station (Liverpool) which is a major one and a mini-grocery store where we could buy sandwiches and other easy stuff to eat. So it was great for cheap people like us!

We arrived late on Thursday night so after checking it, we passed out. The next morning we got up bright and early to start the day at the Tower of London. After getting a little lost on our walk over (our hotel was only 20 minutes away), we arrived right when it opened. The place was amazing! It was what I had always imagined (I am kind of a history geek...). I also have ties to the tower as we discovered that I am related to Queen Elizabeth Woodville (along with a bunch of other royalty!). Two of  her sons from were the two that entered the tower and were never seen again.

The first thing we went to see were the Crown Jewels (sorry, no pictures allowed!). Wow. Those were amazing! We could not believe our eyes! There was a flawless diamond that is the size of a golfball (530 carats)! Plus a billion other jewels and amazing items covered in gold. We got to see a ton of crowns (of course covered in priceless jewels)! A lot of the items were hundred of years old yet looked so pristine. Everywhere you look just sparkled. A definite must-see.

The tower is so well preserved and parts of it from the 12th century. It was a major palace location for royalty before it became mostly a prison for high profile people. We started our day with a tour by the Yeoman Warders (also known as "beefeater"). Those are the resident military guys at the tower. To become a Beefeater, you have to serve a minimum of 22 years in the UK military and have certain medals awarded to you. If accepted, you and your family have to live in the tower! I tried to convince Lee how cool this would be but apparently we have different ideas of cool. The tour took about an hour long and was super informative as well as entertaining. He gave us great stories of blood and gore! On our tour, we got to see inside the chapel where Queen Ann (Henry 8 wife) and Lady Jane (non-crowned queen) were buried. We saw where the beheading were taken place inside the walls (only a few women and one man were allowed this privilege). And we learned plenty of other interesting and funny stories. I highly recommend going on this tour (it's free) if you get to go! It was a highlight for both of us.

After our hour long tour,  we wandered some more around the tower. We learned about how they used to keep wild animals in the tower for entertainment. Really, a polar bear, is that necessary? We saw inside of a lot of the prisoner rooms. Inside those rooms were carvings on the walls that the prisoners made, some of them were quite elaborate since they had nothing but time. Torture in the tower was another thing we learned about. They had torture to an artform, I have to say. Another really interesting part of the Tower to me are the Ravens. Legend has it that the kingdom and Tower will fall if the six resident ravens ever leave. They go all over the tower. Those ravens are fed raw meat and biscuits soaked in blood. Gross. And they were huge! I had no idea how big ravens were. You don't want to get on the bad side of one of those guys.

one of the ravens

Eventually we made our way into The White Tower. It's the oldest part of the Tower of London and a very iconic sight. There is a ton to see if this one location! Probably my favorite part was the Royal Armories. We got to see armor worn by King Henry 8th, Charles 1, Charles 2, and James 2. We got to see a ton of different weapons. It was mind boggling to me to be able to see armor from people I've only read about in history books.There was also displays of gifts given to the royal family from all over the world and a display about money (this was where they made UK money for many years). It was super busy in here but it was for obvious reasons.There was just so much to see here!

the white tower

guard in front of the crown jewels building

The Queen's House (built for Queen Ann..she didn't live to see it)

henry 8's armor!

carvings from prisoners

After a few hours, we headed out of The Tower, promising ourselves to return in the off-season. Right next to the tower is Tower Bridge! That was just a wee bit exciting! And we even got to walk across it! I couldn't believe I got to be on it!

Leaving the Tower Bridge, we decided to walk to The London Eye to really experience the town. We got to walk right along the River Thames! It's a very busy river as is the river walk. There were a ton of street performers acting like statues, performing music or doing acrobatics. It was pretty exciting to see all that. It made the 45 minute walk much more fun. We finally arrived at the London Eye and went to buy some tickets. After seeing the line, we decided to go for "fast track" and we basically got to walk right onto The Eye instead of waiting a good half hour like everyone else. Being scared of heights, I was a little apprehensive of going on this huge Ferris wheel but Lee really wanted to so I took the chance. The scariest part to me was that it didn't stop at all so you had to do kind of a running hop to get on and off the wheel. I could only imagine tripping and falling but luckily that didn't happen! The Eye moved slow enough that the height never bugged me. We got fantastic views of Parliament/Big Ben and all across the city. It was a very beautiful 30 minute ride. I'm not sure that it was worth its high cost but it was still fun.

street performer

some cool old ship we found along our walk

After The Eye, we wandered closer to Parliament/Big Ben to get a better view. It is so extravagant! We got to hear Big Ben ring and it was super cool to see in real life. It was another reminder of just how lucky we are to have this opportunity.

After all of this, we were absolutely worn out so we started to walk back. It took a little longer to walk back than to get there. This time we walked across the Millennium Bridge, aka Harry Potter Bridge! It's the bridge the Death Eaters destroy! I may have geeked out just a little at this point. It led right up to St.Peter's Cathedral but this time we didn't go in. We plan on going back to London, of course to see the inside of this among other attractions (and to take a Harry Potter tour across the city ;) ). We continued on to our hotel and passed out.

The next day we had planned to get up at 8am but didn't actually get out of bed until 9:30am. Whoops! This day we decided to conquer the tube! I had downloaded an app that tells us exactly how to take the tube to our destination so it was much easier than we expected. You could say that we were just a little bit intimidated by the tube but we did it! Our first destination was the British Museum. The museum is huge! You could spend days there and still not see everything! We decided to start with the Egyptian exhibit. It was amazing but even more crowded. I loved it and we plan on coming back in the fall to experience it without the crowds. We also got to see anglo-saxon exhibits, Japanese history (nod to a class I took last semester), Roman stuff, Greek stuff, money exhibit, and a bunch more. And seeing all that, we saw like barely anything in the museum. I can't wait to go back!!

animal mummies

so thoughtful!

from Suton Hoo exhibit

Samurai

From here, we made our way Buckingham Palace. It's not open yet, it's open only for like a month a year, so of course we will go back. But it was still cool to see! We walked through St.James Park to arrive and the palace was beautiful and gigantic! We couldn't believe how large it was! I couldn't believe I was actually there!

my favorite picture of this weekend!

Next, we meandered to Westminster Abbey. Unfortunately, we arrived later and wouldn't make it inside before it closed so again, another excuse to return. Obviously, we have to go in there. Even from the outside, I couldn't believe my eyes. Pictures do not do this building justice. It's magical.

Finally, we decided to head back to the hotel via the tube after another long day. The next day we headed back home on the train and relaxed. Overall, it was a great first trip to London and can't wait to go back! We have to see the insides of Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral, do a Harry Potter walking tour, spend more time at the British museum, and a billion more things! We will be spending a lot of weekend there! It is a fantastic city!