London [Day 3]

Well today is our last day in England - early tomorrow morning we begin our journey home.We woke up this morning, got dressed and decided to get most things packed. We put aside the clothes we want to wear tomorrow and then packed our suitcases with what we didn't need. We also started putting our carry-ons together. Once this was organized we went down for some breakfast and made final plans for the day. Then I spent a few minutes getting our boarding passes for the first flight tomorrow. I put these in my carry-on and then we headed out for the day.

It was about a 15 minute walk from the hotel to the London Eye where we had a 10:00 time set up. I brought the confirmation to the ticket counter where we received our tickets and the we joined the queue for our ride. We didn't have to wait long before we were put into one of the capsules. The ride around takes about a half hour and we loved it. BEAUTIFUL-INCREDIBLE-FUN-AMAZING! These are the words we used to describe the ride, what amazing views of London. Well worth the time and money. I took lots of pictures and really was glad we did this. After our ride we went and got tickets for an all day hop-on, hop-off ride on the City Cruises boats along the Thames. Then we waited about 15 minutes for the next boat so that we could take a ride to the Tower of London. I enjoyed the ride and loved the different view of the city. During the ride we had a live commentary of the sites along the way. One of the things I liked was that there are these lion heads along the sea wall and there is a saying that goes with these lions when the river rises . . .

"If the lions are drinking, then London is sinking."

These days they have better ways of controlling floods but I like this insight to the history of the river. We arrived at the Tower pier and made our way to the Tower of London ticket booth. We used our London Pass to get tickets and the we walked to the entrance. From here we first saw the hundreds of thousands of poppies placed in the dry moat around the Tower. I had read about this before we left for this trip and I had marked this as a 'must see' for the trip. So I took a few pictures and then we went in to tour the tower, making a mental note to take a walk around the outside of the Tower to see all the poppies. In the Tower we did and saw the following . . . Traitors Gate, Medieval Palace & Wall Walk, Ravens, Crown Jewels and Bloody Tower. The history of the place and the architecture are both amazing. We really liked our visit here. We then exited and did the walk around the Tower and were moved by the poppies everywhere. Each poppy represents a fallen British soldier from World War I and was done to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the war. It really is a must see exhibition that is there from August 5 - November 11, 2014. Here are a few links about the poppies.


Tower of London Remembers
Row on row, the poppies flow at the Tower of London
Poppies in the Moat
Remembrance and the Poppy
800,000 Red Poppies Pour Like Blood From The Tower of London
Stunning Photos of the Tower of London's Poppies

From the Tower we walked to Tower Bridge to go to The Tower Bridge Exhibition. Again we used our London Pass for this. The exhibition takes you up to the top where you can walk across the bridge on walkways with nice views of the River Thames. Then you go back down and get a tour of the engine rooms. It was a fascinating history of the bridge and great information on how it works. And we got to walk across the bridge twice - once on top and the again on the bottom. Next we made our way back to the pier so that we could take the boat over to the Westminster pier. As we walked we got to see the drawbridge being raised. Arriving at the pier we walked past Parliament and over to Westminster Abbey. We had planned to go in but there was a line and the wait was around 30 minutes so we just decided to walk around the area. We found a pub (Westminster Arms) and went in for some fish and chips and some sticky toffee pudding. I also decided to have a guinness. After eating we continued our walk and we ended up walking through St. James Park and over to Buckingham Palace. We took a few pictures and then walked through Green Park to the Green Park Station so that we could get back to the hotel. Now that we were done for the day we got last minute things packed and then relaxed. It is now time for bed - we have and early and long day ahead of us tomorrow.

[Note: I have mentioned the London Pass a few times in the last three posts. When I got them I wondered if we would actually save any money. Well I kept track of all the things we used the card for and how much they cost. In the end we saved about $125 and for some of the attractions we didn't have to wait in the ticket line to enter so it made things move a little faster. I am glad we got the passes and would do it again.]