London Bridge Isn't Falling Down

Onward we progress through our whirlwind of a trip to London! This post picks up where we left off, which is day 3. After our fun night out in the pubs (check our last post here for that story), we knew we wanted to get a quicker start on the day and hit up some of the tourist destinations. High on the list was the Tower of London, where they house the crown jewels. Much more beyond that, it has a storied history. I feel we only scratched the surface of visiting it.

We didn’t get a chance to join in one of the Yeoman tours (which start right inside the gates), because we were trying to meet up with a coworker of our Mom’s who lives in the London area. Instead, we beelined it for the queue to the Crown Jewels, which was impressively long for being earlier in the day. It grew even more staggering after we left for our coffee break meet-up and returned. Basically, if you’re heading to the Tower of London, hit that part up right away. Once inside, you might think you made it. The queue continues, but it was fun to see some of the crown jewels for sure. If it’s not your cup of tea, skip it!

We also went inside the actual Tower once we returned, and it was incredible to be inside such an ancient building. They had tons of armor on display, and after a while, we kind of breezed on past that. The chapel that is restored inside was quite incredible and worth sitting and listening to some history on. We could have spent more of our day here, but we want to move on and see some other stuff.

Once we left, we headed straight to the Tower Bridge; which is the infamous blue bridge you see in every tourist London pic. Not to be left out, we definitely snapped many as we walked across. The walk is easy compared to across the Brooklyn Bridge (as far as distance). We found ourselves parched, so we stopped into a tiny pub on a side street after getting lured by the promise of a brewery on the side of a historic building. It was all a lie, but we ended up with a pint, so it worked in our favor! The bar was in an old building, and it showed. Check out this hilarious picture of the doorway into their seating area. The good-natured gentleman below joined us for a picture since he couldn’t find the issue himself. We have to laugh about it sometimes, right?!

From there we wanted to figure out how to get to St. Paul’s Cathedral, and we ended up finding a bus route that got us close enough. It was fun riding the double-decker buses and sitting up top for a great view. Overall their metro transportation system was really flawless and impressive. We especially like that you can’t get charged more than 6 pounds a day using it. I also really appreciate that their Oyster cards are the heartier plastic material than NYC’s paper counterparts. But I digress. We realized as we arrived at St. Paul’s we couldn’t get inside because it was closed.

Obviously disappointing, but a peril of visiting on a Sunday I’m sure. The outside was still quite impressive. Onward we pushed, to see if anything else of interest was in the area. We rallied with a cup of coffee and then walked down the street to see if we could find another drink of sorts. St. Paul’s Cathedral seemed to be in an area that closes down on the weekend, but we ended up finding a delectable donut shop. We split two donuts, and they were a great treat to hold us over.

With that, we admitted defeat and headed back to our Airbnb to sit for a bit. We discovered our aunt had a ridiculously large blister on her heel and we all needed to get off our feet. Luckily we stopped by a grocery store and grabbed some wine for a little happy hour at home. We sat around and giggled for a while, as we searched for dinner options.

Caitlin is always interested in noodles; so we found an Italian place that was an easy walk from our place. Apparently, most people make reservations in London. We were questioned if we had one, but ultimately seated immediately. Our decorum must have been lacking throughout the trip. I had the coolest pasta dish that was basically all types of seafood. They poured it out of a paper bag, so it was still steaming and fresh. It was amazing. Caitlin had the pesto, which is always a good idea. Overall, a really nice dinner.

From there, we had already gone hard enough on happy hour and had such a late dinner, that we were ready to call it a night. Day three was in the books and a success. Come back next week for our final day!