Day 6: Tower of London , the british museum and a little more!

We started off the day with a lovely little breakfast of hot chocolate and a croissant. It was delicious! To be honest the pastries and things here are just so delicious I feel like it isn't fair. Everything always seems to taste so good and such high quality, where in the states it is just quick and easy. That is one thing I am not looking forward to as much. 

On a different note we finally went to see the tower of london. We lived right by it and passed it everyday, but we finally went in. It was much bigger than we had thought. Here is the outside wall. Where the grass is, is where water used to be. Then we walked on the inner wall and found this cute little turret that we took pictures in.

Here is some original building from King Charles I. It was built around 1100 ad.

Here is a set up of the bedroom with typical fabric and wall painting etc.

Here is the chapel where supposedly one of the kings was murdered.

A Beautiful door!

View of the tower bridge from the inner wall.

Coins from around the 1100's

Example of what Chain mail is like.

One interesting thing is that on two sides of the outer wall, there are little apartments and people currently live in them. I would suppose it is the people that work there, but I never found out for sure!

One cool part was a tour that housed prisoners the first picture is the view of the window from the top cell and the second picture is of the original wall drawings of the prisoners.

Here are two interesting things I read about the prisoners in the tower.

Here we are in the rain outside where they hold the crown jewels. I imagined like how they show it in the Sherlock episodes when Moriarty steals the crown jewels but it was not at all like that. They have a crown for every monarch, each is individual in style, then they have the official outfit they wear and then they have each of the pieces that they hold in separate areas. It was a very interesting set up, and it was cool to see so much history. 

Then in the center they have a history of the tower of london, which the hall of kings which has every king mounted on a horse with his armor and has been on display for 100s of years.

Here is how the tower used to look.

These are all of the kinds and their swords. In one area it asked why the queens didn't have any armor or anything to contribute and they sign said that it was because the queen's didn't wear armor because they didn't have any.

Apparently the money for the UK is made in the tower of london so they explained the latest update of the money and how they represent the english shield!

Here is a guard guarding the crown jewels.

Then we went to baker st. to see the sherlock sight!

Then I saw some funny looking kit kats.

I saw a chipotle in london and I thought I would share it.

Here was the official beatles store. They had some really cool stuff in there, especially the photos.

Then I went over to King's Cross station.

Here is their version of platform 9 3/4

Then for traditions sake I did a brass rubbing. The first is a picture right at the start and the second is the finished product. It was really fun!

Here is the British Museum. They had a ton of different artifacts and so I took a few pictures to show you all!

The grand entrance!

Greek artifacts

These bracelets were so thin that they shook with all of the walking in the room.

I really loved seeing these in their original form!

Then they had a display on clocks.

A really old chess set.

Cool Wedgewood

Benjamin Franklin

Rosetta Stone

Then we kind of did this crazy thing. So while we were there we discovered that Benedict Cumberbatch was playing Hamlet for 12 weeks only. The only problem was the tickets cost almost 500 dollars so we really couldn't justify spending that much. So I thought well if we go to the stage door we can see him in person. Of course we got to the door too late but we started chatting with these girls outside. They said that you could stand in a queue and get 10 pound tickets if you were willing to spend the night outside. So my good buddy Alyssa spent the night outside with about 30 other people and in the morning I came to relieve her and bought the tickets. We were number 4 and 5 in line. So then we get to day 7.

Day 5: Buckingham Palace!!!! and wesminster abbey

So I accidentally forgot my SD card this day, but luckily I can steal pictures from alyssa, also all of the places that we went to didn't allow us to take pictures so I didn't miss it too much! I do have a few pictures in the inside of some of the buildings because I bought postcards so that is how I got those!

Here is Alyssa's candid picture of me on the train with my hot chocolate!

Here I am eating a delicious pastry from a little bakery by Buckingham palace.

Before we went to get our tickets for the tour of Buckingham palace we went to a tour of the royal mews. It is all of the carriages and horses of the royal family. First we saw the indoor riding rink which was gorgeous. It said that many of the members of the royal family learn to ride there. Then we saw all of the queens different carriages. The interesting part is that each of the carriages is from a different country but they all look very similar. The one pictured is her diamond jubilee picture. The second picture is of alyssa with there set up of one of the older carriages and then the last picture is with one of the queen's horses! It was interesting thing to see.

Then we got our tickets to tour the palace and so with a few minutes to spare we took pictures out front. Then the pictures inside the palace are from my postcards! It was pouring rain when we came out, which we were not prepared for so we just ate at the little place they had set up on the back deck.

 

Then we got soaked in the rain but made it to a train station with a ton of flags so we took a picture! We made our way to Westminster abbey and so we only could take a picture from out front. Then we hopped on a bus and saw new parts of the city, one cool thing that we did see were the royal courts of justice!

Then we stopped for dinner at Ping Pong a little thai place by our house. It was very good. Then after talking with our waiter for a while he told us that his favorite dessert was a little cake with a passion fruit filling so he gave it to us as a "birthday" treat so that we could try it. It was quite good, it had a really refreshing taste!