London A Go Go

Today was a jammed packed, touristy day in London.  We decided to purchase the London Pass (which covers a number of main attractions) for the next two days, which meant we needed to be productive to make it pay.

In front of the stage at Shakespeare's Globe.

The first stop of the day, once the pass was purchased, was a tour of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.  The theatre was rebuilt after it burned down (finished in 1996 or 1997) to look like the original.  Not only did we learn a lot, but most of the tour was spent sitting in the theatre, a nice break for our feet at the start of the day.

In the upper deck of the Globe.

We walked from the Globe to the Tower Bridge.  There we went up to the top to explore and learn more.  We also had a really cheesy picture taken that we didn't purchase.

The Tower Bridge

Following the bridge, we went to the Tower of London.  There we grabbed some lunch and plotted our strategy.  Our first stop in the Tower was the Crown Jewels.  So ridiculously amazing!  Also, if Britain really gets into a budget crisis, I think they have a few resources. 

The site of the Royal Jewels.  Sorry there's no pictures of the good stuff--it wasn't allowed.

Then we visited an exhibition about a tower prisoner to get a feel for what life was like.  We finished we a trip to the White Tower which houses the armor from many many years of kings.  I don't know if you are aware, but England is kind of old. 

Changing of the guard for the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London.

After the Tower of London, we walked to St. Paul's Cathedral.  Um, wow.  We started by climbing up to the Golden Gallery via the Whispering Gallery.  It was something like 530 steps.  Then we had to climb back down.

Crazy dragon at the Tower.

We also checked out the crypts, which house tombs for Wellington and Nelson--pretty important figures in England's military history especially.  The entire tour of St. Paul's was an audio tour with iPod touch-like devices, which added a lot and made it possible to go at your pace.

In the actual city of London.  Also, they are big on dragons.

We didn't have time to tour much of the main level of the church, but we did attend evensong.  It was a completely different service than the last evensong we attended and included communion.

A miniature bean.

After catching the Tube home during rush hour (crowded and a madhouse), we walked to Hard Rock.  The wait for a table was 1.5 hours, but a two-person table opened on the patio when we arrived, so we got to sit right down.

At the top of St. Paul's.

I had a pulled pork sandwich with mushrooms and cheese, and basically inhaled it.  Also, we got free hot fudge sundaes (though they were a little light on the fudge) because of our London Passes.  We're getting our money's worth!

Dinner...get in my belly.  Also pictured: Christine's fajitas and my raspberry mojito.

Tomorrow we going to finish strong with the London Pass.  I'm trying not to think about how little time we have left here (though I am really excited to head to Helsinki!).