T and S: Londonton Abbey

Oh, Snap. We have been home from London for a month. I really need to just finish these already.

In case you missed it:

Londonton Abbey - Days 1 and 2 (flying and Hever Castle)

Londonton Abbey - Day 3 (Hampton Court Palace)

Londonton Abbey - Day 4 (Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, and Big Ben)

Londonton Abbey - Day 5 (Westminster Abbey, Churchill War Rooms, and Royal Mews)

We took the tube to Picadilly circus then took a London Transit "Heritage Route" double decker bus to The Tower of London. Finding the bus stop was a pain because everything was moved around due to construction. But the bus ride itself was really cool. If you visit London don't buy a hop on hop off bus tour thing. Just get an Oyster Card and take the regular bus. It's WAY cheaper and you see all the same stuff.

These photos aren't really of anything significant, just cool stuff we saw while riding around. The tube is definitely faster, but you definitely see more of London on the bus.

Lion statue at Trafalgar Square.

This one is for my dad.

This is totally blurry, but this is the Royal Courts of Justice (the above picture is too). I really wish we could have seen some barristers wearing their robes and wigs, but they are probably too embarrassed to wear them outside of the building. And who can really blame them? How can you take anyone seriously when they are wearing that?

These next ones are St. Paul's Cathedral.

So on our second time to Tower of London we saw everything we skipped the first time, including the Imperial Crown that the Queen had the audacity to wear so it was missing during our initial visit. Of course, still no photos allowed of the Crown Jewels.

T in front of Traitor's Gate, where supplies and important prisoners (like Ann Boleyn) were brought into the Tower.

Contemplating the White Tower

The Tower Bridge

Looking through the hole where you shoot the arrows at the intruders. Whatever that is called, that is what this is.

View from part of the wall walk. The road at the top leads to Tower Bridge.

Ummm... I don't really remember what this helmet is about. Something, something... armor.

I know it's not exactly clear, but that is a crown on top of the weather vane. Those Brits sure do love crowns as street accessories!

Entrance to the Crown Jewels exhibit

Go America! This was one of about three references to the United States' "rebellion" that we saw in all of London.

This is the spot where notable executions, like Ann Boleyn and Catherine Howard, took place. It's such a strange monument. The first time we saw it sort of from a distance I thought they had placed a plastic bag over part of it to protect it from the rain. No. It is supposed to be a frosted glass pillow. You know, to represent how comfy people were just before they got their heads chopped off. Even the Yeoman Warders think it is silly looking.

Also, I think it is strange how into King Henry's wives people are. At almost EVERY gift shop there were King Henry's Wives sold as a set of nesting dolls and a collection of Christmas ornaments. Why?! Though I admit, it would be a bit funny if the nesting dolls separated at the neck of each queen and the neck was bloody. Morbid and I still wouldn't want to own them, but kind of funny.

One of the famous ravens.

After the Tower of London we visited the Bank of London Museum. The museum wasn't that great because I'm not into the history of British money or banking. We went to the museum to hold the solid gold bar! Well 99.97 % pure gold bar. No photos were allowed, but let me tell you that thing was heavy (28 pounds)! Like heavy enough that it hurt my wrist when I lifted it (because really, who has strong wrist muscles?!). (The gold bar is in a plastic box that is just big enough to put your hand in to to hold but no way to pull the giant brick out. It's a banana-in-the-box-that-the-monkey-will-never-get-out situation.)

After holding the most money in my life (the solid gold bar aka £391568 aka $615,270) we ate lunch at an "American Diner." And it was pretty good. We had milkshakes and nachos and wraps and throughly enjoyed not eating crappy British food. It wasn't quite American, but it was closer than anything else we had in London. Unfortunately, it seems that America is quite intent on exporting crappy rap music and celebrity news because that kind of seemed to be the theme of the restaurant.

I definitely look pregnant in front of this random art on the way to the Museum of London.

We visited the Museum of London which starts at the very start of London aka the start of time. So the first part was kind of like a natural history museum, then it gets in to Roman reign and goes from there. Some parts were definitely interesting, and other parts definitely were not. I thought this real preserved dress was awesome. No need to worry about how big your hips actually are in this dress - no one will ever know!

There was an exhibit about the plague in London and we watched a three minute video about it and I totally fell asleep during it. We knew we were going to be cutting it close to seeing everything there before they closed. I really think we could have seen everything, but they kicked us out - literally they made us exit the building - at 4:45. Why have posted hours if you're going to kick us out before then? This also happened to us at our next stop, which was The British Museum.

But first, one more of St. Paul's Cathedral:

The tube. Some of those stations had SO many stairs! The subway in NYC isn't that far below ground, but London's is WAAAAAY underground. Those stairs became my nemesis and escalators my good friends.

In front of the British Museum, which is pretty much the history of the entire world. Really, I felt like the theme of this Museum was "Plundering, plundering, YEAH!" (sang to the tune of "partying, partying, YEAH" from the song "Friday" as done by Stephen Colbert) because it's a collection of antiquities that the UK snatched up from around the world during their imperialism phase.

The cool glass ceiling inside.

The 2012 London Olympic Medals!

Which were made from materials from Rio Tinto Copper in Utah aka Kennecott Copper Mine!

The famous Lewis Chess Set (circa 1150)

George Washington coins and Continental Congress currency (it's hard to tell, but the paper says 1/6 dollar)

I don't know what this is, but we joked that it is the world's first slinky.

It's a hippo! And I recognized it before even reading the sign! I'm just saying that art from 3000 BC isn't always discernible and I was proud of myself for not having to have it spelled out for me.

Another hippo I recognized before reading the sign! Apparently, the hippo shape is easy for me.

Insert mummy with mummies joke here.

I've seen mummies and sarcophagi before, and I thought there would be like five of them and it would be nice and we would move on. But no, there were like 40. And they were all SO impressive!

T and I both feel like we have seen this before in the scriptures. I thought it was in Abraham but it's not there. Anyone know where we might have seen it? Was it in the older version of the scriptures? Or the children's version?

We were nowhere close to seeing the whole museum when we got kicked out early (15 minutes before they actually closed!) again.

Because we stayed late at the British Museum for their extended weekend hours we moseyed over to see Parliament and Big Ben at night. It's hard to take good night photos, yo! This is The London Eye at dusk which is just across the Thames from Parliament and Big Ben.

Surprisingly, the Thames didn't smell.

We waited around for it to get a bit more dark.

We think the reason the corner tower doesn't have any illuminating lights is because there is nowhere to place them on the ground because the River Thames literally washes against the tower.