Our first official day in London we started the day off by going to the Tower of London. It was spectacular. We took one of the free tours offered and learned some of the history of the Tower. Most of the history had to do with illegally killing people, but besides that it was great! 😉 At the Tower, we got to see the crown jewels. Sadly, we could not take any pictures but the crowns were amazing.

After the Tower we went to Westminster Abbey. It was huge! And a lot of dead bodies are buried there, such as Elizabeth I’s and her half-sister Mary. There is an audio tour that is part of your admission, which really helps to tell about the history of the Abbey. Most have heard of the Abbey, but not many know why it is important to people. Most recently, it was the venue for the wedding between Kate Middleton and William. It was also where Elizabeth II was crowned queen. In fact, on the audio tour I learned that most royals are baptized, crowned, and buried in the Abbey.

After the Abbey we decided to go check out Shakespeare’s Globe Theater. This doesn’t seem to be the place most would think of going when they visit London, but I’m really glad that I went. Taking the tour, I learned about the amount of detail that went into the making of the Globe to ensure that it was made exactly the way it was built in Shakespeare’s time. They covered everything, to even the same type of tree being used and the animal hair used in the clay that was used to make the walls. Something that was not planned to be a part of the tour was the wedding party that came in. I guess they just really like the Globe that much that they wanted to take their wedding pictures inside of it.

The next day in London we did mainly quick little things that wouldn’t take up as much time, since we were flying back to Reutlingen that day. First, we went to Baker Street because of Sherlock Holmes. There was even a statue of him. Afterward, we went to King’s Cross to check out Platform 93/4. It was really cool there. There was even a Harry Potter store next to the ‘platform’ that was set up somewhat like one of the stores in the movies. They even had wands and chocolate frogs!

We also got to see the Wellington Arch, which was actually by accident because our goal was to go and see Buckingham Palace, which we did get to do. After Buckingham we went to go get lunch. The place we ate at was so cool! It was called Yo!Sushi and it had a conveyor belt that brought the food around. The best part would have had to have been the faucets that were at the table. One was for still water and the other for sparkling. And they had FREE refills!!!! That is almost unheard of in Europe so it was a hot commodity while we were there. We probably each had at least five glasses of water, if not more. It was a good day all around.