Tourist in London

With a couple of days of using the tube under our belts, Eva and I ventured off to do some touristy stuff today. Sher ended up going to Hamptom court Palace instead as she missed it the last time she was here 2 years ago. The tube is so easy too use though it's crazy busy to the point where it's so full (even near the doors) that you have to push your way through going in and out. Can I get used to this? Don't know :) I am adapting to the weather more. It has been warmer the last couple of days but still a wee bit of chill in the air.

Anyways, we ended up walking to the London Tower after eating breakfast at S&M (Sausage and Mash). We did get lost a bit and had to get re-orientated. That took about 20 minutes :) All the street signs in London are located on buildings and sometimes it feels like playing "Where is Waldo" to find it. We eventually found our direction by asking a few people. People here are generally nice I find.

Tickets to the Tower was about £17. All tours within are free but we decided to go around on our own. I guess my reasoning is that I don't think I can retain all the information coming at me from the tour guide, in this case, Beefeaters/Yeoman Warders :) For some reason I retain more watching National Geographic LOL

We started the tour with the Middle Tower and worked our way around. We did end up skipping the White Tower based on time as we wanted to head to the Parliament and Big Ben. It was interesting to see the lifestyle, architecture, and learn the history of each room we went in.

After the Tower, we headed towards Parliment and Big Ben. We wanted to cross the river via the Tower Bridge. It is the most famous bridge in London as it has been used in many films and photos. Many people think it is the London Bridge but it is not. It was just wonderful walking along this bridge with the sun shining on our faces. It is busy with not only traffic but pedestrian traffic as well esp. runners. We thought we could walk all the way to Big Ben via the sea wall since it was such a beautiful day but it took so long to reach the London Bridge that we decided to tube it the rest of the way. If we had more time (we had to meet Sher later for dinner), we would definately have tried to walk it - as crazy as it may be to some :)

Around the Parliment, there were so many tourists around - perhaps not as much as in the summer time but still many are there to see the famous building as well as the famous bell tower or clock (Big Ben). Also, just around the corner was the London Eye which is basically a big ferris wheel with pods for you to see the city from up top. We spend the rest of the time wondering about the area and came across the a pathway where all these artists - mostly still artists - those who act like statues (not even sure if still artists is a name for them) are. We walked down and checked them out and on the way back we saw this massive crowd around one artist. He had music on and would dance about - even moonwalk. But the artist who really stole the show was his apprentice Noah - a 2 year old boy (about). He was sooooo adorable. He would dance and follow his moves and his charm wowed the crowd. We easily stood and watched for more than 20 minutes! Despite all the historical and beautiful things we saw today, this was hands down the highlight of our day :)