London Tower

Yesterday, after a visit to Westmister Abbey, which Pet will be writing about, we wandered over to Tower Bridge and London Tower, stopping off at a nice little pub along the way for a pint and some bangers and mash.

Tower Bridge was very impressive, one of the many bridges crossing the Thames, which is a sorry brown excuse for a river if ever there was one. Once at the Tower, we walked ourselves stupid through ancient winding stone spiral staircases and a multitude of rooms. Pet was quite taken by the Crown Jewels, especially the koh-i-noor diamond (see Pet's posting for this!).

We checked out the armory in the White Tower, former bedrooms of royalty, the Bloody Tower where two princes were said to be murdered by their uncle Richard the 3rd and the room in one of the towers where prisoners - usually political or religious - were held. This room had graffiti carved into the stone walls by some of the former prisoners, stretching back centuries. Anne Boleyn had been a prisoner there, along with Elizabeth 1, with more recent inmates including Rudolph Hess and Eastend gangsters the Cray twins.

By the time we left there our feet were killing us. We caught a bus and two trains back to Earl's Court, bought some supplies, including beer, Pepsi and dip, with the intention of having some drinks and heading out for dinner - our first dinner since we arrived! But, instead, we passed out on the bed, exhausted. At one stage we awoke around 12:15am, with Pet suggesting we get up, get dressed and go and get ourselves some Big Macs. Surprisingly I vetoed the idea and went back to sleep until around 5:00am. We still can't get the hang of the time and we still have never been awake to have dinner in London. On the one hand, it's saving us money, but onthe other hand it'd be kind of nice to experience a normal day and sample some of the London nightlife (even though it's not dark until 10:00pm). Can we make it through today to have dinner tonight? Only time will tell. I'll let you know tomorrow...