Tourists for a day

June 29, 2009

Our first full day in London, we did some typical tourist activities. We walked from our hotel to the Elephant and Castle subway station, stopping off at the first hole-in-the-wall cafe we came across for a traditional English breakfast. (We ate at a different cafe every morning, all in the neighborhood of our hotel and were never disappointed with the food. Very cheap, very tasty and very filling.)

We took the subway to the south bank of the Thames. We took a ride in the London Eye, observation thingy (not sure if it should be called a wheel, ferris wheel, or what).

Below is a view of Big Ben from up in the London Eye.
We then took a boat down to the Tower of London. We didn’t really have a plan, just wandering about deciding what to do as we went.

Above is the mote area of the tower where they do some demonstrations. The Tower isn’t really “a tower.” It is a walled collection of buildings, more like a castle, which was used for a variety of functions, most famously the incarceration of nobles and traitors. Below is the White Tower, a three story building that currently houses a display of Henry VIII’s armour.
This is one of the ravens residing within the Tower area. They have clipped the wings of the ravens, so they have little choice in the matter of where they live, but they have it pretty cushy here. And, of course, this is the obligatory stoic English guardsman.