London
Not a lot to report from our last half day in London. We went to the Natural History Museum which is mostly designed for smaller children so it was alright but not great. The Darwin Center was very cool though.
The other half of the day was spent on a train to Paris which I slept on :).
It was our last full day in London so we got en early start to make sure that we saw everything that we wanted to during the day even though we have 3/4 of the day tomorrow to visit anything we may have missed (suggestions are certainly welcome!)
Tower Bridge & The Tower of London
This was our first stop of the day and we did not go inside the Tower of London because of the long lines and prices for tickets. We were under a time crunch anyway so we would not have been able to stay long. The outsides of the tower and bridge were interesting but not mind blowing. I liked all the colors of Tower Bridge but it did not do much for me for whatever reason.
Changing of the Guard
After visiting the Tower and Tower Bridge, we hopped on the tube and made our way back to Buckingham palace for the changing of the guard which we missed yesterday. It is really cool that they do such a long ceremony each day during the summer for the onlookers (which there are TONS). I was so impressed by the friendliness of the police and how they interacted with the people there.
The British Museum
It is always cool to see things that you have learned about in history books for your entire education in person.
Primrose Hill
The hill offers a great view of the city and the surrounding park is very nice. We were tired after all that we had done up to this point so we napped on the top of the hill.
Camden Market
After resting up in the park, we headed to Camden Market for dinner. Street food always hits the spot after a long day of walking.
After not getting a lot of sleep yesterday because of the early flight, I felt like I slept forever. The wifi here at the hostel is not the fastest so I spent way too long on the final Iceland blog post this morning since my computer now has power.
Once I finished the post, we went to the Tate Britain gallery (no photos :( )to see some art before eating lunch at an awesome local sandwich shop here in Pimlico.
We decided the best use of our time touring the city would be to do a hop-on hop-off bus tour which was great (although a little slow) it was nice to have a guide tell us about what we were passing as we drove through the streets of London on a double decker bus.
Buckingham Palace
In reality, we could have walked there from the hostel but we paid for the bus so we used it. Like Madrid, it put the white house to shame with its ornateness. I was suprised at how close the public was allowed to get to the palace. That would never happen in the US.
Big Ben & Parliament
Another impressive building with incredible detail. We got to hear Big Ben's bell on the hour which was really cool as well. The light was not great for the classic bridge shot but they turned out well enough. I prefer the angle coming from the street behind the building better anyway.
Westminster Abbey
Unfortunately, they did not allow photos in the main section of the Abbey. Like most cathedrals, it was pretty incredible on the inside (although I now compare every cathedral to the Sagrada Familia which is certainly not fair). I was able to shoot outside the cathedral and outside the main indoor section so that was a minor positive.
After our early morning flight out of Reykjavik to London, we immediately headed to the Apple store to buy a charger so that is now fixed.
Coming to London was a culture shock. Where in Iceland an entire town might be 300 people, there could easily be that many on a subway train. It will certainly be this way for the rest of the trip as we are staying in cities only but I did not expect the change to be so weirdly unsettling.
After dealing with the whole charger situation, we set out for the London Eye to get a look at the whole city. I thought that it was pretty cool, the windows were a little strange and hard to shoot through but the overall experience was definitely worth doing. I thought it was funny that the official name is the 'Coca Cola London Eye' as if Coke needs more brand awareness.
