We got an early start and hopped the Underground for Tower Hill – we had purchased tickets the day before for the Tower of London. It ended up being the smartest thing we’ve done so far. The lines were huge, but we went straight to the front and walked right in at 10::00 am. We went right to the crown jewels – I stopped briefly to nod at the royal guard, who ignored me. The jewels were pretty cool – so big they looked fake. I guess I couldn’t really appreciate the authenticity.

The rest of the tower was pretty cool – the white tower was filled with some great exhibits, very nicely done. We chatted with some Beefeaters – they gave me directions to Portabello Street, where I was looking for some antique jewelry for Sara. Unfortunately, no luck. It was pretty much closed up for Sunday.

We walked up and down Portabello Street and ended up eating at a pub. Good burger and fish and chips. They only served Samuel Smiths beer – a pretty good stout. We went back to the hotel for a nap, and then went down to the hotel pub for beers. We had some Extra Cold Guinness. Ran down the street for dinner at Garfunkel’s (a Denny’s type place). We went back to the hotel pub for some live music (The Tides – an Irish band with a great fiddler and a crappy singer). Then back to bed to rest our stair-worn legs.

Breakfast in the hotel – had some English bacon – just really salty ham – pretty tough to eat and very salty. We hopped onto an open-topped red bus and toured the entire city of London. Saw the Tower of London, Parliament, Westminster Abbey… all the tourist attractions at 45 mph.

We left the bus and checked out the house guards, Parliament, and Big Ben on foot. Got some good pictures. Pretty much all the spots are available via the Underground. It is very amazing – some of the stations are very modern and some are pretty old and remote.

We had a Chinese buffet near Notting Hill, which was very good. We ate at the top floor and got to see the town bustling beneath us. We sprinted (a little late) over to Waterloo station (home of the chunnel trains) to ride the London Eye, a monstrous ferris wheel that held many people in each car. A French family cut in front of us in line – pleading to the attendant that their tickets were for 9:00 pm. He let them through even though our tickets were for 8:30 – we didn’t mention that. We ended up sharing a car.

The view was spectacular – the sun was setting as we rode up, and we saw London by day on the way up and London by night on the way down – perfect!

We walked to Big Ben from there and then took the Underground back to the hotel for beers and bed.