London: Day 2

With this being our only full day in London, day 2 was jammed pack with good old English excitement. Our fist stop was Westminster, where we strolled along the river, with the London Eye across the water and Big Ben straight ahead. Before we reached Westminster, I had the sudden urge to make a phone call while holding the phone booth door open:



After I finished my call, we found ourselves at Westminster Abbey, where I pretended to be a student and Waverly and I both got in for a discounted price of 14 pounds (that's 28 dollars to you Yankees). It was interesting to see all the elaborately decorated tombs of the royal family, and the highlight was being able to sit see the coronation chair.



After the Abbey, we headed across the street to the Parliament and sat in both the House of Lords and House of Commons for some riveting debates about the UK Royal Mail.

We eventually pulled ourselves away from the intellectual battle over what time post offices should be closed and hopped on the tube and took it to the Tower of London, which can be seen here, behind the giant fish & chips we had for lunch:



The great thing about the Tower of London is how throughout the years, it's transformed from a Royal Residence to a prison, and now a tourist destination with a temporary ice skating rink built on what used to be the moat.

After doing the usual Tower of London things...

...posing in front of the Bloody Tower (or at least the sign for the Bloody Tower):


...looking at knights in shining armor:


...and taking pictures in front of head chopping blocks:


...I managed eventually to kill our camera battery taking a zillion pictures of the Tower Bridge:


...so we decided to head back to the roach Regent Palace Hotel, charge the battery, and take a nap before finishing off the rest of the night, which included:

Eating dinner at a pub (fish & chips and meat pies were on the menu):


and then heading back to Westminster, to see the glorious lights at night: