Nia headed home today, while Chris and I headed for the last big attractions of London. The London Bridge is nothing special any more, though it has an interesting story. It was the only bridge in London to cross the Thames River till 1850. The original bridge was built by the Romans, and later replaced by the Normans. In 1050 the Danish tore the bridge down giving rise to the children’s song "London Bridge is Falling Down."
We then headed over to Tower Bridge build in 1895 with a Baroque design. The bridge is very cool looking, and you'll have to check it out once I manage to revamp my picture website. From there we made our way to London Tower, the original royal castle in London build in 1080. We took a formal tour with a Beefeater (no one knows the meaning of this, or were it came from, but they are the royal guards also known as Yeomen). The tour was filled with tons of history and stories regarding the occupants of the castle, and I highly recommend it if you ever make it to London. After the tour, we ran to the Crown Jewels room before it closed at 3:30 (you need to get to the tower like 10am to try and see things properly because the entire castle is closed at 4pm. This comes from Edward I declaring the gates closed at Sundown.) The jewels are unbelievable to see. The royal scepter has a 530 carat, or slightly smaller then a baseball, diamond at the top. There was also a gold wine bowl about half the size of a bath tub with intricate gold work on the sides and base.
After the Tower, we headed for St. Paul's were I was yelled at for taking a picture, and then we headed home.