London Day 2

Day two in London consisted of the Tower of London, Tate Modern, and a ride on the London Eye among other stops.

Tower Bridge

We started our Sunday off bright and early with a walk down Oxford Street and a stroll through Hyde Park along the Serpentine.  We then went to see the changing of the guard but apparently must have shown up at the wrong time.

Display Case on Oxford St.

Hyde Park

The guards at Buckingham Palace changing except it wasn't the real changing of the guards.

The Mall.  We then left and stumbled across the horse guards changing.  Our next stop was the Tower of London which is now definitely near the top of my list for favorite London attractions! 

Kevin took this cool picture of a bus at Trafalgar near where we grabbed some Barclay's bikes!

After dropping off our bikes we grabbed our tickets to see the Tower of London (not to confuse you of course, Tower Bridge is behind me)

Tower of London has 20 towers.

Tower of London and the Shard

Barclays bikes!  Sometimes very helpful.  Sometimes a pain in the ass.

The lawn of the Tower of London

The White Tower

The yeomen who gave us a tour (all of whom live on the grounds and are former members of the military).

Old.

Kings' horses.

The original layout of the grounds.

The smallest (37.5" I think) and largest (6'8") suits of armor.

The houses in this corner of the grounds are where the Yeomen stay.  The shard is in the background.

This is a dragon made completely out of weapons to act as a trophy.

Some of the pence pieces that are being minted now can be pieced together to make the coat of arms.

The Tower of London once acted as London's zoo/menagerie.

Another shot of London Bridge

Me and a Yeoman outside the Chapel!

This is the spot where they used to execute quite a few people.

The ravens!  They are fed hard boiled eggs every other day which is what the one bird is holding.  There is a story behind the seven ravens at the Tower of London.  To read more about them check out: http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/stories/theravens

Tower Bridge again

The Shard and a walkway which you can visit for free!  It is one of my new favorite spots.

Torture Devices

 

Actors that would talk to you!

One of the rooms in the White Tower

White Tower

Traitor's Gate!  Where they would unload traitors from the boats.

The walkway by the Thames and Tower of London

Kevin cruising on our way to the Tate Modern.

Tower Bridge

City Hall

Thames River and the HMS Belfast

City of London from the south bank / Tower Bridge

Kevin's favorite piece from the Tate Modern.  It is composed of small dots of paint.

In front of the Tate Modern--Millennium Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral.

Waiting to get on the London Eye!

Sunset

Sunset from the London Eye

Parliament from London Eye

East of the London Eye

London Eye

The Top!

Parliament from the London Eye

After the London Eye... Parliament

Parliament at sun set

Kevin holding Parliament

The London Eye was purple!  I still haven't figured out why it changes colors once in a while but it's almost always blue.

Left: Telephone Booth.  Right: Buckingham Palace.

That was the end of our day two pretty much.  We biked back to Ramsay and went to The Court for the pub quiz with Brendan where we got last place.  We don't generally do too well there... haha.  Check out day three for more!