Touring London (Day 2)

All caught up now!

Today I went to St. Paul's Cathedral, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, Britain at War Experience, Tower Bridge Exhibition, and Tower of London (in other words, a lot of walking).

I had an early start this morning since I was trying to get to St. Paul's right when it opened (8:30am). But that failed. I forgot people still take the tube for work and school so the tube was PACKED. I had to skip two trains to find one I could fit in without my backpack, arm, or leg blocking the door from closing. So by the time I entered St. Paul's it was almost 9 >.<
I had another audio tour guide so I walked around the Cathedral floor and went down to the Crypt to see some tombs. Scary stuff. Saw the Duke of Wellington's tomb, the tomb of a Nelson guy, and the memorial gates for Winston Churchill. Then I went back up to enter the Whispering Gallery. Climbed all 252 steps. It was super cool to hear all the people whispering to each other from opposite sides. Then I continued up the next 187 steps to the Stone Gallery and another 164 steps to the Golden Gallery (the top of the dome). I was so tired and it wasn't even noon yet! The stairways were so low and narrow, you almost had to crawl to get through. Made me feel like I was on a little Indiana Jones adventure of my own.

Then I crossed Millennium Bridge to get to the Globe Theatre. I went around the exhibition with, yes, another audio guide, before I went on my tour with my guide David. He was very informative and entertaining. Liked teasing the kids in our groups with lines from Shakespeare's plays. Luckily there was no rehearsals going on so we were allowed to take pictures inside the theatre. After the tour ended, I had some lunch and looked over how route to get to Britain at War.

As I was walking, a guy dressed up for the London Dungeon (pretty much like a torture-victim zombie) and came right up to my face saying, "Care to see the Dungeon?" I faked a smile saying no thanks while in my head saying "holy cow, don't do that, nice your doing your job, but don't get up in my face, good bye, forever." When I got to the Britain at War, there was barely anyone there. The set-up was super cool and the information was great. It was just very small. But the air raid blitz experience was cool.

I proceeded to Tower Bridge and walked through a park to get through. There was LOTS of people there. Almost every spot on the grass was taken. As I was walking to the entrance of the exhibition, I noticed that they added the Olympic rings underneath the top level of the bridge. That was cool.
The exhibition itself was pretty fun. Got to see some mini videos, saw fantastic views, learned about other bridges around the world and how the engines raise the bridge. Yup, pretty cool stuff.

Finally, I went to Tower of London. I went on a guided tour by a Yeoman aka Beefeater named Simon. He was hilarious! Loved that guy. You could tell that he's done this for a long time and also really loves doing it (even though he kept teasing about how he hates hanging around tourists so much). When we were almost in the center, he pointed out the active soldiers (one outside the building with the Crown Jewels and the other outside the Queen's House where the Governor of the Tower of London lives). After he commented about not messing around with them because they do have real rifles, he mentioned to all the ladies (while looking at me) that if we stood right in front of them, smiled slightly, leaned over, then closed our eyes, that would make the guards happy. Silly, silly, Simon. He then led us to the Chapel where the bodies of the executed were buried. Very gruesome stuff, but Simon found ways to lighten up the subject.
After the tour ended, I went to the Crown Jewels, Bloody Tower, the Torture exhibit, and got to see a mini-version of changing of the guard.

Yup, that was my busy day. The most important thing I've learned is that stairs are not my friend. They are my arch nemesis.

Till next time and have a super great day!