On Sunday morning, a lot of maintenance work was being done on some of the Tube lines, so we had to take a rail replacement bus to Paddington Station to catch the Tube from there, and throughout the day we had to do some pretty crazy transfers to try to get around the sections that were closed. But it all worked out in the end!
The morning was dedicated to the Tower of London. It was rainy and windy, which was not very conducive to a good time, but we still enjoyed exploring the Tower. There is a lot to see there. We went to see the crown jewels first. They were so studded with diamonds and precious stones that it was hard to belive that they were real, especially the gigantic diamonds. Reading about the history of the crowns, and for how many hundreds of years certain crowns have been in use, made viewing them even more interesting. The tours given by the Yeoman Warders (aka Beefeaters) were not taking place due to the rain, so we had to show ourselves around the grounds,walls, medieval palace, and "bloody tower." We also visited the White Tower, which is basically a museum that includes the royal armory, including the armor of a number of kings including Henry VIII.
After spending a LONG time at the Tower of London, and taking some photos of Tower Bridge, we headed towards the British Museum, where we grabbed lunch and spent the afternoon. Since the British Empire was once so huge, this museum holds many of the treasures of Western civilization, including an impressive collection of Egyptian mummies and artifacts and the "Elgin Marbles," marble panels from the frieze that origninally ran around the exterior of the Parthenon in Athens, in addition to so many other treasures that it would be impossible to see them all. Greg's favorite was a very interesting room full of clocks and timepieces from throughout history. The main attraction at the British Museum, though, is the Rosetta Stone. It was the first piece in the first room that we entered at the museum, and there was such a huge crowd around it (and people pushing and shoving to try to get closer) that it was impossible to really get in front of it and get a good look, although we were able to see through the crowds to snap a couple of pictures. The British Museum is one place in London where you are allowed to take pictures, so a lot of tourists were snap-happy and taking photographs of everything in sight; we took just a handful. Once we tired of walking around the British Museum, we headed to Trafalgar Square and spent an hour doing a quick walk-through of the National Gallery and viewing paintings by Van Eyck, Michelangelo, Raphael, Da Vinci, Titian, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh...I could go on and on, but I'll stop there. Happily, both the British Museum and the National Gallery are free, and we had a 2-for-1 coupon for the Tower of London. Hooray for saving money when on vacation! :)
Our original plan was to ride the London Eye, the giant observation wheel, but since we felt that we'd enjoyed good views of the city from the top of St. Paul's Cathedral, and since our legs and feet were screaming for mercy by this time, we went back to the hotel to relax for a little while and have dinner (and some truly scrumptious desserts...chocolate mousse with raspberries, how I love thee!). Once darkness fell, we headed back into the city to try to get some good night shots. It seemed like every other tourist in town had the same idea; it was amusing watching everyone trying to stabilize their camera to get a good picture. A lot of our attempts were duds, but we were able to get some good pictures, although by the time we headed back to the hotel it was after midnight and I was freezing cold and getting cranky. As a matter of fact, we caught the very last rail replacement bus back to the area of our hotel - what luck!
Sunday was our departure day. We relaxed around the hotel in the morning before taking the bus to Victoria Station and taking the train to Gatwick Airport. But our vacation stories didn't end there! No, as we were getting our food at the airport McDonald's (yes, McDonald's, and it felt good to eat that Big Mac!), the fire alarm went off! Everyone had to evacuate the airport while the fire department came and checked everything out. Luckily, there was still plenty of time before our flight so we didn't end up with a delay. It was slow going exiting the airport...if there really was a serious fire, we would all burn up because it took so long to get out of there...but it was an interesting experience. We, like others around us, took a couple of pictures while waiting outside to commemorate the event. Happily, we had just received our order when the alarm went off, so we were able to throw it into a to-go sack and eat our lunch while waiting outside. It must have been a real pain for the people eating in the sit-down restaurants, as I'm sure their half-eaten food was cold by the time we were allowed back inside.
The flight "home" from London to Cork was a very short one...we even arrived 20 minutes early. Greg timed the last time he saw land over Great Britain and the first land we flew over in Ireland and said we were only over the water for 5 minutes. It was super fast getting through the Cork airport and before we knew it we were back at our apartment!
In a nutshell, London was fantastic, just as people told us it would be. Next stop...Paris at the end of the month!
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