LONDON: PART TWO

Our second whole day in London started quite late. If I remember correctly, we woke up at around 10 o'clock. After our usual morning chores we headed out of the apartment and got us unhealthy breakfast - pastry :) Let's face it ... on holidays you kinda have to eat unhealthy. Especially if you're on a low budget. 

On our Sunday agenda was the visit of Tower of London, Tower Bridge and anything that we find interesting around that area. There was no bus stop close to us that would go to Tower of London, so we had to walk around 15 min. The weather wasn't as nice as it was the day before, but it had few advantages. The main was there was hardly any wind. Which meant it was quite warm. Or at least not cold. After 15 min of driving, we went off the bus close to another London skyscraper - 30 St Mary Axe or informally known as The Gherkin. We wandered around a little bit, took few pictures, then headed towards Tower Bridge. At first we though saw Tower of London. And let me tell you, it is huge! I didn't expect it to be that big. On it's left side we could see a glimpse of the bridge. Jana was quite surprise with how huge and massive the bridge actually is. It really is a spectacular thing to see. There is one thing that I did not like. A bit of the bridge is painted in light blue and gold colour. Blue colour does not suit the whole imige of the bridge, in my opinion. This bridge was built in 1894, but the blue colour makes it look kinda modern. But then again, this is just my opinion. And it still looks magnificent. Although Forth Rail Bridge in my town still beats it! :)

The Gherkin

Tower Bridge

The blue colour is quite visible 

Tower of London

We walked across the bridge, through The More London buildings, went for coffee, enjoyed the view and then went across London Bridge towards the Tower of London. 

Hay's Galleria

The scoop

The queue to Tower of London wasn't long. But there were still many people inside the walls. We decided not to go on a guided tour, but just wander around with our chosen pace. The castle was built in the end of 1066. The White Tower, which gives the entire castle its name, was built 12 years later. Its most popular attractions at the moment are probably Crown Jewels, which are guarded by the Guards. There are also many displays of amours that kings and prince's wore, one room is dedicated to the exotic animals that used to live in the castle (lioness and lion, grizzly bear etc.). We were surprised to see that people actually live within the walls. At first we thought they are just some random people but it kinda didn't make sense. So I Googled a bit and found out that some of the Guards, better known as Yeomen Warders, live there. 

Water-gate called Traitors Gate

Tower Bridge from within the walls of Tower of London

White Tower

On the bottom you can see many windows. That's where people live. It's inside the walls

We walked around the castle for more than two and a half hours. There were just so many things to see. If you wanted to read everything that's written in the rooms, it would take much much more. One of the main attractions are also ravens. Big black ravens. They looked amazing! I've never seen such a beautiful raven before. I was surprised by how ravens weren't scared at us people walking close to them at all. I took many pictures of them but I then saw that the pictures weren't good. A bit blurry. 

White Tower

I would wear the one at the bottom :)

St John's Chapel, inside the White Tower 

White Tower

Raven

Raven 

After extensive visit we decided to search for a cheap place to eat. We walked around St. Katharine Docks. Very nice area! The next few pictures are all from that area.

Then, as we couldn't find a place that we would like, we headed towards Oxford Street. We went to McDonald's for late lunch/early dinner, sat there for a while as we were quite tired because of walking a lot and then went back on the street into the shops. Oxford Street is Europe's busiest shopping street. There are more than 300 shops! We couldn't spend much time in the shops due to late hour. So we decided to come back the next day. 

I planned to write about what we did on Monday in this post, but I think it will be better if I just write part three :)