Day 24 - Tower of London, St. Paul's & Museum of London

Today was a packed day of sightseeing! We wanted to be able to leave London in two weeks knowing we got to see everything we had wanted to and more...so today was another step closer to that. We started off at the Tower of London. It's this great big midevil castle that one of the kings lived at (I've lost track at this point!) but more notably today it holds the crown jewels! We toured around the different towers there, one thing I thought was really cool was on the walls there were inscriptions from prisoners who had been there, and they're still preserved there today! Some famous prisoners who were locked up there and some who were ultimately beheaded, mostly the ones who were in some relation to Henry VIII (2 of his wives, Thomas Moore, and others). But I also learned they did this in the tower to save the monarchy embarassement because usually an execution was a big spectator sport, gross huh?! We toured around the crown jewels, they wouldn't allow photography but it wouldn't have captured their glittering ways, that is for sure! We also got to see a video of Queen Elizabeth's coronation ceremony which took place in 1953! She was so young then! These jewels are so ornate though, it kind of blows my mind that these are real.

Guards protecting the jewels...two thumbs up for them!

View of the Tower Bridge from the Tower of London


Next we headed over to St. Paul's to actually go inside of it although they didn't allow photography wa wa. So I havent' seen the Vatican yet but this felt like it could be the Vatican's cousin or something because it was massive and the inside was beautiful, there were statues everywhere and the walls were covered with art. We decided to make the trek up the 530 stairs to the top of the dome...it was tiring and a little nerve racking because the stairs got smaller and steeper! But it was absolutely worth it because we got amazing views of the city!!

Me, holding on for dear life!

Awesome view right?!

Tiny stairs...these ones weren't even that bad either compared to the ones at the very very top!

Afterwards a few of us headed to the Museum of London. It was already 5 by that point and it was closing at 6 so we got to look arond the bottom floor of the museum which was awesome! I might have to go back when I have some more time to see the rest of it!

That night I got coaxed into going out again...kind of a big deal for me! But figured why not since this is technically our last weekend here in London since next weekend I'll be in Paris and then the following weekend is the end of our trip here in London...crazy! But it was another load of fun...I met these two British girls who were awesome! I hit it off more with them than people in my own program, but I figured maybe this will give me a really good reason to come back to London, to visit my new friends who actually live here! Hopefully we'll get to hang out with them again while we're here : )