Trying to leave London...

We found a company who could book us train and ferry tickets from London to Dublin so we were excited to take care of this transportation and booked that as well as a hostel for two nights in Dublin. We set out for the day in London and spent most of our time in the Tower of London.

The Tower was neat and showed how it had changed through the years. We saw the Bloody Tower inside where people were imprisoned and could still see carvings on the walls left by these captives. Several people were hung, drawn, and quartered in the square. London has some gruesome stories... Also in the Tower (which is cool because it had a draw bridge and moat) are the Crown Jewels. We saw so many crowns, gowns, and scepters but the Crown Jewels were the most stunning and priceless. We chatted with beefeaters dressed up in their garb and learned about the ravens that they keep on the grounds.

We took a cruise down the River Thames. The river itself is pretty brown and ugly but that’s only because of the mud kicked up as a result of the constant, quick river flow - the river is actually pretty clean they tell us - the cleanest in a city anywhere in the world. The bells from Westminster were ringing loudly when we got off the boat and a flag was flying in Parliament which was peculiar. Parliament takes a 12 week break and had been on it for two weeks but the flag signifies that parliament is in session. We asked an officer and he told us that the flag will also fly if it is a significant day and we were lucky to listen to bell music celebrating Princess Anne’s birthday.

We thought we would go to Kings Cross Station to see platform 9 3/4 where Harry Potter and his friends passed through the wall to get to Hogwarts. Next adventure: while there, we thought we’d fast print our tickets for the train/ferry to Dublin for the next day. The tickets printed with the wrong date! We called the company and the man could not help us. Trying to find internet to use skype was difficult and we ended up having to wait a while to call back so the company could replay our booking conversation to see if it was their fault or ours. We went to church at the Westminster Cathedral and continued to call this company only to hear the busy sound.

Unfairly, the company kept their phone on “busy” until they closed and we were screwed. We went to the train help desk for a second time to try to get their help but we didn’t go through them to book so there wasn’t much they could do. We went back to our new hostel and arranged to stay their an extra night. Luckily our accommodation in Dublin was able to switch our dates as well. So an extra day in London... it’s so expensive that British Pound!

On our extra day we walked all around the city and visited The National Gallery. We saw Van Gogh’s sunflowers and some of Monet’s finest artworks. The British Museum was enormous as well. They are lucky to have pieces from the Parthenon and a large Egyption exhibit. We walked through their special exhibit on Hadrian and his Roman Empire. Matt enjoyed learning about the Roman Empire under Hadrian - mostly because we’ll be in Rome in just over a week :-)!

Overall, London was great - just expensive. Off to Ireland next!