London, day 4 - July 4, 2016

Wow!  43,000 steps yesterday and over 20 miles of running and walking!  Without the 10K steps, we rivaled that number today.  The plan for today was to do the more touristy stuff, and boy did we do a bunch.  Our first thought was to start at the Victoria and Albert museum, but then we realized that the changing of the guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace started soon, so we decided to beeline there instead.  There were hundreds of people there to see this, but we were able to see the Queen's guards parade through the circle and into the gates of the palace.  Right across the street from the palace was St. James Park, a beautiful stretch reaching all the way to 10 Downing Street.  Not far from there we found Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the houses of Parliament.  Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures inside Westminster Abbey, but we did get to see the graves and memorials to such famous historical figures as Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, C.S. Lewis, and a whole host of others.  We also saw the tombs of Mary and Elizabeth, as well as Mary, queen of Scots, and many other royals throughout history.  Also housed at Westminster Abbey is the coronation chair, the chair that British monarchs have been crowned on for centuries.  Outside, across the street from the abbey, was a small park with statues of Ghandi and Nelson Mandela, and a tribute of flowers, candles, and comments for Jo Cox, the Parliament MP who was murdered last month.  A short walk around the Parliament building and we were across Lambeth Bridge to the south bank of the Thames.

The walk down the south bank took us past quite a few sights.  We walked under the London Eye (it takes 45 minutes to ride it once around), past Shakespeare's Globe theater, the Millennium Bridge (destroyed by the death eaters in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows movie), London Bridge, and the warship HMS Belfast, before arriving at the Tower Bridge.  We got an extra bonus, as we got to the Tower Bridge just in time for it to raise its drawbridge to allow a tall ship to pass beneath it.  Then we went inside to do the Tower Bridge Experience.  We climbed the 206 steps 45 meters up to learn more about the bridge's history and structure.  They also have a glass floor in parts of the walkways between towers - a little scary if you're afraid of heights!

 Out the other side, we were on to the Tower of London, home to the crown jewels and torture rooms.  We only had an hour left before they closed for the day, so we grabbed a quick selfie with a Beefeater guard and made straight for the crown jewels.  The opulence of the maces, scepters, crowns, and swords is beyond belief.  Altar plates 3 feet in diameter made of solid gold, tons of gem stones and pearls, and lots of heavy security inside a vault with doors over a foot thick.  Outside the crown jewels display, we bumped into some of the Tower ravens.  Legend says that if the 6 resident ravens (plus one spare) ever decide to leave, the Tower will fall, so the raven-keeper makes sure that doesn't happen by feeding them raw meat and biscuits soaked in blood each day.  They were quite friendly and happy to pose for photos with lots of people close by.  With not much time left, we checked out the Bloody Tower, which houses the portcullis used to open and close the water gate of the tower complex and also the torture chamber, displaying a plowman's daughter device, a rack, and a set of manacles.  The plowman's daughter was designed to keep you folded into a cannonball-like position for extended periods of time, while the rack was meant to stretch you beyond your limits until it tore you apart.  The manacles were just for hanging you up by your wrists for fun.  Not the best note to end on but oh well!  Long ride home on the tube during rush hour, but Tim had a wonderful homemade dinner of pea soup and a ham and cabbage salad waiting for us.  Last full day in London tomorrow before our train ride to Paris on Wednesday.