To the Tower

After a ten hour sleep, we were awake at 5.30am. What ?? A bit of early morning tv and then it was time for breakfast, which is included in the cost of our room.

And then we were off. To the station nearby where we got oyster cards and jumped on to the DLR (Docklands Light Rail) heading for Tower Gateway and the Tower of London. I had been before when I came on holiday in 2007, but there were parts I didn't go to then, or that have been altered since, so it was good to revisit. Being a bit of a history geek, I just want to turn into a sponge and soak up the atmosphere and store every bit of new information in an easily accessible part of my mind.

White Tower

Cradle Tower

one of the Tower Ravens

some residences of the Yeomen of the Guard (how cool would it be to live there ??!!)

centuries old graffiti

Tower Bridge which is actually only 120 years old

After we had seen all we wanted and had a sit down and a drink, we found a nice spot to watch the river and eat some lunch, then went to get HOHO tickets. 

The Shard over the river from our lunch spot

Turns out there are 3 providers of this service and 2 of them have vulture like salespeople who pounce on you while you are trying to absorb the facts and differences between each service. They also still will not leave you alone when you ask for time, squabbling with each other about the benefits of their tour compared with the other and actually forgetting the customer experience. 

Houses of Parliament and Westminster Bridge

Needless to say we went with provider number 1, the sales person for which had wisely withdrawn himself from the melee at the onset. We took the circuit all the way around in its entirety and by the end were suffering from information overload. But it has helped us decide where to go back to (or not) tomorrow. We left the tour at the stop where we had joined and went to find a coffee and tea before heading back to the hotel.

So what's in store tomorrow ? You will just have to wait and see.