A Trip to London: Part II.

Before I show some photos from my latest trip to London, I just want to check whether my blog readers are as shallow as the Homeschool on the Croft Facebook readers. I posted this photo the other day whilst in Inverness, with the caption:

Waiting for an appointment ... Me an' my book

Would you credit the responses? Here are some of them:

It's the lovely rings I noticed!

I noticed the ring too! lol Mine is *very* similar with sapphire in middle and 3 diamonds on either side - just smaller stones! :)

I have a ruby as my engagement stone. I love it and get so many compliments on it.

You can tell where our priorities are! I love you engagement ring too! (but I do know that Thomas J. is the famous "Stonewall" Jackson)

I'm so glad I have a different class of Blog readers. I do, don't I?

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After our day in Inverness, Katie and I flew to London for a whistle-stop visit. We saw friends, saw Buckingham Palace, went on the London Eye (and so saw all of London from the air). And then we visited the Tower of London.

Having spent 45 years never visiting London, I have now been a London tourist twice within the space of four months. I could seriously get used to this level of frequency. I could also become a Tour Adviser ...

We thought of taking the Boris Bikes around London,

but decided on the Original Bus Tour once again.

Advice #1 - if you're visiting London, the Bus Tour is a definite Must Do. The Yellow Route with this company always has a live guide (rather than the recordings listened to through headphones). You must go for the live guide tour. These guides can be mines of information, and not only are they hugely knowledgeable, but can be very, very funny too. 

Of all the bus guides we had last week, the fellow in this photo was the best. 

Katie and I also went to the Tower of London this time. 

This was our Beefeater guide. He was great! Informative (not with any great historical detail, but good all the same); great fun; and hilariously patriotic! 

He'd served in the Marines for twenty-two years.

Ahem ... in the BRITISH ROYAL Marines. Get it right.

Parts of the Tower of London complex have been there since William the Conqueror's day: this photo is of the White Tower, built in the 11th Century. 

That is a long, long time. So much history. So many lives lived here. So many lives ended here. 

This is where Queen Anne Boleyn lost her head. And Lady Jane Grey.

Sad, sad times.

Tower Bridge is so lovely.

We also went on The Eye.

Thirty-two capsules, representing the thirty-two buroughs of London. Each capsule holds around twenty-five people - the capsules are much larger than I'd expected, and though I didn't count the number of folks in our pod, there were probably between twenty and twenty-five. Even with that, we didn't feel crowded at all.

This was taken when we were fairly near the top. The Palace of Westminster is on the right, with the clock and Big Ben, with Westminster Abbey just behind that.

I'm glad we did this. If I ever get the opportunity to take the trip at night, I probably will. London is lovely at night.

I don't want to bore y'all with too many London photos - again! But I will write at least one other post showing some more photos of our capital.