London calling...

Day: 3

I LOVE LONDON!!!

The vibe, the bustle. Of course it is freezing cold (especially for my poor little Queensland body) but it is still wonderful.

Today I ventured out into the big bad city of  London for the first time! I managed to navigate the trains and the Underground and made it into the city.  I saw red double-deckers, black cabs and very excitingly, the Tower Bridge (often mistakenly called London Bridge). When I took this photo I was standing on the real London Bridge looking onto the Tower Bridge. There have been many many London Bridges in that exact spot dating all the way back to the Romans.

After some walking (mostly in the right direction) I found my first port of call (by accident), the Monument to the Great Fire of London. The fire that started in 1666 and burned for 5 days, destroying most of what was the Plague infested cesspit that was London at the time. The destruction of the city allowed Christopher Wren to build 51 churches around London of which 23 still stand today, including the famous St Paul's Catherdral. Wren also designed the monument to the Great Fire. It stands 202 feet tall which is the exact distance from where the monument stands to the bakery in Pudding Lane where the fire originated.

After accidentally finding the Monument (it was not my intended destination) and finding out all the wonderful history I continued on and found my intended destination, the Tower of London.


The Tower is actually a Castle built by William of Normandy (William the Conqueror) in 1066. Subsequent fortifications where added by kings and queens after him. The White Tower and surroundings have been many things including a fortress, the Royal Mint, a menagerie,   and most famously a prison and site of execution of three queens, including Anne Boleyn. It is now a museum and homes of the Yeoman Warders (the Beefeaters) who guard the Crown Jewels.

The Tower of London looking back from Tower Bridge

The famed Tower of London. The original tower (the White Tower) are the 4 turrets in the middle.
The rest is surrounding fortifications and additional buildings.

The Tower and its surrounds are just beautiful and the exhibits they have on show are incredibly interesting. The Crown Jewels are on display and are pretty impressive. Both the largest and second largest diamond are a part of the crown jewels. The largest diamond (The Star of Africa 1) is set atop the royal sceptre and the second largest (Star of Africa 2) is in the crown, still worn today by Queen Elizabeth II. In another section they have displays of past rulers crowns although without the jewels (they have been removed and reused) but even without the gems they are pretty impressive.

I spent most of my first day walking around the Tower of London (aka the White Tower) and surrounds. There was so much to see and I didn't want to miss anything.

Finally I left and headed back out onto the streets on London which took me across Tower Bridge.

Next stop was Covent Garden which has some funky markets and then onto Trafalgar Square.

View from Trafalgar Square, down Whitehall, to Big Ben

I walked all the way from Trafalgar Square down Whitehall, which is quite a long street dotted with statues and memorials. Unfortunately most of them are in the middle of a busy street which makes it difficult to view and photograph.

As I was walking down Whitehall I passed a tall fence and gate that had several (about 6) police officers milling about in front of it. I wondered what the hell was going on. Then I realised, the was Downing Street, home of the Prime Minister. A quick peek through the fence to see the fairly recognisable door and stoop and I hurried on.

At this stage I had been traipsing around London for many hours and was still battling jetlag so had to call it a day.

I successfully navigated the trains and made it back to Lauren's where I simply crashed!!