After an unbelievable day of sightseeing the day before, I really didn't believe it could be topped - but I was proven wrong once again. Day 8 brought on the Tower of London in the morning, and St. Paul's Cathedral in the afternoon. Afterward we crossed the Millennium Bridge and walked along the Thames (pronounced "Tems") to try and find the Borough Market. We were denied though since the Borough Market is only open from Fri - Sun. Determined to end off on a good note though we stopped at The Mudlark Pub for the best fish and chips I've ever had in my life before heading home via London Bridge station. Here is a link to our itinerary.
Tower of London (5 of 5)
Did the kids love the Tower? Absolutely! What's not to like? We saw the Crown Jewels, dungeons, torture chambers, cannon firings, beefeaters - the list goes on. The Tower of London is a World Heritage Site and was commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1078 after taking over England. The centerpiece of the place though is the White Tower in the center. When it was first build, apparently it was quite revolutionary. It was the only building in London that was higher than 2 storeys, so it could be seen from miles away. It now consists of 5 floors of interactive displays and artifacts that are pretty neat like different types of armour and weapns. I'll admit though, when I first approached the Tower, I wasn't that impressed from the exterior. This is one of those things though that you really do have to go inside to get engaged. The Crown Jewel exhibit is quite a sight. Seriously impressive bling in there so we bought a mini Crown to place on top of our X-mas tree! If you go to London this site should be on your top 3 things to do. [Cost: 18.70 GBP/Adult; 10.45 GBP/Child]
St.Paul's Cathedral [5 of 5]
If you've seen Mary Poppins, you've seen this Cathedral as "Feed the Birds" was shot here. Although the original burned down in the great fire in 1666, it is still just as cool as the Abbey. Dare I say it, but I really liked St. Paul's more than the Abbey. I think it all comes down to presentation and access of the materials much like the British Museum. At the Abbey, there was a sense of "Oh, don't touch that - and you can't go here." At St. Paul's you get to get up close to the tombs and climb up to 3 different levels of galleries. For the galleries, the first level is 30m up and 294 steps away. Chloe made it up 289 before asking for Daddy's help ;) We weren't gonna attempt the 2nd and 3rd levels since they were 56m and 87m above ground respectively. So one word of caution to parents. Don't go up unless your kid can make it up at least 75% of the way since there is no way buggies are making it up there. As the for Crypt in the basement, I told Siew that Dan Brown should have used St. Paul's instead of the Abbey for his book. It had a very mysterious vibe that made me want to hunt for conspiracy inscriptions hidden underneath some guys tomb (which you can do... and I tried). Outside, there is a nice picnic area in the rose gardens that is quite popular. [Cost: 12.50 GBP/Adult; 4.50 GBP/Child>5]
Millennium Bridge [2 of 5]
Built as part of the Millennium celebrations, what can I say? It is a fancy pedestrian bridge that connects the North and South bank and looks like a metal spider web - but walking across it there is nothing really special. It does give you direct access to the Globe and Tate Modern which proves useful. However, after crossing the bridge and heading East to setup and take a picture, there was a good contrast that put things in perspective. To my left was the Millennium Bridge. To my right was Tower Bridge. Hmm... what was the point of this thing again?
