Day out in London with the Doerrs

In late May, our friends Dave & Jackie crossed the pond for a European vacation. Between their visits to Paris and Italy, we got to meet up with them for a day of sightseeing in London! Our friend Erin graciously agreed to watch Charlotte for the day, so we could really enjoy ourselves without toddler shenanigans :) Thanks again, Erin -- that was awesome.

We met up with Dave and Jackie near the Tower of London and took a guided Beefeater's Tour of the place. The history is interesting, and quite bloody due to the number of executions and murders that took place there over the years. We saw the famous ravens, the spot where Anne Boleyn was beheaded, and the Crown Jewels. (So you don't take too long ogling the biggest crowns and scepters, they shuttle you past them on moving sidewalks.) There was also an exhibit on medieval torture devices -- yikes.

View of the Tower of London from outside

After finishing the tour, we walked to Tower Bridge and took the lifts to the top. I hadn't realized you can walk across the support area between the two towers -- and they have recently added glass floors to the experience. Also -- selfie mirrors on the ceiling for taking the best possible glass floor related shots... hadn't seen those before.

After we descended from the bridge, we went to eat lunch at a nearby pub. It was definitely nice to eat at a restaurant without Charlotte, love her though we do. From there we walked over to St. Paul's Cathedral, thinking it would be free to enter with our London passes -- alas, it was not, so we decided not to pay the entry fee and moved on to the Tate Modern art museum, across the Millenium Bridge. Paul and I are not huge fans of modern art, but we wandered through a few galleries before deciding to move on.

From there, we caught a cab to the Churchill War Rooms and ended up being one of the last groups allowed to enter. The woman working the front door must have been DONE. with her day, because she kept trying to warn everyone getting in the queue that we likely wouldn't get in because it was closing time. (It was still 10 minutes to close.) We were glad we decided to stick it out, because we got in, no problem. I had been in 2003, and it was just as good as I remembered - and now there is a large exhibit about Churchill himself. The War Rooms is the set of underground bunkers where the major planning and strategizing of Britain's efforts in WWII were conducted. They have left much of the complex in the way it was abandoned after the end of the war -- maps still on the walls with pushpins marking the locations of ships, notes still on desks, etc. It's fascinating.

From there, we walked through Picadilly Circus to Trafalgar Square and then to SoHo, where we found dinner. Many of the bars and restaurants were packed with Friday afternoon happy-hour participants, but we found a table downstairs at a burger restaurant. After dinner, we parted ways -- it was a great day and so much fun to see friends in our current home country!