Tower of London

So the opening of our hotel door awoke us at 8:30 — apparently, we had forgotten to lock the door when we went to bed.  Oh, well.

After gradually getting ready for the day and eating breakfast, I finalized our packing, stowed our luggage at the hotel, and made our way to the Tower of London. The evening before and today, we noticed women in nice dresses and fascinators and men in top hats and tails.  Multiple weddings?  I finally asked one of the groups of women — the races at Ascot!   Just like My Fair Lady!

It was a gorgeous day — we walked along the Thames, crossing the London Bridge and arriving at the fortress at about noon.

We waited in the moat area for a tour to begin.

There was quite a crowd in the tour, and by the time we got to the second stop, we couldn’t hear the guide at all, so we just followed the map and wandered to different points of interest around the Tower.
There were a number of metal sculptures representing various soldiers’ positions.

We also toured the king’s bedchamber.

We took pictures in various parts of the fortress as we continued our tour.

 The White Tower —the original building.

There are ravens living on the grounds, too.

We finished our tour and crossed the Tower Bridge

We had lunch on Butler’s Wharf — good meal and people-watching.

After returning to the hotel, we met up with Axel at Waterloo Station and traveled to Richmond to see our German/English”family.”  We had Lebanese food along with champagne while sitting outside in their garden.  Their children are so much fun!  Bed at 11:00ish.