After leaving the car there we headed off on foot to the local train station and caught the overground train followed by the underground (a highlight for the kids!) to the Tower of London. Thanks to Tesco days out vouchers we didn't have to fork out any entrance fee for this fantastic place. We joined a Yeoman Warder on a tour of the tower and she took us to the most interesting and notorious parts of the Tower and included lots of interesting snippets of history (and lots of gorey stories!!! I fail to remember how many time the Yeoman talked about hanging, beheaded, murder, torture etc!!) I could have joined another and done it all over again with a different Yeoman because they all have their own way of presenting the stories and I forget things as soon as I hear them so it would have been interesting all over again! I am also astounded by the history we have so readily available all around us here and yet I don't always take the time to enjoy it. I have to say that this was my very first trip to the Tower even though I lived in London for 8 years in my younger days! The rest of the our visit to the Tower was a little more rapid and I didn't get to read as many of the information boards as I would normally like to but that comes with having two young ones with you who are always ready to rush on to the next thing!
We travelled on to the Imperial War Museum which was another place I have never been!We stayed until almost closing time and Isaac had great fun seeing if he could hold a submarine at the right depth and balance while Evie and Brian loved looking at the model of the front lines during the first world war. One of my favourite bits was finding an Anderson shelter set up in one of the exhibitions just like the one we had at the end of our garden (!) and looking round the inside of a 1940's house.
After a quick tea we travelled to Hamleys (the toy shop) to spend the last hour of our day browsing the six floors of toys! (definately my least favourite part of the day!!)
Saturday dawned and we set off again this time for our open top bus tour and river cruise, how touristy can you get! We spent an hour or so touring London on the top of an open top double decker in part sunshine, part torrential rainstorm, before joining the crowds for the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.
We made our way to Westminster pier and took the river cruise to Greenwich to visit the National Maritime Museum and then we walked through the park to the top of the hill to stand on the meridian line with one foot in the east and one in the west! We did manage to catch the last boat back into London and got the last open top bus tour round the rest of the city before heading back to pick up the car and drive home. We didn't get home until nearly midnight and we were all completely pooped but it was so worth the aching feet and tiredness (and all the chocolate spread sandwiches....)
Buckingham Palace
Greenwich Meridian Line
Need to go and do a little scrapbook with them now!
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