Iconic London: Day One

Due to royal baby watching, I did not get to see much of London the first day I came into town. A group of us decided to use our two days off to come into London and stay in a hostel for an evening. The morning started at the much anticipated house of Charles Dickens. However, we quickly realized that the tour wasn't too exciting without a tour guide. We made the best of it though!

Above is the Dickens door and the entrance to the museum. Below is a picture I thought mom would like :)

Next, is the jail cell bars of where Dickens family was kept in debtor's prison. This room was full of artifacts. 

The room below was a "reflection" room. It had famous quotes from his novels posted all over the room .

After the Dickens house, we made our way to the Tower of London. This ended up taking up the rest of our day, but was well worth it!

We were advised to take the Beefeater guided tour at the tower, and we were extremely glad that we did. It was very informative and entertaining. We heard lots of gruesome stories of executions gone wrong: brains exposed, 27 failed attempts at cutting one man's head off, and other cruel deaths.

Once the tour finished, we decided that the crowned jewels were a must! Pictures were not allowed, but they were beautiful. We had a rowdy group of junior high students in front of us. We all had to hold in our inner chaperone and not intervene, but we still struggled to not yell at some unruly kids.

We visited Wakefield Tower (also known as the "Tower of Torture") and looked at different torture devices. 

As you can see, the London Bridge is also located near the Tower. I did learn that this is not the actual London Bridge, but is called that for some reason. 

Laura and I decided to take a river cruise that night that ended up somewhere in the business district of London. We had to learn the bus system in order to get back to our hostel, but we were able to see London at sunset.