First on our list today was a must-see in all the guide books--the Tower of London. There's really only one way to experience it, and that's on a Beefeater tour. The Beefeaters are the guards of the Tower, and from what I can tell, are harboring secret ambitions to be stand-up comedians. Our guide was Peter the Beefeater, and he took us through the history and architecture of the Tower. On our wanderings, we got to see the Bloody Tower, where the two princes where allegedly murdered by Richard III, and a delightful exhibit on torture (muhahahaha). Of course, no visit to the Tower of London would be complete without seeing the Crown jewels, so we did that as well and wished we were monarchs... or at least had a few more 532 carat diamonds sitting on our heads. We also said hello to the ravens, who have a legend that states that if the ravens should ever leave the Tower, the White Tower will crumble and the empire will fall. Modern birdkeepers help them out by clipping their wings.
After seeing all of those pretty jewels, we decided to combine retail therapy and sightseeing with a trip to Harrod's, London's iconic super-department store. Harrod's contains five floors of clothing, toys, food, sports equipment, and accessories. We were engaged in more window-shopping, since it's pretty expensive, but it was cool to see the elaborate Egyptian theme to the escalators.
We then exited and took a stroll through Hyde Park. Normally, it's supposed to be very beautiful, but it seems there's a drought (no green grass) and there was also a triathalon today (lots of people... EVERYWHERE). But we got to walk through and even saw the Peter Pan statue. We caught the Tube from the other side of the park and headed back to the Theater District to see STOMP, which was absolutely incredible. It got out fairly early though, so we made another trip on the Tube and rode the London Eye, tallest Ferris wheel in the world. We went right at sunset and got some beautiful views of the city.
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