London

This was our first actual day getting to see London instead of doing a day trip outside. 

Our hotel included a full breakfast every day while we were there at the pub across the gardens. 

Because the previous days we had to be at the train station before the breakfast area opened up, we finally had a chance to sleep in a little, and also get a nice big breakfast.

I loved their breakfast. They had the classic cereal, porridge, yogurt, along with croissants and meat and cheese. They then had hot breakfast options that ranged from the full English Breakfast (toast, eggs, bacon, sausage, tomatoes) to just plain eggs. In addition, there were fresh fruit juices, coffee, and of course tea with your own personal tea pot. I loved everything about this.

After getting our fill, we took the tube into London. We were about 40 minutes outside of downtown London on the tube which was not bad at all. Our hotel was less than a 10-minute walk which made it easy for us to get anywhere we wanted to go. 

Our first stop was the Sherlock Museum at 221B Baker Street. I'm such a nerd and I make everyone come here when I'm in London.

 The museum is an entire 4 story London flat (not huge) that is made up to look like Sherlock's apartment from the books. it is full of memorabilia from his famous cases, as well as some authentic Victorian furniture pieces and decor. I always think it's worth seeing because it's fun.

After that we made our way to the Tower of London. Our trip to London just happened to coincide with the death of Queen Elizabeth II. It wasn't planned, she just happened to pass the week before we left on our trip. Because this particular day was the day before her state funeral, there were some things that were not part of the experience. 

For example, normally you can join in on a 30-minute tour with the beefeaters to take you through the Tower and tell you stories, and history, before letting you wander on your own. Also, not all the crown jewels were there to see as some of them were part of the state funeral services. 

Before we got the tickets, they did give us a disclaimer so we knew what would be missing. We still went anyway. I guess these disclaimers turned a lot of people away as the place was not nearly as packed as I would have expected for a Sunday.

We wandered around, climbed all the steps to see all the towers, saw the crown jewels, took lots of pictures, and played around until we were ready to leave. 

From there we walked over to Tower Bridge and did what I have always wanted to do but haven't ever, which is go inside the bridge and up to the top. 

They have stairs you can climb up to the top, or you can take an elevator up and down. We voted for the elevator. 

Once you get to the top part, it's all enclosed so you don't have to worry about wind and weather. 

It also offered some really great views, and some people taking interesting selfies on the floor of the tower. I opted to take a picture of the selfie takers instead of laying on the ground myself. It was really interesting, and they let you wander around up there as much as you want. Totally worth doing. 

When we exited the bridge on the other side of the river we came across a very large line of people. Turns out this was part of line that went to Parliament for viewing the Queen lying in state. All the news outlets had said the line was closed and they were not allowing any more to step in. We understood why seeing how crazy long it was.

It was nearing the end of the day, so we jumped on the train and headed up to the British Museum to explore before they closed. By the time we got there we only had 45 minutes to explore the museum. That is not much time at all. (We had gone to the museum earlier in the day, but there was a line around the block in both directions, so we had decided we'd try again later in the day to avoid the line). There wasn't much of a line with 45 minutes to closing. 

We did have to rush through most of it and pick and choose the main things. We saw the Rosetta Stone, and the really cool Egyptian Collection. We then walked through other areas of the museum until they announced everyone to leave. 

We didn't get a chance to go back and spend more time, but we saw the highlights at least. I convince my partner that while we were in London we might as well be nerds. So we went to Kings Cross Station and saw platform 9 3/4. 

We did not wait in the line to get our picture taken, but we did take a look inside the Platform 9 3/4 store. It was very expensive, so we didn't buy anything. Also nothing we wanted there anyway. 

By this point we were very hungry. Lucky for us there was an Indian restaurant across the street from the station with some very high reviews. We took a gamble, plus we were too hungry to really hunt, and popped in for some real Indian food. Turns out this was the best Indian food we had in London during our trip. I still think about it often. It was so good, and filling, and hit all the cravings I'd been having for the real, good quality stuff. 

Once fully stuffed, we made it back to the hotel and crashed for the night. Miles walked 10.