Markets and Towers and Planning, O MY!

Thursday we kicked off our weekend by going to Tortilla, our favorite little burrito stop in town, right after class.  We stayed in that night to watch Atonement and plan trips.  Well Bailey and I are really bad about planning trips so we can just forget about that.  Now, if you haven't seen Atonement, it is a really sad and depressing movie.  No matter how many times I tell people, they don't believe me until they see it.  I personally love the movie.  It's very well acted and directed, but the story line is extremely sad, and should not be watched by the faint of heart.

Friday we got down to business.  Sort of...  We did accomplish two of the walks in my 50 Walks of London guide.  At around noon Bailey and I went to the Tower of London.  It cost us about £13.50 (Look!  I found my character palette!)  It gave us about three and a half hours of entertainment.  I was amazed at the inside of the fortress.  I wish I would have taken more pictures of the inside.  It looked like a walled off village.  I am not sure what I was expecting.  Probably something less quaint, and community like, and more severe.  There were roads and walk ways, and flats that I think people actually live in today.  It was quite an experience.  While we were there we walked around the fortress wall, went inside the White Tower (that's the one the place is famous for) and inside the Bloody tower, where traitors and heretics were kept and tortured.  it was a good chunk of history.  We also got to see the Crown Jewels.  Man, the other half lived goooooood.  There were diamonds the size of baby's fists.  One crown held over 3000 diamonds.  We also got to see the changing of the Tower Guard.  I got a video but it's taking a long time to load so it will eventually be posted on here.

From the tower, we went up to Tower Bridge and paid the £5 it cost to go up to the top.  There was an "exhibition" there.  The view was incredible.  You could see all of London.  The only way up was through stairs, so needless to say, that acted as our workout for the day.  But once up there, it was totally worth it.  I got some great pictures.

A view from the Top!

Lucky for us it was a clearish day.

They had games at the Top.  I totally pwn'd Bailey.  Xs rule!

This us the creepy entrance to the Market

We didn't spend too much time in the Tower Bridge because once you got your pictures and marveled a bit, what else is there to do?  Bailey and I hit the streets to make our way to the Burough Market.  It's a gourmet food market.  We had to go through a creepy tunnel to get there, but once inside, the smells of deliciousness reached my nose.  I had to try really hard to avoid the sweets.  Not having a lot of money in my pocket made it easier.  It was situated nicely next to a cathedral which made it very picturesque.  They had a lot of food to offer, but sadly I didn't get any of the free samples that others got when they visited.  This market was very similar to the Farmer's markets that I am used to back home.

Nice location, don't you think?

After the market we found the pirate ship The Golden Hind to satisfy another one of my geeky loves and then headed back to Vandon House where Bailey and I really got down to our planning stages.  We booked our coach to Paris for next weekend, and began looking at hotels, but we didn't actually book the hotel until Saturday morning.  We decided to go hotel over hostel because it was cheaper and had a better location.  Double bonus!

Saturday all we did was go to the Museum of London.  It was for an assignment because normally it's really cool and interesting.  Right now, however, 3/4 of it is under construction.  All the cool interesting stuff is under construction!  We learned how London came to be from the Neanderthals to the Romans to medieval times, but that was very short, and could have been more extensive.  We were there maybe an hour.  I was a little disappointed that we couldn't see the meat and bones of the place.  Apparently they want it ready by the Olympics so they are fixing it up now.

After the museum we tried to go to the London Eye, but the queue was huge.  We will have to go back in the morning sometime.  We watched Notting Hill to end the night.  Sooooo cute, and based really close to us.  Just a few tube stops away.  I also think that Bailey and I found our Spring Break destination.  I won't say more until I've met with the travel agent, but I may now have some cash to spare for other trips!!!  Maybe one a little further south (wink wink).

Pip Pip Cheerio!