London Bridges and other sights

First there was the London Bridge first built by the Romans (to get across the Thames in 46 AD) many renditions later one was sold to US for Lake Havasua in Arizona (1981) but now there are more and the tour bus(es) go over them all.  A bridge at the end of our street was called Horse Ferry and was an early bridge for carts and horses not people it is now the Lambredth Bridge.  The "Original Tour" double decker bus picked up up there at 9:30 AM

this is Charlotte ready to tour.

this is a new building called the Shard

tallest building in Europe as of 2012 just over 1000 feet

this is tower of London a fortress, palace or a prison where Queens were beheaded and where the crown jewels are stored.

 



 

Some other highlights The city of Londonium was started by the Romans. the black plague in 1665 which killed 68,000 people with bubonic plague spread by rats not the dogs or cats as was suspected.  A year later a fire in a bakery on Pudding street burned down the city.  It was rebuilt with Christopher Wren as head architect and buried in St Paul's Cathederal, his  most famous church of the more than 50 rebuilt. Westminster (where we are) was created by Edward the Confessor and is home to Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. 

 

We went to Buckingham Palace and waited 30 minutes for the changing of the guard that was cancelled for today very late but I did see the Horse Guards ride in by the Queen Victoria Monument.  We rode 4 different tour buses and became well grounded in the tourist information some stories we heard multiple times.  We got a Thames River cruise as part of the tour.  Most of the day was sunny with just a little drizzle just before late in the afternoon we went to the British Museum which was very interesting.  I believe that I should just spend several weeks there studying rather that wandering the world as the British have wander the world and brought lots of relevant culture back to the museum.  For instance now the Life and death of Pompeii and Herculaneum is featured but the four of us went to Pompeii and learned less than we could have here.

 

 

This was the reward at the end of the tour.

We had drinks and dinner with the Snow's at their hotel

 

 

So we finished a great first day and our preliminary plans are to sleep in, and catch a play tomorrow, as we realize the Shakespeare was here and the Globe theater is an option, but maybe not.....