Day 3: London City

So I know you were ALL-TO-THRILLED about my Day 2 post, so I decided to post day 3. That Thursday began with Lyle and I taking the 1 minute walk from the Nielson's house to the train station in Twyford. The train was a wee bit expensive, but what can you do. To help this situation, we decided to wait until after the "rush" to ride the 30-45 minute train ride into Foggy London City. The train ride exited at Paddington Station. There, we hopped on the tube and exited for the Tower of London. The train and the tube (the subway) are very clean and they are even upholstered! Crazy right? The subway in New York would NEVER have cushioned seats. These modes of transportation in London are very clean too! Hmmm. Also we rode a double-decker (yes as in my maiden name) bus.

Below is a pic of the train station we became VERY familiar with in Twyford, a shot of Paddington Station, and a classic Double-Decker bus!

First thing was first...Tower of London baby! Below is the entrance, Traitor's Gate, homes inside the Tower of London, and a shot of Lyle inside the Tower's gates. Did you know that 44 families (meaning older couples) live WITHIN the Tower of London walls. Crazy! People actually LIVE within these ancient walls? Yep! We received our tour from a "beef-eater" otherwise known as a yeoman. A yeoman was a nobleman in the middle-ages who owned land. A beefeater is another name, but more specifically he is an official guard of the Tower of London. Our yeoman was BRILLIANT. Again, he had many many facts and stories, but like I said before, in one ear and out the other. If Lyle were writing this post he might be able to tell you a few dozen...HIS bad.

Again, I am taking detailed pictures within the tower of London. Get used to it! I am strangely obsessed with these gargoyles still.

Oh look we DID get pictures of us in London! Here I am with the Tower bridge in the background. Lyle is climbing the ENDLESS stairs which were very windy in the BLOODY tower. I think it's the Bloody Tower anyway...could have been the white tower. Oh well.
The cage with the black ravens. The black ravens were native to the area long long ago (still are in fact). They are caged (although they are freed everyday) because they are the official bird of the Tower of London. They were made the "guardians" and "protectors" of the King and those within the Tower walls. They were walking around, but I didn't get a close up. DANG!

Pictured below is the TOWER BRIDGE. It was hilarious because we saw the bridge and we were amazed by it! We toured the Tower of London for a couple hours and were excited to see the bridge in its glory. Once we did we had someone take a picture and we just stared at the bridge's majesty. Then, we were on our way to the rest of our tours. While map boy Lyle was studying the map he couldn't figure out where we were. It didn't make sense of where we were in relation to the Tower of London and the London Bridge. Why didn't this make sense on the map? Oh, maybe it was because the London Bridge wasn't what we thought it was. The majestic marvel behind us was the TOWER BRIDGE. I repeat, it IS the TOWER BRIDGE. Do not be fooled. The ACTUAL London Bridge...the original...is in ARIZONA somewhere. It became dangerous to drive on years and years ago so it was sold to a man who took it to Arizona where you can see it...in AMERICA. Now, a boring bridge is labeled the London bridge down the Thames River (pronounced Tims). Imagine our surprise...ha.

We went to the College of Arms to see if we could look up the Schofield Family Crest. Unfortunately it is NOT that easy. You can only receive an original family crest if you actually have ancestors who were noblemen. Needless to say we need to do a little more research to see if we are "noble" enough to receive a crest someday.
Pictured is the main thing that made Lyle's trip (no seriously)...a ferrari. Lyle even saw TWO of them-one up close and everything. To the right is a mural on the wall of the Tate Modern Museum. This museum (hence the name) has modern art from the 20th century. VERY cool...and free! We visited museums galore and most of them were free. These were worth the trip...must sees! This mural might have been my favorite piece of art from the Tate Modern Museum. We also went to a GREAT asian restaurant called Wagamama's. Below Lyle is eating there. The tables are set up like long picnic tables where you sit next to everyone. Very cool. At restaurants in London you eat (and drink) into the late evening hours. The servers are paid hourly, so they don't depend on your tip. Also, they don't offer you a bill, they wait to have you ask for it. Finally...they don't "owe" you any kind of customer service. So you are lucky if you get a good one (like we did).Day three ended with us walking to leicester square (pronounced Lester). Here we stopped to have some gelato (yum) and to enjoy the ambiance. This was my FAVORITE place in London. Sorry, no pictures. This was my favorite place because it was super "cute". It seemed like a hangout for the young crowd. Fun date nights and hang outs occurred here. It is made up of a grassy gated "quad" area with monuments. It is surrounded by huge movie theaters, ice cream shops, tourist shops.

I can't wait to go back and just "chill" in Leicester square
with the Lyle and some Gelato someday.