Traveling Tonya: Three Days In London

Tower Bridge

London's bridge is not falling down. Trust me, i saw several of them and walked on a few as well. Just to be clear, London has several bridges that cross the Thames River. The most known is the Tower bridge, or as I like to think of it, the princess bridge. It is the oldest crossing in London (although this is the 3rd at the site)

Just down from it, is The London Bridge, then the Southwark Bridge, Millennium bridge (for walkers only), followed by several others with boring names. Personally, I think The London Bridge is the most boring lit bridge at night. The Tower Bridge is the prettiest (like a princess, thus my nickname). Even in the daytime, the Tower bridge has character. By the way, bonus points to anyone who knows what happened to the previous london Bridge.

Let me go back a minute. I arrived last Thusday morning. I decided to take a hour nap before facing the city. Three hours later, I woke up and headed out.

Over the next three days I got to see several London, but I only saw a minute amount of all that is london.

Big Ben

Telephone Booth, The Eye, Jubilee Bridge

St James Bridge

Next, a stroll thru James Park and by 10 Downing St to get a picture of the door. Little did I know, the whole street is completely blocked and guarded. Oh well, next stop was Westminster Abby, then Big Ben and Parliament. Last, I got intrigued by the walk along the Thames River, and especially the 100 jubilee bridge which had interesting blue arcs when lit at night (my pictures do not do it justice).

Piccadilly Circus

Finally, I made it to Picadilly Circus. The area was crazy, partly because the theater crowd let off, and partly because of the huge number of tourists hanging around.

I finally walked back to my bus stop and headed back to the hotel. I got an alert on my phone - the greatest number of steps I'd ever walked in one day - over 18,000.

The next day I headed to the National archives to try to find the Busic immigrant that came over in the mid-1600s. I know his name was originally Beswick and he came over with 2 brothers. Unfortunately I was not able to find him. I found someone, but not both brothers and I think he showed up again after my relative immigrated. I did find some new resources for researching other relatives.

After a late afternoon snack, I headed to the Millennium and other bridges I mentioned above. I found a river walk that follows the northern bank of the Thames and made for a nice walk.

It got dark as I was waking and I really enjoyed the river views. I finished my night with a night view of the Tower is London.

Once again I walked over 18,000 steps. making my health app happy.

St Paul's Cathedral

My last day in London, I snuck away in the morning for a massage. Then I headed downtown again. This time, I had a huge list is what I wanted to do. But I didn't anticipate all the attractions closing around 4 or 5 on a Saturday, or learning about Evensong at St. Pauls Cathedral and wasting an hour watching the Olympics and relaxing outside waiting for the program to start.

After the service, I went toward the Thames again, stopping to see the memorial to the great fire. I walked back in the river walk to see the bridges and London Tower in daylight, then searched for remnants of the Roman wall from around 1000AD. No luck.

The Cheese Grater vs history

I find it interesting how London mixes re-apply old buildings right next to the most modern buildings. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

My hotel has been nice, but interesting. it is hosting a gamers Convention. Those not in costume are dressed very eclecticly. And the elevators are filed with people talking earnestly about the different "cheats". It's a hoot.

Some extra pictures to enjoy: