The Tower of London
On our third and final day in London we got out a bit earlier. We had breakfast at a bakery around the corner from our hotel and then caught a bus to near Harrods department store. We spent about an hour wandering around the store.
From there we took a bus to Victoria Station and then walked past Westminster Cathedral to Westminster Abbey. The line to get in the Abbey was fairly long (did I mention that August isn’t the best time to visit London?) but there was nothing for it but to join the queue and wait.
It was pretty crowded inside, as well. No photography is allowed in the abbey, which is probably just as well, when you consider how slowly people were moving without taking pictures. Most of our group listened to the audio guides but Dorothy and I satisfied ourselves with reading the monuments themselves. While I’m certainly glad we went, I’m not as thrilled with Westminster Abbey as I am with some other churches I’ve visited. It’s more a shrine to fallen men than a place to worship the God whom they ostensibly served.
After lunch in the new Cellarium cafe, which opened last year, we walked across Westminster Bridge and caught a bus to near Tower Bridge. We enjoyed the view of the bridge and the Tower of London across the river from Potter’s Fields Park. We walked across the bridge and then around the Tower, which was closed by this time.
We took a bus back to the west, passing St. Paul’s Cathedral, which we didn’t have time to see on this trip. I’ve been in but I’d love to go there again. I’m a fan of big domes. We had dinner near Covent Garden and the returned to our hotel, again via Trafalgar Square. Buying Oyster cards before leaving home turned out to be a good idea. We certainly got our money’s worth out of them.