Day two in London:

Because we’ve been to London before, we tried to stay away from most of the things we did before, and seek out those things we missed. But because we only had a few days here (Dang business trip), we still were not be able to get it all in. So, we started the day with a visit to the Tower of London. When we visited London 9 years ago, I just took a few obligatory photos near the Tower, but never walked the grounds.

View of the Tower Bridge from inside the Tower

View of the Tower from inside the Tower

If you are a Tudors fan, I’m sure you would be interested to see the place where Anne Boleyn breathed her last breath and hear about all the other people who were held captive in the Towers. What I didn’t expect was the Disneyland like atmosphere. There were lines everywhere, and some of the exhibits were strictly for kid interaction. To say I was unimpressed, is an understatement. I stood in that long line, for that?

Here’s one of those long lines

The longest line (or as they say in London, que) was the one to see the Crown Jewels.  I don’t know how long we were in that line, but it started and stopped raining, twice.  The crowns were impressive, but I was bored there too. I couldn’t take any pictures, and if you’ve seen one big diamond, you’ve seen twenty.

The only picture I could take of the crown jewels

At any rate, still no Anne Boleyn head chopping area, and no signs pointing to such.  I did see the Bloody Tower, where some small princes met an untimely death  (we didn’t go inside), and the Torture Tower. But the only person being tortured was me, so we made a hasty retreat, with me mumbling, “Stupid, Tower.”  As we were leaving I did see the Traitors’ Gate. The place where most of the prisoners entered the Tower…including Anne Boleyn, but by this time I was beyond famished, and beyond thinking. I needed to eat and I needed to eat fast.

Traitors’ Gate

So, we decided to get more fish and chips. What can I say? The restaurant where we were first indoctrinated to the deliciousness that is Fish and Chips was near the Tower of London.  It’s called the Tower Hill Diner.  And I’m pretty sure their fish and chips was better than the fish and chips we had at Poppies. I’m just saying.

After Linner (it’s a word my husband invented to incorporate the meal between Lunch and Dinner) I was able to think, and we headed to Piccadilly Circus (in London’s West End). This area is filled with everything: Shops, restaurants, theaters, tourists. We had tickets to a show.

…cuz this is Thriller…

Now, when we were in Munich about 6 months ago, we saw The Michael Jackson Immortal World Tour Show by Cirque du Soleil. It was great! So, we decided to see Thriller, Live. We knew that this was going to be a totally different show, but we still thought it would be interesting to see it anyway. Once I got over my initial confusion (is he supposed to be Michael Jackson, or maybe him, or her) it was okay. If I had gone in with the notion that this is a tribute, and we’re just going to hear different people singing a lot of Jackson tunes, I would have been as “right as rain.” So, all in all, it was okay.

While we were outside, contemplating our next move, two women came up to me and asked if I knew where they could find some area of town. Wow, do I look like a local? Or maybe an informed tourist? If that had only happened once, I would say it’s the latter. But it happened at least 6 times. We stopped counting. We were flattered, but flustered just the same.  Maybe, we just seemed helpful.

At any rate, after the show we walked around a bit, stopped in the M & M World store (why does this store exist?) did a little shopping and headed back to our hotel.

It was a good day two.