Sunday started with homemade breakfast – I took the chorizo and cheese that we bought at the market and made a gigantic pile of scrambled eggs. We were so full from the last 48 hours of eating that we didn’t get outside until around noon. Food is evil.
The Tower of London only had an hour of visiting time left when we were nearby earlier in the week, so we decided to go back for the full tour on Sunday. The tower was built in 1078 and is actually a giant castle, it just gets its name from the White Tower in the middle. The tower has been used as a dungeon, mint, royal palace, armory and more, and now they have examples of each for tourists.
As large and imposing as the place was, it was actually one of the more historically accessible things I saw on the trip. 
You could see things like actual bedrooms where royals slept and graffiti carved into the wall by prisoners in the 1500′s. Kind of cool to be standing in the same place where you have a direct record of what happened there. Wikipedia has lots of good info on the tower.
While inside, and after waiting on a long but fast moving line, I got to see the crown jewels. The crowns themselves are very impressive but about what you would expect. They are covered in large and small gems. Some of the other things on display were hard to believe. There were rooms full of solid gold plates and sculptures, including a wine/punch bowl that was 3 feet by 3 feet.
Seeing the entire tower took almost four hours, and we had to hurry out because the gates were closing. I can’t imagine how they check the entire place for people every night.
The other part of the complex is the Tower Bridge (pictured to the left, right above the human/panda hybrid). You can actually take an elevator to the top blue 
crossing of the bridge. This apparently used to be a hangout for pickpockets and prostitutes but is now a monument to this and other famous bridges around the world. Can’t win them all.
This was somewhat of a let down only because of the weather – it was hard to see much of anything from the top. It was still interesting to be inside and see what a complex structure it was given it was built in the 1800′s. Part of the exhibition includes an underground tour of the hydraulic engine room that originally helped raise and lower the bridge for ships to pass.
Anyway, that was the last of the sightseeing for the day. For dinner we went to the local pub – The Phoenix. Tola met us there, and we figured the best way to celebrate leaving London was…burgers. Just about everyone had burgers. We at least had several pounds of bread pudding to wash it down.
Unfortunately, the next day in London was going to be my last, so naturally we spent the night playing some more drunk Scrabble.
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