London, Tuesday

On Tuesday we woke up reluctantly and ate rolls and brie and stuff for breakfast. Then we took the Metro to London Tower, where we decided to tour. First we decided to see the Crown Jewels, which were gorgeous and glittery. One of the scepters had this huge diamond in it called the Star of Africa. In one display case, there were all these interesting gold things called "salts." I have no idea what that means. Collin thought maybe they held salt. I don't know. Everything was encrusted with gold; there was even a royal punch bowl. :)
Then we explored the armory, which was pretty cool, but self-explanatory. Suits of armor and spears and swords. After that we went and looked at all the different towers and learn about all the tortured, captured British people like Anne Boleyn and a couple kings and these two princes who were probably killed when they were only nine and twelve. :( There were lots of towers; one was about methods of torture; real jolly.
Anyway, we stayed there for a while and then we walked for a while because we wanted to go to the National Gallery of Art. We walked for a really long time and then we decided to go get lunch; we stopped at this cool restaraunt called "EAT." It was really modern and good for you and they had all these weird, interesting sandwiches. I had tuna and red onion and Mom got hummus and carrot. We took our sandwiches to a very little park that this woman told us about and ate them in the shade. It was a pretty spot. After that, we decided to go check out St. Paul's Cathedral for a little, but it cost something ridiculous to get in, so we just went a little inside and took a couple pictures outside because it's such a cool building.
Then we walked some more until we came to the National Gallery, which was really cool, but we had to rush through it because we didn't have a lot of time; it was our last day in London. We saw some DaVincis and Monets and Vermeers, which were very cool, and a couple Reniors and Manets, the works. It was really really pretty, but we had to go very fast, so someday I'll go back and move through it as slow as I want.
After the museum, we walked around Trafalgar Square and took some pictures by this big monument and then we walked to Buckingham Palace (Mom wanted to take a picture with those guards with the furry hats). It was nice to be able to see the walkway we'd taken before on the walking tour more slowly. It was really pretty. Sadly, when we finally got to the palace, the guards we wanted weren't on duty, so we took a couple pictures and then walked through this big, gorgeous green park on the way home. I can't remember what it's called, but it has all these random lawn chairs in one area. It's like Regent's Park, sort of. I can't remember what happened next, so I'll have to go look at pictures so I can remember. More later...