When in London you just have to visit the Tower of London, Harrods, Piccadilly Circus, Petticoat Lane and all those other places that are synonymous with the old country.

We were so excited to be out and about and headed off to see the Tower of London by boat.

Taking a boat trip to the Tower of London is very relaxing and gives you time to take in the sights.  I bet it was a lot less stressful for us than it would have been for all those people in the past who were taken to the Tower prior to being executed.

A few of the notables  who were executed  at the Tower were:

• Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry Vlll  who was beheaded on Tower Green;
• Guy Fawkes a conspirator who attempted to blow up Parliament House, in the gunpowder plot and tried to assassinate James 1;
• Lady Jane Grey, who was queen for only 9 days was beheaded.

There are many interesting tales to hear and of course you will get to see the Crown Jewels and the armory.

There are actually a number of towers that make up the Tower of London, so there is lots to see including the ‘Beefeaters’  in there elaborate attire, who are the Yeoman warders of the Tower.

One thing you really must do when your are in England is to go and see the crown jewels, what a magnificent collection.

The Crown Jewels of England are considered to be the most valuable and one of the largest jewelery collections in existence.

It is a truly awe inspiring experience to look on the wealth and craftsmanship of ages gone by.

The collection is made up of crowns ( for every occasion) swords, orbs and more.

There is the ring that was made for William IV’s coronation in 1831. Up until 1831 each Sovereign received a new ring that symbolised their “marriage” to the nation.

This tradition seems to have ceased in 1831. Pity really.

There is an amazing array of weaponry in the armory room. Below is a very small selection of swords, rifles and daggers set out in precision formation.

And of course no visit to London is complete without stopping in at the British Museum. Totally awe inspiring.

Another place you must visit when you are in London is  Harrods.

The food hall is a must to visit, they have just about anything you could want to buy including some very exotic foods.

Things are not cheap, so we brought the customary tourist purchase – a plastic bag and a mug. The toy section is also a must to visit.

Harrods is  well worth a visit if you have and hour or two to kill.

If you are heading into London then make sure you make some time to go to Madame Tussauds.

For those that don’t know, Madame Tussauds is where you can see all your favorite stars, both old and new, replicated in wax. The figures are so lifelike that you often find yourself apologizing to someone you bump into, only to find it’s a wax figure.

Here I am with a few of the rellies on the royal side. Bit stuffy this lot. Didn’t even get a cuppa. Thought the Duke of Edinburgh might crack a smile.

The waxworks is a fun outing and well worth the money.

We spent a few hours there and took heaps of photos with our favorite and not so favorite stars and personalities stars including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, the Beatles and the Queen.

Here I am chatting to my mate Anthony Hopkins. He looks rather dashing don’t you think!

And goodness me here comes Harrison Ford down the stairs.  Its amazing who you catch up with at Madame Tussard’s in London.

The beautiful Princess Diana

Marlon Brando

The London Eye is a great way to get a birds eye view of London.

For those that don’t know, the London Eye is an observation ferris wheel.

Unfortunately it  was fairly overcast on the day we went on it … this  is London after all…but we still got a great view of the city.

The trip takes about 30 minutes and you are stuck in a capsule with about 20 other people but even so there is plenty of room to look out over London,  to move around and  to take plenty of  photos of the view.

Above  is a picture of Chilli, the stuffed dog that the girls at work gave us to take on our travels.  He really had a great time.

This is definitely another one of those ‘must do’s when you visit London.

Overlooking the Thames and Big Ben. The weather was a bit dodgy so the photos aren’t as nice as they could have been.  But the view from the London Eye is great and on a clear, sunny day I am sure it is quite spectacular.

The day we arrived in London the temperature was over 30c so the trip to our hotel was a bit uncomfortable.

Coming from Australia where the summers are hot, hot, hot means that everything is air conditioned so when you get into a mini-van in London with NO air conditioning with 10 other people on a really hot day and drive for two hours to get to you hotel you start to feel a little uncomfortable. Added to this is the fact that you have been sitting on a plane for 24 hours prior to this.

The hotel itself was pretty interesting. Fantastic location (we were opposite the tube) but the rooms were the size of closets. You actually had to step over the bed to get to the bathroom and if you dropped the soap in the shower you had to get out of the shower to pick it up.

As you can see in the photo above, this was our attempt at cooling down the room. We had to use a bottle of water as a weight to keep the window open.

There was a fire drill in the middle of the night which is apparently a customary exercise. So we all filed down to the lobby, my friend and I dressed before joining the rest of the pajama clad bunch in the lobby.

Breakfast was the usual, sausages, bacon, baked beans, toast, eggs and deep fried bread, which I hadn’t dared to eat since I was a kid. No worries here about cholesterol and transfats.

We had a lovely time visiting the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace.

Because we were a bit jet lagged and out of sync with our own timezone, we ended up sightseeing at 4am in the morning, if nothing else we got some lovely tourist free photos.

Here is Paula relaxing before we set out to go to the train station.

London is certainly interesting with lots of historic places to visit and we will return for a longer visit, and maybe in the winter next time.