12th aug,

Today was probably the busiest day we've had so far.

We woke up at around 7.30am, and due to Trudy taking hours and hours to get ready, we left the house at around 9.15am. We did miss the chance to go with Jean to the bus station, but it was within walking distance so thats alright.

After finding out the cheapest way to travel around, we bought 2 oyster cards, and hopped on a bus.

The first stop was London Bridge, which really isn't that spectacular, but considering it was where the entire massive city that is London started, it was nice to see where it all began. There actually is a lot of dungeons, and gargoyle / haunted house things around the station.

We also visited Southwark Cathedral, which was an old cathedral that had the most decorative/ intricate ceilings I have seen.

We strolled along the river side, past all the newer modern glass buildings, until we reached the tower bridge. Quite a sight!
So we paid for the tour, a 'joint' tour apparently, for tower bridge and the monument, whatever that meant.
We watched a couple of movies on the construction, and timeline of the bridge, how it opens etc. But the most fascinating part was the engine room, where we could see the giant boilers and the engines used to raise either side of the bridge.

After tower bridge, we had some lunch, we had packed vegemite sandwiches, which is really quite lame, but we're being cheap at the moment, but with good cause, as it cost 17 pounds each just to get into the tower of London.
It was quite good though, seeing all the different cells for the prisoners, the gateways, and the courtyard. There is a couple of 'museums' inside which were good, but the best thing was the ice cream I had. Hahaha Just kidding, but it was pretty good, as you would expect paying $6 for it (3 pounds).

But I did think the crown jewels section was the best, after waiting in line for about 1hr, we got inside, and it said no photos, but I paid 17 pounds, and was from Australia, so I thought I didn't apply. Lol
So I did take 1 or 2 photos, but the things in there were great.

After the tower, we found our way to the monument, which we didn't know what was. But when we got there, we found out it was a monument erected in the city in 1677, as a memorial for the fire that destroyed the city.
So we climbed it which took ages, as it has 311, tiny steps in a spiral to the top. But at the top, it was a great view, of the entire city which was nice for a while, but after a few minutes, there would have been about 30 people crammed into about 4 metres square.

It did start raining today, which wasn't to bad, but it was a bit cold and windy. We were going to go to the London Eye today, but because of the rain we didn't. We ended up at THE Globe Theatre! Shakespeare in London. Haha Anyway, we were thinking about taking the grand tour, but it was 10 pounds so we passed.

Tate modern was just around the corner so we went there instead. Mainly because art is more fascinating than Shakespeare, and also cause it was free. It is probably the largest art gallery i've ever seen, 7 floors it has, 4 full of art.
We looked around for about an hour, before it was closing time, but saw some great sculptures, and photographs which was good.
After all that, and the walk to the bus stop it was around 6.30pm so we decided to go back home, Kings Cross was on the bus route, so we tried to find platform 9 ¾ , but it wasn't there.

We are pretty much pro at taking the busses in town now.

We had spaghetti Bolognese for dinner, and watched a bit of TV, then went to sleep.