Day 2! Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Chinatown and more

Friday, March 21

Our first full day was great!!

We were a bit slow-moving in the morning, which I had expected. I hadn’t booked any timed tickets or anything, but was pretty firmly set that we’d do Tower of London on Friday. It’s a lengthy activity that requires multiple hours or a better part of a day, and given other things on the agenda, this is where it fit the best, I thought.

The kids slept in until after 9 or 9:30, and by the time we were all ready to head out, it was almost 11! Oh well. It had been a long trip over with minimal sleep, and we really didn’t get to bed early even the first night.

We took the Underground to the Tower of London, a ways from South Kensington but easy and no big deal.

Right off the tube stop we got our first good view of the Tower!

I hadn’t booked timed tickets, having read it’s rare for them to sell out. It’s a big place! Fortunately, the line was very short – just a handful of people in front of us.

Got our tickets and we were off.

The Tower of London is steeped in history, having functioned as a royal palace, a prison and a fortress over the years, dating back to the 1000s!!!! It’s crazy how old it is, and to think of the PEOPLE who roamed around these same grounds. All the way back to William the Conqueror and on from there…. Henry III, Edward I, other Henry’s… Henry VIII… all those famous names and more we all learned in history class.

First up, a Beefeater tour! These are the guys who live and work at the Tower, and are very special protectors of it. They are required to have a certain number of years of military experience with an impeccable record and it’s a real honor to be chosen to be among the select few.

These tours are known for being very fun, funny and engaging. He didn’t disappoint!! He did a GREAT job of bringing all the history to life.

The weather was great- upper 50s probably and overcast. Very comfortable in my rain jacket and a light long sleeved top.

The Beefeater tour lasted about 50 minutes. He took us around to a few spots and talked a lot, but all very interesting and easy to understand.

Guards outside the Crown Jewels

Got a pic with him at the end- his name is Barry, just like my dad! We told him my dad’s name is also Barry and he responded, “I thought you looked classy!” 😅 Super great, funny guy and so passionate about his job.

After the tour we headed to see the Crown Jewels. Based on the ropes lined up outside, we could see there are sometimes LONG waits for this part… but not today! We walked right in! Yay!

Sadly, no photos are allowed inside, but it’s all the royal crowns and jewels and accessories from the coronations – some extremely old and some that have been used as recently as with King Charles. SO cool!!

After this we got some lunch at the cafe and took a little break. My back was talking to me some but I downed 3 ibuprofen and that plus a sitting break did seem to help.

The rest of the afternoon we spent wandering around the rest of the Tower. It’s quite large and has various sections to tour- various towers, living quarters, medieval stuff, prisoner and execution history!, and more.

From King Edward I’s time, refurbished, of course.

Some great bridge views from the top of one of the towers:

This is the White Tower:

Lots of variety here and I found it to be all presented in a very interesting manner.

Here are the boys checking out some old weapons and armor:

This is a memorial to Queen Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s 2nd wife who was executed here.

The prisoner history is fascinating and lots of recognizable names!

In many rooms or towers that held prisoners you can see original etchings in the stone from the prisoners themselves.

There was so much we eventually had to sort of breeze through some of the end part… it was getting late! Considering we arrived later than ideal, we covered a lot of ground.

At this point ideally we probably would have maybe gone for a little snack break or chill break for a few minutes, but we wanted to make it to the Tower Bridge Experience before they closed. It was already after 4 pm now and the last entrance was at 5. It is RIGHT next door, so it just made sense to squeeze this in now.

I had read mixed reviews about if it was worth it to go up into the actual towers of the bridge themselves, but it looked cool and I am glad we did it! It’s a lot more than “just a bridge”. Learning about the history behind it, the incredible feat it was to build it so long ago, what it meant for the city, etc… super interesting.

We walked up and bought tickets, and then started up the stairs. There’s a free audio guide which was great. Various stops up along the way to learn and listen, until we got to the walkway.

Great views from up there!

My favorite part was the glass lookouts! It was freaky and really high!

There are two separate walkways- east and west facing- and we got to go in both.

This mirrors section was extra cool.

After our tour (45 minutes or so), we headed over to the included engine room.

This part was also really interesting! We were running out of time close to closure though, so we couldn’t linger too long.

All in all, I say: worth it! A neat experience and the background behind the bridge is really fascinating.

This was the end of any “plans” for the day, really. We were all getting hungry, so I thought perhaps we could eat in Chinatown tonight. That was in my list tentatively for Sunday, but decided it would be better today.

We had to take the train over a few stops:

Once closer to Chinatown, I realized we were also close to Covent Garden- a big vibrant shopping/restaurant area. The kids protested a little- they were hungry and getting tired- but I promised it would just be a quick loop through to check it out (being Friday night, I knew it would be thriving!).

It’s a super cool area! Maybe we’ll get back again, but we at least wandered around briefly and checked it out. Really exciting spot.

Street performers in the middle there:

From Covent Garden we walked to Chinatown. The streets were so busy and traffic everywhere and it was such a VIBE!!! It’s amazing to me that people live here and experience all this everyday! I feel like in comparison we live in the most boring place on earth! 😅😅

Ivan was born and raised in Mexico City which is even bigger than London, so he loves this stuff. He’d live in a big city I think like this in an instant if it were more feasible!

Ok, finally made it to Chinatown.

It was also packed and there was music and lights and people everywhere.

Found the awesome Chinatown gate:

Here the wheels fell off a little as certain people were hungry and no longer interested in “looking around”. 😅 We ended up walking the entirety of one of the main streets….

Before finally landing on a Chinese restaurant my sister’s husband had recommended. It was really yummy!! We sat outside in an enclosed area and I had one of those heat lamp things above me which felt so good.

It was sprinkling rain just a tiny bit at this point. We were basically going to head back, but I pleaded if we could please just walk a few minutes to the Piccadilly tube stop instead of heading back from there.

My getting-tired- group agreed and we walked less than 10 minutes or so… but this allowed us to see Leicester Square AND Piccadilly Circus by night. (I tried to explain to the boys who kind of just wanted to head back that we were right here so this just made sense… London is so big, I wasn’t sure if we’d be right back in this area again at night and I wanted to see it all lit up.)

Quick stop in the awesome Lego store!!

Finally, Picadilly Circus! Kind of like a smaller version of Times Square. We didn’t stay long – just took in the busy scene and snapped some pics and then headed down to the Underground there.

It was after 9 by this point and the kids wanted to go shower and likely veg out on their phones (and anyway, kids can’t go in pubs after 9), so we dropped them at the apartment and then the adults went for a beer to unwind. We went to a different pub this time, just around the corner from the apartment in the opposite direction.

Another cute place! We talked and also everyone connected to WiFi and kind of caught up on their phones a little. 😅

And that was our day!! It was a long, full one, but also, we got a late start, so it actually wasn’t that long, either. The challenging thing on a trip like this is that we won’t be anywhere near our apartment sometimes, so it makes it hard to stop back for a little refresh or recharge. Fortunately we’re a pretty hearty group at this point and probably wouldn’t really do that much, anyway.

So far, loving London!! So glad to be back. I sadly remember so little from my first trip here- only little bits and pieces- so I’m happy to be seeing it all with very fresh eyes.