Summer Vacation Part 2

Day 4 Saturday 11 Jul, we got up early to see more sites in London. 

We got to see the Tower Bridge, not to be confused with the London Bridge (I heard it was falling down). We got to walk across the top of the bridge (which is now an exhibit about the bridge itself). Here we are on top:

We also got to go the Tower of London. This is most famous for the Traitors Gate, where the prisoners would cross to get into the Tower of London. The crown jewels are also housed here. The Beefeaters (no one knows why they are called that) job is to protect the jewels but they also give tours as well. Ours was very lively and theatrical. Here he is:

There is also a superstition about the ravens that live at the Tower. There are six of them that always live there. If they were to ever leave, then it is believed that the Kingdom will fall. Hence the reason one wing is clipped so the ravens can't fly away.

We also had to get a rental car because on Sunday we drove to Stratford-upon-Avon. Check back later to hear more on that. Here is a picture of Randy, Ben's dad, getting a few tips on how to drive on the left side of the road in a right drive car.

We saw Les Miserables and it was awesome!! Benjamin had never seen a broadway show before and I had only ever seen two shows in New York. The show was amazing and I really want to see more while we are here. While walking towards our show we walked by a Michael Jackson memorial. There is a show on broadway right now called Lyrics which features his song.  The British people love MJ, see exhibit A:

Later that night we went to Harrods, the largest department store in the UK. It has over 330 departments and over one million square feet of selling space. Also, 5,000 people are employed at Harrods!! This a definitely a luxury department store, everything was so expensive so I couldn't get anything! A pair of pants we saw was over 500 pounds (almost 800 dollars)! We did find some interesting cigarette packages:

I think these warning labels are pretty awesome...I wish they would use these in America. The second label is a man's neck (if you can't tell) with a horrible hideous tumor like growth....yuck.

Check back later for Stratford-upon-Avon!