London - Day 1

I'm a travel dork.

Since Troy travels so much...everything is old hat to him...but for me...everything is new and exciting.

And getting bumped up to business on our trip over was new and exciting for me.

And I drove Troy crazy taking photos of everything...from the ginormous seats to the awesome food. Real plates. Amazing service. 

And on an overnight flight? Being able to layout (almost) and really sleep? Wow. Wish I could always fly like this.

We got to London at 6 am and dropped our luggage off at the hotel and headed out to see the sights.

We bought a London Pass -- which gives you admission to like 60 different places -- it was so nice just to have everything paid for and be able to see almost everything we wanted to see -- and a bunch of stuff we never would have paid to see by itself, but was super cool to do with the pass. (The only thing we wanted to see which was not included in the London Pass was Buckingham Palace.)

We also bought a weeklong Oyster Card, which let us ride the tube and buses as often as we wanted.

As we wandered around London, we happened to pass by the Household Calvary Museum and they were actually in the process of changing the guard. 

  

Seriously...how cool are these guys?

The sights of London are just amazing.

10 Downing Street

What's a London trip without a photo of a phone booth?

Then we had the chance to hop on a boat down the Thames. It was awesome to see the sights from the water.

Big Ben.

The London Eye.

 Cleopatra's Needle.

London Bridge.

Monument to the Great Fire of London.

 Tower of London.

Traitor's Gate -- where the prisoners were brought to the London Tower.

Beef Eater.

 Our tour guide.

Tower Guard.

Tower chapel.

 Tower Bridge.

View from the Tower Bridge

The mechanism for the Tower Bridge is amazing...and when you consider when it was built, it's even more astonishing.

 

The millennial bridge.

And dinner at the Swan (next to the globe theater) with old friends George and Kimberly was the perfect end to an amazing day.