My Apologies, And Moving On

My apologies.  In yesterday's post, I failed to use any (or all) of the following: Bollocks, Bugger, Sodding, Bloody, Crikey!, Blimey! or Cor (God!).  I'm sorry, and I promise to do better.

Moving on...

Today, we hit the bloody Tower of London and the sodding Tower Bridge.

We actually got up early today and got to the Tower of London just after it opened - almost no lines.  A very handsome Beefeater gave us the hint to "duck round the corner for a better line" and we were off.  First stop was the Crown Jewels.  Oh. My. God.  Crikey!  There's a diamond in one of the scepters that's 530+ carats.  I am not kidding.  

That's about the size of an egg.  I am not kidding.

And, bugger, if there isn't another in one of Elizabeth's crowns that's over 105 carats.

See it there in the front?  That's about the size of silver dollar.  Cor, blimey!

And then there's a sapphire.  It's about the size of a half dollar.

It's there in front.  Holy Crap!

And, of course, they are all beautifully displayed and polished to sparkling perfection.  Unbelievable.  There was also a gold punch bowl from the coronation banquet dinnerware that was the size of a baptismal font...the ladle was as big as a saucepot.  

All in all it's an amazing collection absolutely goosebump-inducing.

After the jewels, we went over to the Armory...all the past kings' armor (and their horse's armor).  Wow!

A stunning display...and more than a little scary!

There were cannons, spears, swords, mace, pikes and other torture devices...you name it...hence, the scary.  They were selling plastic broadswords in the gift shop.  We totally wanted to get brother-in-law a suit of armor, but they don't make 'em in his height-size...and I don't think he'd look very good in capri-pants armor.  Bollocks!

After we escaped the blade and the block, we headed for the Hung, Drawn & Quartered Pub for lunch and a pint.  Perfect!

Joe had sausages, and I had crispy fish...and this lovely stout.  Yum!!

On to the Tower Bridge.  It's one of the most iconic bridges in the world and full of innovation (at least it was back in the late 1800s).  The views were great!  Especially from the glass floor high above it...

yeah, those are people down there

and a van below me...way, way, way below me.

It's lovely at night:

Back to the hotel to freshen up a bit and then off to a local pub for a delicious dinner, including Joe's Sticky Toffee Pudding for dessert.  

Tomorrow?  Changing of the Guards, the Abbey and maybe the Eye.