We got back to London (well, we’re staying with my sister and her fiancé in Epsom, southwest of London) on Tuesday evening, and spent Wednesday walking around London. We got a nice early-ish start (you want to get on the commuter train to London after 9:00 am ’cause it’s cheaper) and arrived at Waterloo Station…

…in good time to head over to the Tower of London (our goal). We walked along the Riverside walk on the south bank of the Thames…

 

…and crossed over at Millennium Bridge…

We decided to head over to St. Paul’s Cathedral, since it was right there at the end of the bridge. I decided I wanted my photo taken on the steps of the cathedral…

…but what’s this here? Seems like something is going on at St. Paul’s…

There are reporters, barricades, a crowd of people and a bunch of Rolls Royces flying the royal standard.  A quick question to our new friend (seen in this shot) and we learned that the Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall (that’s Camilla, if you’re a tabloid-reader like me), Gordon Brown and a few former Prime Ministers were within celebrating the 1 year anniversary of the cessation of The Troubles (how’s that for a euphemism?) in Northern Ireland.

Yes, we stood around for over 45 minutes to see His Royal Highness, and caught glimpses of Camilla, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. See?

That’s Prince Charles standing beside London’s Lord Mayor, with Camilla in blue behind. Right behind Camilla’s hat, you can see Gordon Brown (Britain’s current Prime Minister, in case you’ve been sitting there thinking, who the hell is Gordon Brown?).

The girls were much more impressed by this:

We did go to the Tower and enjoyed the Yeoman Warder’s tour. The girls liked the Crown Jewels best of all.

Then we trekked all the way up to King’s Cross station for this:

How cool is THAT??!? They even have a luggage cart stuck half-way through the wall. LOVE.

We took a double-decker bus back to Waterloo Station. Check this out:

And then the train ride back to Epsom:

Tune in tomorrow for pics from our amazing trip to Camden Market.