30th of May

Where better to spend my birthday than the tower of London? I really enjoyed it. I spent almost 4 hours wandering around and if I hadn't of gotten a headache and needed food  probably would have stayed longer. Although they sold food inside I had run out of cash and a lot of places over here don't take card.  The photo below is the main drawbridge entrance.

I found a cash point then tried fish and chips while sitting on the steps over looking the tower of london. They don't seem to put salt on chips, I must remember to ask for it. It just tastes too greasy with no salt. The fish tasted like white goop :P but it hit the spot and relieved my headache.

 On to the tower bridge. The experience was kind of cool; got to go along the raised walkways, hear about the history of the bridge and go into the old engine rooms. They still have the steam powered engines in working order and had one running. As an extra special treat on my way across the bridge it opened :) Apparently this is rare.

 I then climbed 311 steps to the top of 'The Monument' I was rather shaky afterwards and almost tripped down the last few steps. Here's a photo looking down at the ground from the viewing platform around the top.

 I then made my way to St Paul's Cathedral. I was going to go to Westminster today but I ran out of time to get there before they close. St Paul's is really amazing. Again I climbed around 500 steps (in three different stages) to get to the galley inside the dome then the stone gallery outside the dome then to get to the gallery outside the top of the dome. The views were amazing. The cathedral was amazing to look up at from inside but was more amazing to look down at from inside. The cript was a very quiet respectful place which was really interested to wander around.

 Lastly for today I went into the National Gallery to have a look around to kill some day light hours before heading back to Steve and Jen's for my birthday dinner. We had a marvelous dinner of pate and cheese followed by Roast duck in cherry sauce with Roasted Veggies. For dessert fresh strawberries, raspberries and blueberries with real ice cream and fresh made chocolate sauce. It was all amazing and tasty. I ate far too much and felt a little ill after dessert. It was worth it :)