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We let ourselves sleep in a little bit this morning after all of last night’s activity.  We met at 10:45 to start the day of sightseeing.  First, we started with Westminster Abbey.  There is an audio tour that takes you through all the main aspects of the Abbey, so that was really helpful.  It is hard to wrap my mind around how old most of the buildings are in London.  It has been around since the tenth century.  That doesn’t even sound real to me.  Westminster Abbey is the coronation church, so many important events happen there for the royal family.  Seventeen monarchs are buried there.  The whole building – literally from floor to ceiling – is so elaborately made and has so much history.  We spent a few hours there, and some of us want to try to attend a service there next Sunday morning.

We had packed our lunches today, so we ate them in a park nearby the Tower of London, our next stop.  One of the Yeoman Warders (aka Beefeaters) gave us a tour.  We saw the tower where St. Thomas More was imprisoned, and spot where Anne Boleyn was executed.  So sad and strange to think about.  The tour ended in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula, which has been described as the saddest place on earth.  Several bodies were buried there after execution, without ceremony and with no marked graves.  Our tour guide also told us of some of the lighter history.  King Charles II believed that the towers would collapse if the resident ravens were ever to leave.  So today, there are 6 men who care for 8 ravens that live on the grounds. And of course, we couldn’t leave without seeing the Crown Jewels! The Crown Jewels were impressive, but on display on the same exhibit was a “Grand Punch Bowl,” which holds 144 bottles of wine.. Ridiculously excessive, but impressive. We played hide-and-go-seek in the Towers for a bit, when Laura and I got separated from the rest of the group.  We went to take a photo, and when we turned around, everyone was gone! We spent probably about a half an hour trying to locate them, and we were finally reunited.

Last stop of the day was the Tower Bridge! We walked through their exhibitions.  Interesting enough, but nothing too thrilling.  We got lunch down the street at Pizza Express, then headed back to school for the night!