A Lot of Tudor-Stuart History in One Day

Sorry for not actually posting yesterday but after a full day (8:30am-11pm) of walking around London, I was pretty tired!

We started out the day at the National Portrait Gallery where we got to see dozens upon dozens of Tudor & Stuart family portraits. Sounds fun, huh? It wasn't so bad. And this drove by us as we were standing outside:

General Lee, complete with Georgia License Plate

Next we made a trip down to the Banqueting House where Charles I was executed. It was basically just a huge room with nothing in it but a throne and a beautifully painted ceiling.

Next we went across the Thames River and took some cute pictures with the London Eye and Big Ben on the way.

We ate lunch at Eat. Eat. restaurants are all over England and the running joke here is something along the lines of "I'm not going to eat somewhere that's commanding me to eat." but I'm so glad we chose to eat there. I got some delicious pasta salad, which is a common occurrence I have come to find:

Matthew asked if I was taking a picture of my food so I could blog about.. he was mocking me. So that's for you Matthew even though I was going to post it anyways.

After lunch we took a boat to the Tower of London which focuses mostly on torture and killing people.. not really my thing. So I most enjoyed Jewel Tower that housed all of the crown jewels. I would have lots of pictures of them if I was allowed to take them.. unfortunately we couldn't. I just loved the rings and the crown made entirely out of diamonds. I'm lucky to have diamonds as my birthstone.

Next we walked over the Tower Bridge to the Southbank area where the Globe is, but had to take a ton of pictures on the way of course.

Dinner was at a pub. Of course. We ate in the Fish and Chips shop inside the pub, centrally located to the bar. Of course again. This time I got a Pimms and Lemonade (beer and lemonade) which was good but not as good as my Strawberry Lime lemonade from a few nights ago. Fish and chips were good but I could only eat half; the lady gave me a huge honking piece of fish and I really don't like fish all that much. 

The green things are mushy peas in case you were wondering.

After we saw the play Dr. Faustus at the Rose, which was the first theatre in London even before the Globe and where Dr. Faustus was first performed. It was a tiny, tiny theatre which was much different from the Rose. There were 3 rows of fold out chairs and the actors were literally no more than 10 feet in front of the first row.

Quite a long day and I was very tired by the end of it!