Riverboat Tour

On our last day in London, while my Mom and Sister were busy spending the day in Bath, the rest of us decided we would spend the little time we had left relaxing in town. Madelyn and I love the Tudors so we thought we might travel to Hampton Court Palace where Henry VIII lived along with Anne Boleyn and his five other wives. The trip to the castle though was about an hour out of the city so we eventually decided to stay in London and take a riverboat tour up the Thames River.  We took one of our last tube rides to Westminster station and walked to the nearby Westminster pier where most of the tour boats take off. We chose a short round trip from Westminster to Tower Pier and back, which would take about an hour and a half. The boat was packed but luckily we were able to get on the top floor of the boat, having an open-air view on all sides. Most of my pictures have other people's heads in them because the boat was so crowded. It was really interesting to see the sights from a different perspective. It was a perfect way to spend our last day, getting one last look at the city from the river. Here are some pictures I took of some of the sights on the river.

(Madelyn and Henny enjoying our boat tour)

Although my family and I have been to London three times now, I still feel like I learn something new about the city every place I go. Our tour guide on the boat was hilarious and entertained us throughout the tour with witty commentary as well as pointed out sights of interest to the passengers. We passed buildings on the river that I had seen a million times but never knew what they were, it was really interesting to learn new things about the city.

This is the old City of London School for Boys where many prime ministers and members of parliament received their education.

The new City of London School for Boys where more important people, such as Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) went to school. One can imagine it is a very expensive school.

We ate at this pub days earlier and didn't realize it was a historic building. Apparently there has been a pub in this exact location on the river for 600 years. Shakespeare even used the pub as a dressing room for his actors during the age of the Globe Theatre.

The real London Bridge. Many people mistake the famous Tower Bridge (below) as London Bridge. As many people know from the song "London Bridge is falling down" is actually very valid seeing that the bridge pictured is the 5th London Bridge, all others have in fact, fallen down.

The Tower Bridge

Me and Madelyn on the Riverboat

This is the HMS Belfast, built in the same harbor as the famed Titanic. The ship was also used during the D-Day assault during WWII.

Parliament

The London Eye

After our tour we walked around the Westminster area to pick up some last minute souvenirs. As we headed back to our hotel, we took a little detour into Hyde Park to visit the new Ronald Reagan statue that was put up in front of the US Embassy just in time for 4th of July. That was our act of patriotism for the day since we weren't in America to celebrate.

 

(Me, Madelyn and Ronald Reagan)

We finished off our day without Genny and my mom by going down to the concierge lounge as we waited for the girls to get back. Even though we split up for the day, it was nice because both groups got to do exactly what we wanted to do.