The past two days have been long, but fun. As you know, we left Paris on the 6th to resume our trip after the French strikes. We are still hoping to claim for our interrupted trip ( possibly 200-300 dollars) as we had to completely miss Dublin; although we did try to experience a little Ireland by drinking a pint of Guiness in the Dublin airport bar :-)) See the fotki site for pictures of the BOGO ( buy one get one free) bagged vodka and whiskey! http://public.fotki.com/visceraltext/ It also warned to not drink directly from the bag...Troy and I joked they were Irish Caprisuns---
Anyway, after a long wait at Dublin airport, we had our flight to London Stansted come off without a hitch, thankfully. We took the train directly to Liverpool street station in the center of London.

The Astor Park Hostel ( where we stayed last night) was a little too much for both Troy and I. It was enormous, full of ( what seemed like) 18 year olds who were just interested in getting shitfaced and making a raucous. There was a confusion with our beds, too. After both of us brought our sheets in, and made what we thought were our beds, we returned only to find a young Austrian guy who claimed that this was, in fact, his bed. After disturbing a few Eastern European girls about to go to sleep, we finally got it situated. Later, an idiotic Australian kid came in wasted trying to get into bed with another girl in the room...Thank god for earplugs, otherwise that guy might not have had a good impression of American girls >:-)

When we got up, we took a leisurely stroll across the Thames by the London Bridge; the new one. Troy said the old London Bridge is actually in Lake Havasu now?

After walking through downtown London, we stumbled upon the Tower of London ( not even looking for it) and made our way inside. This castle is absolutely incredible, honestly. Check out the pictures I was able to take. It cleared up and the light was incredible.

The English Monarchy was traced from 1066, starting with William I. We learned all about the castles legends & gruesome past. For example two young princes were said to have been murdered by their Uncle Richard III, who only took the throne after they were declared illegimate and killed.

It was an interesting juxtaposition between new and old, looking out from the Tower of London, into modern downtown London.

As I mentioned, the weather was brilliantly clear in the afternoon, and we took a stroll along the Thames after checking out the jewels, armory, and exhibits at the Tower of London. We still had time to hotfoot it over to Westminster Abbey, House of Parliament, and Buckingham Palace before dark.

I don't know what's in store for tomorrow, but it's only 9:50pm here and Troy has already passed out!

I just LOVE this city :-))

We have another 3 days here to enjoy....