Pennsylvania Coffee House

Up and about for another full day that Phil has said this morning will be fairly easy to achieve. Hmmm.....
First stop wasTower of London. Dragged Phil to the Crown Jewels display first which meant it would mix up the order of his tour because that building was further away from the entrance. We walked straight in, no queues. Different story when we were leaving a few hours later. Those queues were quite long - thank you wife.
After the jewels we took a Yeomans 60 min tour with a Beefeater that had no problem with self esteem.
It was interesting to find out though that to have his job (there are 37 of them) you must live in the Tower grounds and that the gates are locked at midnight so if you not home you're not coming home. They even have a Dr live onsite as you are isolated when locked in.
Also of interest was the fact that you must be ex military with a good conduct medal to apply.
Anyway, after his tour and history lesson we continued around to other sections of the palace.
Exiting you walk out onto the boardwalk along the Thames and very near to the Tower Bridge. We took it upon ourselves to walk across the bridge and back, with a crowd of tourists.
Just before we walked across the draw bridge was lifted to allow access for a vessel. We had a good view for that.
From here we then walked to Skygarden, taking the lift to the 35th floor. This is three levels high at the top of a city building with various restaurants scattered across the levels.
The views were great covering 360 degrees of London.
We were very lucky to get in as I tried to get tickets last week and there were none left. Phil looked last night and there were three tickets available. Yay for us, he booked two of the three tickets.
it was very relaxing up there so we found a spot to chill and ordered ourselves a drink to savour the moment. I chose a Moet with the confidence that it would actually be chilled here. Phil also needed to take out a new mortgage to pay for my induldgence.
Next stop was Bond in Motion, an exhibition at a museum of many of the vehicles, bikes, a snow plough, small aircraft and various underwater stuff used in the Bond 007 movies. Phil's day just keeps getting better and better.
After this we headed to Westminster Abbey. Admired the outside and that was it because who knew that it closes early on Saturdays for sightseeing. Disappointing as I remember it being amazing inside. It will have to wait till another visit to London.
Final item on the agenda was Buckingham Palace. So some more pounding the pavement and we were out the front. Strangely no one was at the gate to meet us and invite us in for tea, so we just had a casual stroll by and headed into Greens Park where we took a quick break on the grass under some trees along with thousands of others. Saturday and 27C of sunshine equalled rent a crowd in the parks.

Phil - Another exciting day. The Bond exhibit was amazing. Each car had a film clip of the movie it was in, but I already knew this as I have seen them, many many times. Really lucky to get into the Sky Garden. Great views, and got the brownie points with the Moet. Having seen the Queen coming out of Bucky Palace and down the road so many times on tv, it was good to be able to stand there and now be able to say been there, done that. They had the gay pride march on, so there were lots of rainbow flags and face paint in the park. We have certainly done Lots of London in 3 days, and now look forward to going bush.Read more