We started our day in London in Trafalgar Square across from our hotel the Hilton Trafalgar.

From here we walked on a pedestrian bridge across the River Thames to the London Eye, the famous ferris wheel. The totally enclosed cabs held maybe 15 people each, and the views of the city were great. I can only imagine they were spectacular at night too, but we didn’t make it back for a ride after dark. There was a lot to do around here, and we had to keep saying “next trip”. We stopped for some (sort of) familiar McDonald’s food. Like McDonald’s in Ireland, they had some unique items.

Next we walked back across the river, passing Big Ben on our way to Westminster Abbey. Wesminster was much more amazing than we expected, as it was full of tombs and memorials of kings and queens as well as other famous people, including Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and William Shakespeare. The Abbey interior and its memorials were beautiful. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed in the main (and most interesting) part. We did take some pictures in the less interesting part of the cloisters, where photography was permitted. This did include some original wall murals that had survived, as well as a more recent portrait of Queen Elizabeth on display. That portrait, just this past Friday, was defaced.

From here, we walked to Buckingham Palace. Here we saw the famous guards (but not the changing of the guard) from outside the palace gates. At this point, whether it was because it was day 16 or because we hadn’t been walking this much, we hit a wall and had to return to our hotel for an afternoon nap. We had planned to visit the Tower of London, but once again had to say “next trip”. Just outside our hotel, though, we were surprised to see hundreds of nude cyclists. WARNING: There’s one picture in our gallery, but it just has naked butts.

We woke from our naps and headed to dinner and a burlesque show at Cafe de Paris (Wam Bam Club). Since it was a burlesque show, there was some semi-nudity (we saw much more from the cyclists on the street) but the show was much more than that as it included comedy, magic, acrobatics, singing, and dancing. Dinner was nice, and the entertainment was great.

We finished our night with some souvenir shopping and a stop at the London M&M store, which had some M&Ms you can’t get anywhere else in the world.