The Tower of London (which is officially called Her Majestys Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London), is a historic castle on the Thames River. Over time it has been home to the royals, a prison, a treasury, a menagerie, the Royal Mint, public records, and now is a museum that holds the Crown Jewels.

The Tower is open from 9 to 5:30 every day except Sunday and Monday when it doesnt open until 10am, but do note that the last time they will actually let you in the doors is at 5pm. Tickets are $29 pounds. Its best to make reservations ahead of time. The biggest attraction at the Tower of London are the Crown Jewels, a collection of 23,578 gemstones.

We visited the Tower of London after walking down the Thames River on the other side and crossing over the Tower Bridge. It was a fun way to approach because you come out of a tunnel the castle looms above you.

My favorite part about the Tower of London was the moat. We have traveled to several castles including the German castles Lichtenstein Castle, Hohenzollern Castle, Neuschwanstein Castle, as well as the Sforza Castle in Milan, Italy, however none of those actually had water in the moat. This is was fun to see! That seems like a large number of castles. Germany just has so many lovely castles on their Romance Road.

Id be remiss if I didnt mention the gift shop here. Its literally the only place (besides the Borough Market for some cocoa gin) that I bought souvenirs. They had the cutest little Queens guard uniforms for babies gorgeous recreations of the Queens china tea cups.

The guards at the Tower of London are called Beefeaters. They have the black and red uniforms.

The best way to see London is to take a walk. The city is so crowded that you will miss a lot if you are just taking cabs everywhere. I like to think of this as a James Bond walk because we got to see so many of the sights from the movies. For instance, []

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The two most famous bridges in London are the London Bridge the Tower Bridge. The London Bridge was made famous by the nursery rhyme London Bridges Falling Down, but the far more impressive, iconic bridge is the Tower Bridge. This is it, this is the famous London Bridge of song. Ill admit I was []

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One of the coolest places in London to eat and do some shopping is the Borough Market. I would compare it to San Franciscos Ferry Building or New Yorks Chelsea Market. This market is full of delicious food vendors. Its a great place to pick up lunch or some unique groceries. The Borough Market sits []

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Can you go to London not do something Harry Potter related? Im sure you could, but where is the fun in that? There is the whole Harry Potter World that you can tour OR you can skip the full day experience and head straight to Kings Cross Station to try your best to catch []

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As Ive mentioned in some previous posts, I am stepping back to share some past travels. In this day and age, travel is a bit more worrisome and harder to access so lets fulfill some wanderlust via photos! Today I wanted to share the Cars of London. Some travelers love people watching, but lets take []

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I feel like you will only ever end up in Banning, CA if you are road tripping from Riverside to Palm Springs. It is pretty close to the excellent shopping at the Cabazon Outlets. If you are out that way, dont miss out on seeing the giant Cabazon dinosaurs. Despite driving by them a million []

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Ive been sharing how my son I took the train from New York down to Richmond, Virginia to visit family. We took in the Childrens Museum did some shopping in Short Pump, but if youre looking for more history, downtown is the place to be. The State Capitol has a fascinating museum in []

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As I mentioned in my last post, I took the train with my son down to Richmond, Virginia from NYC to visit family. When we arrived we took a cab over to the Shortpump Mall. We are Hyatt Globalist members so we were heading straight to the Hyatt House to stay. The hotel is right []

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Twice while living in New York I went down to Virginia to visit family. Once I took a flight, once I took the train. Im here to tell you that if I could do it all over again, Id take the train in a heartbeat! Specifically Id get a sleeperette on Amtrak. The process of []

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