On our third day in England, we enjoyed one last free breakfast at the Doubletree in Chelsea, picked up a rental car, and drove from London to the famous Stonehenge.

Stonehenge is only an hour and sixteen to thirty minutes from Heathrow Airport (where we got our rental car).

This turned out to be a fairly relaxing day for me personally. My feet were rejoicing for sure! All of the difficulties fell on Alan, as he’s the one who had to drive a car on the left side of the road, the English way.

I honestly did not even attempt English driving.

We arrived to Stonehenge to discover that while it is a long walk from the visitor’s center to the actual Stonehenge structure, it is no trial at all, as they offer a free shuttle bus!

Hurray!!!

My plantar fasciitis has rarely been so happy. I pitied the sweaty travelers who chose to walk the long path, as we flew past them on our free shuttle.

England is not normally that hot, but this was mid June, and it was scorching. There were no clouds at all. I was so grateful that I brought my blue hat.

This is the same hat I bought as I walked into Pompeii in 2023. It saved me that day, and it saved me at Stonehenge too!

Now I have noticed that many people disparage Stonehenge online. They say it isn’t worth visiting. There’s “too many tourists, and you don’t even get that close.”

These people are incredibly wrong. Stonehenge is well worth visiting!

My first thought upon seeing this was much like seeing the Grand Canyon in person for the first time. “Wow! This is way larger than I was expecting it to be!”

Before visiting, I pictured it maybe my height, tops. But no. These stones tower over even my six foot three husband.

Also, why do they say you don’t get to come close to the stones?

That isn’t true. There are places where you get plenty close. You do not get to touch them, but I was fine with that.

Were there many tourists?

Eh. Yes, but it wasn’t overwhelming. There was plenty of room for everyone. The only thing that was over-crowded was the shuttle bus, but that was well worth it.

They have several photo ideas stationed around Stonehenge. The viewing trail makes an entire circle around Stonehenge.

We tried out several of the photo ideas. My middle boys were the best at it. Caleb is a talented photographer. I’m a quick point-and-clicker with the photos. I rarely take more than a second making a photograph. Caleb takes his time and gets it just right.

By the time we finished walking around Stonehenge, we were all scorching enough to be in a hurry to get back to the visitor’s center.

The visitor’s center has an entire museum dedicated to the history of Stonehenge. We were able to slowly enjoy all of that, and then walk outside to see the Stonehenge huts.

Archaeologists discovered the dwelling places of the people who lived in the area in ancient days. I think they were the people of the time of the building of Stonehenge, though I’m not sure.

The Stonehenge Huts

There were informative displays about all we know about the people, their culture, and speculation on how the stones were transported and erected in their spots.

There are many other Stonehenge-type structures all over that area of England. We did not make time to go see the others. Once we finished at Stonehenge, we were looking forward to resting at our local hotel.

We stayed at the Stonehenge Inn. It is now one month later, and that particular night is our most referenced night in England.

It is the benchmark by which we measure how hot a room is.

“Was it just warm, or was it Stonehenge Inn level hot?” I asked JD about his camp cabin. (It was only warm.)

“Shooo! It’s like the Stonehenge Inn in here!”

Bless their hearts. It’s not all their fault. In England, most buildings do not have air conditioning. It’s very common to simply open your windows.

In a major heatwave, open windows are completely insufficient though. I promise you our second story room at the Stonehenge Inn was every bit of ninety degrees Farenheit.

It was not a bad hotel. They were well themed out. Grab-and-go breakfast items were available for free. Plus, it was really a pub. Downstairs, the pub was a busy place for people to come and drink and maybe have a burger. We even ate lunch there. It was a perfectly good deal. This is an affordable place to stay.

I can assure you my children would never stay there again though. Poor JD had to sleep on the top bunk.

Thankfully, we were whooped from jet lag, two days of walking all over London, and the hot day out at Stonehenge. We slept with no difficulty, in spite of the heat.

No covers were needed.

We all went in and lay flat on our backs on our respective beds. Mercifully, there was a fan, but it couldn’t reach everyone. Our room had a queen bed, a bunk bed, and a twin bed. Alan and Caleb ran out and got McDonald’s cold drinks and chicken nuggets for us that night. That means I had Diet Coke and a grab-and-go breakfast item for dinner.

For the first three nights in England, we watched the same stuff on t.v.

There was always a Simpson episode or two, followed by a documentary on British public television about President George H.W. Bush (the first Bush). The kids definitely learned a lot about President Bush and Homer Simpson on this trip.

Our room’s window was right over the outside tables and chairs for the pub, which resulted in another challenge.

There was one table of men, around age thirty, at the table directly under our window, They were having such a jolly evening all catching up with each other. I mean this in a good way. These men were not drunk and rowdy. They were sitting around the table talking and laughing, in a perfectly respectable way.

The thing was they were right under our very open window, and by ten o’clock, we were more than ready to be asleep.

We were in the middle of talking about this when Alan chimed in, “Well, we will all go to sleep when those guys at the table go home.”

Alan didn’t mean to say it loudly. He wasn’t trying to make them hear him. But Alan’s voice is deep, and it carries. I guess they could hear us as well as we could hear them.

These poor, polite fellows. They got quiet for a minute. There was a moment of embarrassed silence for all of us. Then the men all said their good-byes to one another and headed out. They were gone in mere minutes.

Would I stay at the Stonehenge Inn again?

Sure, actually. I would, just not in June-August. Twenty minutes away from Stonehenge, there are several international chain hotels where you can stay, and those usually do have air conditioning.

Have you had any crazy hot hotel stays like this? I told the boys this is exactly the kind of thing you need to experience when you travel. It can’t be all Hilton hotels. Sometimes you need to dig in and live like a local with no air conditioning!

Without an experience like this, one might laugh at English people who complain about their heat. After all, their country is twenty degrees cooler in their hottest areas than the hottest areas of the U.S.A. However, once you have experienced an unbearably hot second story in an eighty degree heat wave, you understand. Eighty degrees with no a/c is just as bad as one hundred degrees with a/c.

There was so much to learn here! I highly recommend a good Stonehenge excursion, if you are ever in England! I love that we got to take our boys to see Stonehenge. This was such a surreal trip!

To read about our London days, click here and here.

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On day two in London, after we’d thoroughly toured the Tower of London, we rode a train down to Greenwich.

Once in Greenwich, we walked like a mile over to this park and then literally hoofed up the steepest hill I have ever climbed in my life. It was basically a curved walk upwards that must have covered twenty stories, walking almost straight upwards, but without stairs.

At the top of this grassy mountain sits the Royal Observatory, home of the Greenwich Prime Meridian.

That’s right. We took a little science field trip while in London. I didn’t get the appeal, but I live in a family of males, and our likes and dislikes do differ…

Alan visited Greenwich about eight years ago. On that trip he visited the Prime Meridian at the Royal Observatory as well as the National Maritime Museum. That was long ago, so he had forgotten they were two separate buildings. The Royal Observatory is at the tip top of what felt like the highest hill in London. The Navy museum is way down at the bottom near the water.

With me and my plantar fasciitis and one of our sons and his blisters, there was no way we were making it to both that evening, even if we had known where the Navy museum was, which we didn’t, at the time.

My best advice is if you do go to Greenwich, go see the National Maritime Museum first. It is apparently a fascinating place. I heard several other confused tourists at the observatory asking about it. They have ancient ships and such on display. People seem to love it.

When you reach the top of the hill, the first order of business is the incredible view.

Then you head around the building. There are several displays both indoors and outdoors.

The first thing we came across was the remains of Herschel’s Telescope.

The guys who mapped out the prime meridian were all astronomers. If you are interested in astronomy, you will love the Royal Observatory with its Prime Meridian and museum.

This excursion was highly educational.

What stood out to me most was actually a question:

If the Prime Meridian was slightly changed several times, as astronomers gained better and better tools and experience, what does the prime meridian even mean exactly?

It turns out, this location has nothing to do with the magnetic field of the earth or the positions of the stars. It is an internationally agreed upon location from which to begin with the designation of 0 degrees longitude. It separates the eastern and western hemispheres.

Additionally, our GPS (which we get from satellites) assigns 0 degrees longitude, to a whole other spot, over three hundred feet from Prime Meridian spot where we take photographs. Another tourist pointed that out to us, so Alan went and found the GPS spot. It isn’t marked at all, yet it is the Prime Meridian all modern instruments use.

By the way, even as we stood there, the GPS app on Alan’s phone changed the exact location of 0 degrees. It only changed by inches, but it was enough for me to find it annoying. I feel like if you mark a spot, and call it zero, that’s it. It’s done. ha! I guess scientists disagree.

I can see why GPS might change it, since calculating it from space involves ignoring gravity and cutting through the earth as a globe rather than measuring across terrain. You can learn more about that here.

But I’m still wondering who is to say which one is right? If it’s only zero because people picked it as zero, who is technology to change it?

Maybe it’s my bias against the computer takeover, or maybe I just have a bad attitude when I don’t understand something. Plus, my feet hurt so badly by the end of London day two. Alan was lucky I was standing at all. My feet were better for so long, but then my right heel decided to make some new heel spurs (arthritis), and basically I’m adjusting to it.

Like all good tourists, everyone in our family took photos standing on the official Prime Meridian.

After one last sit break, we headed back out on our mile hike to the train station. We hoped to find a good restaurant on our way, as we passed through town. The problem was no one in Greenwich had anything marked gluten free on their menu.

We ended up stopping at another train connection in central London to look for food, which of course involved yet more walking. I settled for a bun-less burger and a Diet Coke, and we rode the train back to our hotel. Honestly, I needed an Uber that day too, but our hotel was too far from Greenwich.

Day two we logged over 18,000 steps, and I was a pool of pathetic when we finally made it back to our hotel room. I managed to shower, and then I crashed pretty hard.

I love walking, absolutely love it, and I have walked for fun and exercise my whole life. This plantar fasciitis problem is such a killjoy.

The pain was worth it for the Tower of London, but nowhere near worth it for the Prime Meridian. I’m grateful we got to go to England, but next summer we are going to the beach.

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Our second day in London was by far my favorite! It was still in the middle of a sweaty heat wave and all, but it didn’t matter. Touring the ancient Tower of London was literally a dream come true for me.

I booked these tickets over a month in advance to make sure we wouldn’t miss out. We had 11-1130 timed entry tickets for our family. You can go here to book tickets.

What made the Tower of London such a must see for me? So many reasons!!

#1. It is the oldest castle inside the city of London.

Windsor Castle is older, but it is outside of the city. This one is smack dab in the middle.

#2. The Tower of London has a past filled with tragic stories. Few ghost tours anywhere could boast more tales of historic significance than this place.

The history is why I picked this particular castle to tour. It is one of the many fortresses constructed by William the Conqueror’s Norman invasion. This castle never fell into complete neglect. This place has always been nationally important to England. It is one of the Great Britain’s most famous symbols of power.

The Princes in the Tower is the story foremost in my mind when I think of the Tower. It is such an unfair, sad story. Basically, the heir to the throne and his brother were locked in the Bloody Tower of the Tower of London way back in 1483, by their uncle, Richard, the Duke of Gloucester. He was supposed to be taking care of the boys. Instead, he locked them up for “their protection.” Then he took the throne for himself, becoming King Richard III.

King Richard only ruled for two years before he was killed in the Battle of Bosworth by King Henry VII’s forces. Richard was the last Plantagenet king.

#3. Queen Elizabeth I was even held prisoner in the Tower, when her older sister, Mary, was Queen of England.

Actually, many monarchs have lived, had their coronation, or been imprisoned in the Tower of London.

#4. The Crown Jewels are kept and displayed here.

Photographs are not allowed in there, or you know I would be happy to share those. We did go in there. The line was not bad at all. We saw tiaras and crowns, scepters, and robes. It was definitely worth touring!

#5. The Tower was a military base during both World Wars.

This castle is SO RICH in history!!

We took the train from our hotel to the castle. As soon as we walked up from the railway, we could see the Tower of London. It was much larger than I expected. It is located on the River Thames, and it is surrounded by a vibrant area chock full of food trucks and ferries coming and going.

I told Alan, “If we ever come to London again, let’s stay here, in this area. I love the atmosphere.”

The old cobblestone road is still in place, but these newer tiles also supply a more comfortable place to walk. Cobblestone is no best friend to plantar fasciitis.

We had to walk all the way around to get to the tour entrance. I didn’t mind though, as there was so much to see. In the mornings, my feet were okay. By the end of each day, I could barely walk, especially day two, but that has more to do with our Prime Meridian adventure, which I’ll save for a future post.

JD kept us entertained, walking down these streets doing his best impersonation of a (NPC- non playable character) video game character walk. It is hilarious. We took videos, but I won’t embarrass him by posting them here. Although, he probably wouldn’t care.

Outside those walls, there used to be a moat, but they drained its stagnant waters to combat disease, back in the 1840s.

As it turns out, exploring castles and ancient fortresses, towers, and city walls is the PERFECT vacation for a family of energetic young men.

We visited several places like this, and they did love it. Now, the our Smallest Who of All still managed to complain a good bit. He received several reprimands about griping throughout the day.

I will say though, even our youngest never ran his mouth when we were strolling along a centuries old fortress wall or gazing at displays of knights and swords. Those things were popular with even our hardest to please boys.

In fact, even though this was all my idea, I was the one who got bored first in the White Tower. The White Tower is the central part of the fortress. It is the building inside the walls that you see on your souvenirs.

Why would I get bored in the White Tower?

Well, it was almost the last thing we toured that day, so I was tired. Plus, it was filled to the brim with armor and weaponry. It is basically a medieval knight and armory museum. Obviously, that was more appealing to everyone else in my group. I thought I was never going to get Caleb and Alan out of there.

We actually started out in the courtyard. Overwhelmed with all of the options, we started in the closest part of the walls to where we happened to be standing, which I believe was the Salt Tower and the Wall Walk.

There is so much to tour in the Tower of London, we did not get to all of it!

The fortress walls are like a whole castle in themselves. It is enormous.

Workers at the Tower, such as the Yeoman Warders do live here.

In fact, the Yeoman Warders offer guided tours around the Tower, included in your admission ticket. When we have little boys in tow, we know we cannot handle a guided tour. We always have to do a self-guided option. I’m sure we learn less, but we enjoy the freedom to goof off and move at our own pace.

Throughout the many towers along the walls, there are displays like the one above.

The photo above is a good miniature of the Tower, though I’m not sure in which time period. It looks like it does not include the Jewel Tower, where the crown jewels are kept. Speaking of which, that was our next stop after walking a good amount of the walls and the outeer towers.

That’s me, excitedly waiting in line to see the Crown Jewels.

We became two groups in there, a faster group, and then Alan and Caleb. The little boys and I waited at the end, and I did notice they did not utter one grunt of complaint about going through the Crown Jewels building. Every single person in the group respected that this was a remarkable thing to see.

The boys were hungry though, and beginning to ask for this and that to eat and drink, so we went to lunch at the cafe inside the Tower grounds.

The cafe had burgers, fish and chips, as well as some gluten free offerings, so there was something for everyone. I had a fluffy little gluten free cake with my lunch, so I think I left happiest of all.

Every day I did keep my eyes out for some gluten free fish ‘n chips. No luck yet on days one or two.

After lunch, it was on to the White Tower.

There must be many cold months in England, because we saw these radiators everywhere. Air conditioning was rare though..

I have noticed they do not admit to loving it. But the thing is, I was the only one who walked through it in two minutes and spent twenty minutes waiting at the other end of the room for the rest of them to finish looking and reading about it all.

Now that I do find interesting. Does that make me morbid?

I thought the sword exhibit was astonishing, for the history to be so well preserved!

This is the oldest surviving artwork of the Tower, dating back to the 1400s.

So if you ever need some metal armor, like a medieval Knight would wear, I know where we can find gobs of it. Haaa!!!

My favorite part of the White Tower’s exhibits was actually this:

In the last room we toured of the White Tower, we found this! It was a room full of interactive exhibits, and I was way too tired to do any of them other than the photo station. I took some photos and waited on the bench for everyone else to finish.

We also thoroughly enjoyed the gift shop! It’s a miracle we made it out of there with only buying that Christmas ornament I’m holding in the photo. They had the best gift shop, full of medieval weapon replicas, royal robes and crowns, etc. We were so entertained. Alan had to drag us out of there.

I knew our time was running short, and we were not going to have time to see all of the things, so I made it my mission to find the Bloody Tower.

That’s where the exhibit was on the Princes in the Tower, which I mentioned at the beginning of this post.

The Bloody Tower starts out with a large display about Sir Walter Raleigh, who was imprisoned here with his family.

The Bloody Tower also contains this still working portcullis, which keeps people in or out of the Tower.

The boys had never heard the story of the Princes in the Tower, and there is a film in the tower that tells the story well. A child’s voice is used to tell the story, while a video to go along with it is projected on the wall. It all has a hauntingly, moving, sad effect on the listener.

Towards the end of our time, we saw a little street theatre going on too, which we enjoyed.

All in all, this was my favorite London outing. I highly recommend taking a tour of this impressive, historic fortress!

For more on our London trip, you can find day one: Buckingham Palace, here.

The post The Best Part of London: Touring The Tower of London appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

London, baby!

This year my husband, Alan, starts a fancy new job that we expect will keep him busier than he has been for the last couple of years. Therefore, we decided to give our family an all-out overseas vacation.

This was the boys’ first time overseas, so we figured a United Kingdom trip would break them in the most gently to international travel. After all, everyone speaks English there. Ha.

London day #1

Day one took us from the airport, to our hotel for a long nap, and then down to Central London to see Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abby. Plus, I had this need, thanks to my time watching Downton Abbey and such shows, to go for a walk in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.

You can fly nonstop Washington, D.C. to Heathrow Airport near London, so we did just that.

Hotels in London are insanely expensive, and there were five of us going. Maybe a single room in the heart of London would not be too bad, but two doubles? Yikes. We had to find a happy medium between staying out of town and staying downtown.

I opted for a good deal I found near Chelsea, and Chelsea is fairly close to Kensington. I knew I wanted to walk through Kensington Gardens and get a glimpse of Kensington Palace, so I figured Chelsea was good enough.

We stayed at the Hilton Doubletree Chelsea, and thankfully it was right next to a train stop.

I checked when I booked it. Unfortunately, I didn’t bank on that very train line being shut down for one of our trip days, but you just cannot know that sort of thing.

It was okay though. London is eaten up with train stops, so we just walked to the next closest one, which was in easy walking distance for us. Well…. honestly it was in good distance for us for the first part of our day. We couldn’t hack it at the end of our day, but I’ll save that story for later in this post.

By the way, we took the red eye flight.

….Because let’s just go ahead and deal with the jet lag head on. Plus, red eye flights were cheaper.

We left D.C. at 5pm, and we arrived in London at 6am. We probably each slept two hours on the plane. Daniel did not sleep at all. Gracious, Daniel and JD. Those two! I sat beside them, and they were giddy happy trouble all night long.

I thought we’d manage.

My delusional brain figured we’d ditch our suitcases at our hotel and go sight seeing right away. We knew our rooms wouldn’t be ready yet.

Miracle of miracles, the Doubletree managed to get us into one of our rooms at around 9am London time. The other room would be ready later. We were thrilled.

No one had any choice. There was a twin bed and a double bed and four people. All of us, except poor Alan, crashed onto a bed and couldn’t wake ourselves until probably 2pm London time.

Poor Alan. He tried to sleep on the double bed with two of us. He couldn’t do it successfully. I think he may have only gotten an hour of sleep in the hotel compared to our four or five. He kept trying to wake us up to head into town. It was not happening. We couldn’t wake up even if we wanted to.

Around two or three in the afternoon, Alan finally got us all awake and herded out of our hotel.

We were ready to hit the town. I’d known this day would be the weird day that never ends, so I had booked us for nothing at all. We were free to roam.

First order of business, we were starving. We began our hike to the second-closest overground train stop, with our eyes constantly scanning for restaurants we could all agree on.

We hit the jackpot. There was this Italian pizzeria, super close by. The place was empty too, because who eats at three o’clock?

I never did figure out exactly what time Londoners do eat because it seems like we were always off their schedule.

This pizzeria offered gluten free options. I had a delicious salad, and I could have had pizza if I’d wanted it. They offer a cauliflower crust.

We were all happy, happy, happy.

Our trip from the airport had already involved half a dozen train changes, so we felt pretty comfortable on the train, but we were also tired of it and ready to get out and see London!

By the way, London trains are easy to use. You do not have to buy a special ticket. You can use your credit card as your ticket, to just scan right in and out. However, we needed older child tickets. For those you do have to buy a ticket, as it saves you money. Kids ten and under ride free. Older kids have reduced fares.

We decided to begin in Kensington, since it was the closest tourist area to our hotel.

Kensington Gardens surrounds Kensington Palace. We entered Kensington Gardens at the part which is actually an Embassy Row. Enormous embassies lined the streets. I asked later where the U.S. embassy is, as it wasn’t on this row. Apparently, the U.S. Embassy has its whole own compound in London, south of the Thames River.

I took zero photos of the embassies because there was a sign at the entrance to the street saying that no photos were allowed, so I was afraid to. Alan later said that just meant at the checkpoint. Drat. I should have known that.

It felt like we walked constantly from four o’clock until around seven o’clock.

My feet were killing me. Daniel’s orthopedic shoe insoles were giving him blisters, and everyone was dead exhausted by the end of it. I have to hand it to Daniel though. He never complained about the blisters. I didn’t realize he had them until the end of the night.

We walked from Kensington Gardens, past the small pond with beautiful swans, past the Prince Albert Memorial, and found ourselves a double decker London bus. Riding the bus for just a few stops gave our feet a short break.

We got off near the Hyde Park tunnel and still had so much walking to do, on the edges of Hyde Park, to get to Buckingham Palace. Maybe it wasn’t that far, but thanks to our feet problems and general exhaustion, we began sitting on benches every time we came to an open bench.

We had a surprisingly fun time sitting on benches on the outskirts of Hyde Park.

Finally, we came upon Buckingham Palace. I was excited, but I was equally excited to spot a snack stand. Joy of joys. Everyone but Alan had an ice cream. Alan bought a few waters. The rest of us felt that ice cream was most certainly a need. London was in a heat wave, and we were getting a work out, even with all of our bench sitting breaks.

Did you know that King Charles does not actually live at Buckingham Palace?

He lives primarily at Clarence House, which is next to St. James Palace. Buckingham Palace is still the administrative headquarters for the monarchy though.

The palace is so much bigger than it appears from the front. That building makes an entire square with a large courtyard in the middle. We only saw the front and one side.

After Buckingham Palace, we hoofed it over to the Parliament area.

We were determined to see Big Ben and Westminster Abbey before calling it quits on day one, and so we did. There were no sitting breaks at this point, and we got it allll in.

Once we’d hit all these must-sees, we basically just kept walking to see what we would happen upon.

We kept on trooping along, passing several interesting buildings and statues. We ended up at the Horse Guards parade ground.

Somewhere right past here (the above photo) we walked right by Downing Street without realizing it.

There were several memorials there too, and that is where we spotted the London Eye for the first time in our trip. Actually, I think that’s the only time I noticed it.

Then we kept on walking, until we hit the Boer War Memorial. It had steps, and the boys were drawn to those like a magnet. Once again, we were all sitting down.

At this point we were on a delightfully decorated street, which I’d never heard of. It is called The Mall. It is lined with UK flags. I thought it was one of the most splendid sights in London. We’d basically made a circle, walking around St. James Park. The Mall ends at Buckingham Palace. We were on the end closer to Trafalgar Square and Scotland Yard, but I certainly didn’t know any of that.

The thing was, we were all completely done with that day. Our four hour nap was nice and all, but it wasn’t quite enough. Plus, there was the blisters and the plantar fasciitis, and so much sweat. Ha!

At this point, the idea of finding a train station, walking to it, changing trains several times, and then walking a mile to our hotel, because the Mildmay line was down for repairs, was far too much for any of us.

Thankfully, Alan understood just how broken and out of juice our entire group was, and he ordered an Uber. Moments like these, when Alan rescues us in central London with an Uber, are moments when I love him the very most. He was a knight with shining iPhone, taking us for a ride on an Uber XL.

Our Uber ride was the most relaxing part of our day.

We drove past many of the same things we had seen earlier, plus so many beautiful store fronts! The car ride from central London to Chelsea was delightful.

No one really had dinner that night. I went straight to bed. Some of the boys ate some little crackers or junk in the hotel, I think. We all knocked out hard that night.

Caleb and JD shared a room for our two London nights, and those two got along better than anything I’ve ever seen. They are quite a happy duo. Being five years apart, JD calmly accepts Caleb’s leadership. Plus, they both prefer to live in peace. There are no sibling issues with these two. It’s funny how many different relationship dynamics you find in a big family.

Day one was an exhausting success. I was far more excited for day two!

For day two, I booked us tours at the Tower of London (castle) and the Prime Meridian Naval Observatory. I figured it’d be a day of less painful feet. (Wrong.)

Come back next week for my post on the Tower of London! It was one of my personal top two things we saw in England. I have read so many things and watched documentaries involving the Tower, and I’m so excited we got to go there! Plus the whole area around it is a vibrant place to visit.

For more travel inspiration, check out my vacation page.

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