My sweater is from American Eagle, my plaid scarf is from Gap, my jeans are from Joe's Jeans, and my boots are from G.H. Bass. We woke up early to look inside Westminster Abbey. My mom stayed behind and slept more. There was a really long line to get into Westminster Abbey, so we ate breakfast first. We ate breakfast at another Fuller's restaurant. I had a bacon sandwich and orange juice. 

Here's a picture I took of Westminster Abbey. You can see the London Eye in the background. 

This was the map that we got while we were waiting to get tickets to get inside Westminster Abbey. 

These pictures are of the front of Westminster Abbey. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside. We got audio guides so that we would understand what we were looking at and better understand the history. We saw where Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth I, Henry VII and his wife, Anne of Cleves and many other members of the royal family and famous historical figures were buried. 

We were allowed to take pictures in the Chapter House. 

Meetings were held here for the House of Commons.

This is a picture of Britain's oldest door! It was most likely built in the 1050's for St. Edward the Confessor.

These are pictures of the inner courtyard. After we walked around the courtyard, we walked back to the hotel to meet up with my mom.

We took a cab to the V&A, or the Victorian Albert Museum. The V&A is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design. We ate a quick lunch at the museum cafe before looking around. We looked at the Buddha exhibit, the fashion exhibit, the medieval Europe exhibit, photography exhibit and more. Once we were done looking around the V&A, we took a taxi back to the hotel. My mom and I walked around Buckingham Palace and went into the shops near the palace while the rest of the family rested.

After, we got dressed for the theater. My dress is from Virtue (a boutique I shopped at when I was in Asheville) and my boots are from G.H. Bass. We ate dinner before we left for the theater at the hotel restaurant Bistro 51. I had spaghetti bolognese. We ate quickly because we didn't want to be late for our play. We ended up having to pay and leave before our dessert was ready. We also had to wait a few minutes for a cab, because the cab stand was empty. 

We had tickets at the Garrick Theatre for the two plays All on Her Own and Harlequinade. Zoe Wanamaker was in both plays and Kenneth Branagh was in Harlequinade. 

The Garrick Theatre is an old fashioned theater in London, and it was full with people once the play began.

All on Her Own was about a widow who is talking to herself, because she fears that she drove her dead husband to killing himself. Harlequinade is a very comedic play about a theatre company performing the play Romeo and Juliet. The plays were both very good, and it was an exciting experience to see a play in this beautiful London theater. The play was an hour and a half, and I definitely wished it was longer. We went back to the hotel and packed our suitcases, because we left London the next day very early in the morning.

Today was pretty chilly so I wore a vest, as well as my North Face. My long-sleeve shirt is from Ann Taylor, my jeans are from American Eagle, my scarf is from Target, and my vest and boots are both from G.H. Bass. We ate breakfast at the Pret a Manger, and I realized that it is a fast food restaurant but there food is handmade and natural, unlike other fast food restaurant chains. Also, the food that they don't sell at the end of the day is given to the homeless. We took a cab to the Tower of London after.

The ticket line was actually pretty long for the Tower of London, because it was the first day it had been open for 3 days. The Tower of London is where traitors were taken to be tortured and executed.

These are the pictures I took while my mom waited in line for the tickets. They actually put an ice rink in front of the Tower of London for the holidays.

I took this picture while we were waiting for our Yeoman tower guard to give us a tour. The bridge in this picture is the London Bridge. The Yeomen Warders/Guards, also known as Beefeaters, are the ceremonial guardians of the Tower of London. We had over 200 people in our tour group, so instead of doing an hour long tour of the Tower or London, we just went inside the Church of St. Peter ad Vincula, and the Yeoman Warder talked to us for 15 minutes about the Tower of London. In this parish church, many famous people were buried, including 2 of King Henry VIII's wives Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, as well as Thomas More, the lord chancellor. In front of this church was the scaffold site, where many beheadings took place. 

We went to the Crown Jewels exhibit next. The entrance is located under the clock. Some of the royal regalia is still used by the Queen. Many of the old royal regalia before 1649 was melted when Oliver Cromwell established the Commonwealth. In 1660, when the monarchy was restored, King Charles II replaced the crown jewels at a very high price. They tried to get the items returned and recovered. This is a very popular exhibit, so they have moving walkways, to keep the flow of traffic moving. Then we walked along the walkway on top of the towers and went inside Beauchamp Tower. There was graffiti all over the walls. Many prisoners had carved their names, written other things, or had drawn pictures. 

This is a picture of the White Tower, which is one of the oldest towers, built by William the Conqueror. It holds the royal armor and arms. We didn't go inside this tower. We walked over to where they kept the ravens. They keep the ravens very well cared for, because there is an old legend that says the kingdom and the Tower or London will fall if  the six resident ravens ever leave the fortress. After looking at the ravens, we went into the gift shop and then into the cafeteria. We have found that the cafeterias in museums in Europe are quite tasty! They had a variety of different food, but I just got a sandwich since we were going to a fancy restaurant later. After lunch, we went to the Torture at the Tower exhibit, where they show the different equipment that was used to torture people. One of the torture devices was the rack, which would stretch and dislocate the prisoner's joints and and snap their bones. I'm definitely glad they don't use those anymore!

We left the Tower of London and took a taxi to the British Museum. This museum is huge and has artwork that was stolen by the British dating back thousands of years. They did have good reason to steal all this artwork though, because at the time, any of these artworks were being destroyed in war or attacks. The British Museum provided a safe place for these valuable works and kept them preserved.

The British Museum uses mostly natural lighting and is shaped like a dome. The exhibits circle around the center, which is the huge store. We went into the Ancient Greek art exhibit first, which had the Rosetta Stone and pieces of the Parthenon facade. 

We walked around in this exhibit for awhile, but my sister and Dad got split up from my Mom and I. My mom and I were searching all around for them, inside and outside of the museum, but we couldn't find them. About an hour later we decided to keep looking at the rest of the museum. The artwork that we looked at first was the Lewis chessmen, a group of 12th century chess pieces, in a glass case. On the other side of the glass case was my sister and Dad, looking at the same artwork! It was very funny. We split up again and decided to meet by the information desk later. My mom and I looked at some of the Enlightenment exhibit and the Chinese Jade exhibit, and then went to the shop and bought a few things. After we met up with the rest of the family, we ate some snacks at a nearby restaurant while we waited for our dinner reservation at the Mint Leaf Restaurant & Bar, an Indian restaurant. We walked over to the Mint Leaf, using Siri as our guide. Once we got there, there was an elevator that took us downstairs to the restaurant. It was a huge space with dimly lit rooms and a spotlight on the center of the table. The ordered a lot of food and it was delicious- probably the best meal we had in London. I had the chicken biryani. Then we took a cab back to the hotel.

We walked around Hyde Park a little, but since the weather was nasty we walked around quickly and left.

We walked from Hyde Park to Harrods, which is a huge, high end department store. We picked up some stocking stuffers in Harrods to give to each other on Christmas. Harrods was extremely crowded! Usually the building is lit up, but it wasn't lit up during the time we were there. It had a food hall, escalators with extravagant decorations, such as the Egyptian ones, and many couture brands. We ate lunch at a restaurant close to Harrods.

We took the Tube from Harrods, to the Charles Dickens Museum. The museum was inside of Charles Dickens' house from 1837 to 1839. Since it was Christmas Eve, they had special activities going on in the house. They had volunteers who dressed up as characters from A Christmas Carol, and they performed scenes and songs from the book.

In the museum, there were also crafts that we could participate in. One of them was marbling with dye. I mixed these dyes together in water, and I laid the paper on it. Then when I took the paper off, the pattern transferred to the paper. Also, my parents strung letters on a piece of string to make a saying. They chose "God Bless Us", which is a famous quote from A Christmas Carol. We hung the saying up in our hotel room later.

Next, we rode the Tube to the London Eye. We got there earlier than the time our tickets were for, so we watched the 4D movie, which was provided complimentary to our Eye tickets. 

These are pictures of the view from the London Eye. We had tickets for 5:30, so it was dark outside. Most of the building were lit up by now, so it was a spectacular sight! The ride lasted for about 30 minutes. After we finished going around, we took a cab back to the hotel. The cabs in London have seats in the back that face each other. I sat in the seat where it seems like you are driving backwards. At the hotel, we ate some appetizers at the bar, and then we ate dinner at the hotel restaurant called Bistro 51. I had the chicken tikka masala, which was very yummy. After dinner, we filled everyone's stocking stuffers and went to bed.