Tower Bridge & Tower of London

Now, who can guess what I will be sharing with you from my trip in London? Visiting the Tower Bridge and Tower of London was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.

I mentioned in my previous post that I would recommend visiting the Borough Market first before heading to see these two fantastic places.

If you do start from the actual sign of London Bridge on the side of Borough Market, you will see on your right hand side another side that leads you to Tower of London and Tower Bridge. It doesn’t look so reliable at first but as you go down the stairs, you will be able to see that the there’s a walkway that just hugs the River Thames. The trick here is, if you see the River, you’re safe. You can just follow the direction of the River and this will get you to loads of attractions - that’s what we did every time we got lost!

The walk will take about half an hour, and it will present countless moments for you to capture the beauty of London. You may also catch various activities on the River, from cruises to tour boats to who knows what else. If you walk a bit further, you will see on your right hand side various places to shop, eat, drink and just relax. It’s a very nice walk on its own I would say.

About half way through your walk, you will see a floating battle ship. This is a museum that is stationary and is available for you to visit! From what I briefly read, it is a floating museum that displays historical information and artefacts of the World War II. You will need to purchase a ticket to get in as well. I’m not really into the navy or battleships so we just took a few pictures and kept going towards our goal.

When you’re about three hundred meters from the bridge, you will get what I think is the best distance for a picture. There will be loads of people trying to get their perfect picture view, so you will have to be patient here. By all means, this is the time to also talk to fellow tourists and ask if they’d like a picture of them taken. In turn, you could strategically ask them you kindly take a picture for you. Now that’s what I call a classic tourist trick! All I have to say now is, good luck and I hope the picture turns out good - because if not, you will have to wait until they leave to ask the next people to retake the pics!

Anyhow, the Tower Bridge is a piece of art that I admire very much. The bridge is nothing as long as the Golden Gate in San Francisco or the Harbour Bridge at my home in Sydney. It’s really short compared to the other two mentioned, but I think it brings that very English-feel to the tourists. Depending on which side of the bridge you’re standing on, and depending on whether the sun light is in your favor, you will be able to capture a picture of the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London at the same time; now that’s what I would call a win-win situation.

From the bridge, you will see a beautiful skyline of London. If you look carefully, and if the weather permits, you will be able to see as far as St. Paul’s Cathedral way in the distance. If the sky is that nice, the Cathedral will give you a good sense of how far you’ve walked since you started your trip at Borough Market. You could choose to pay and go up the Tower Bridge, but that was something that we did not have the time nor patience for. The line to go up the tower was super long, so if you’re limited in time, I would not recommend doing so. They do have a glass floor at their higher level for you to enjoy the thrill of, but for someone’s that not overly adventurous like me, I thought it was better to just keep going. In saying that, we continued walking across the bridge in which led us to the door steps of the Tower of London.

The Tower of London is more like the old castle. At first, my perception of this place was like a tower, but do not be disappointed, it is still a great spot. the Tower of London is a historical piece of art that illustrates the Kingdom at one of its stronger points. The history here is very rich, stretching almost 1000 years. We took a walk just around the castle since you need to have a ticket to go in. Yes, we were on a budget but most importantly, we wanted to see as many places as we can, so we had to skip the castle entree. However, a trip around the outside was still very enjoyable and was a super educational walk. There are information boards for every interesting stop, whereby you could learn more about the history of the castle as well as its rulers, traitors, and neighbors.

After you finish your walk of the area, there are various facilities for food and drinks including the world famous Starbucks cafe. Most importantly, they also have toilet faculties here, but you will need to have some spare change to get in.. I know, that was really annoying but it’s hard to find free things these days.

These two places are definitely best for you to see with your very own eyes. Just like every other place in London, make sure you phone or camera has sufficient power to last the period of heavy photo taking! If you would like to go directly to the action at Tower of London, you could hop on the tube and get off at the station Tower Hill. Otherwise, there are buses that run around this area, but it’s best that you ask the locals or the hotels nearby for the exact numbers and stops.

I hope this post has been helpful for your trip in London; happy photo-taking, walking and sight-seeing!

If you like the content of this post, or just want to check out some pictures that I take on my adventure, feel free to like and/or follow me on instagram at oat93, cheers!

Here I leave you some websites that you might find useful:

• HMS Belfast Imperial War Museum
• Tower Bridge
• Tower of London

On one of my first days in London with my family, we planned to visit the Tower of London. I was thinking just a 1, maybe 2 hour walk around the tower would be sufficient. I mean, it's a tower. How much could there really be to see?

I was wrong. Very, very wrong. When we reached the Tower of London and walked around it to the entrance, I started to realize how massive this plot of land is. The Tower isn't just a tower...it's a fortress. A freaking huge, very old, fortress. We entered in time to be a part of the free public tour that is led by a Yeoman Warder. This guy was all dressed up and with a booming, British voice he cracked very serious jokes and got us all ready to adventure around the Tower. "Americans, you could have had all this if you had only paid your taxes, " he said. And I started to re-think our decision to "Amexit" (but I do love being free, so it only took me a minute to remember why we did it).

After joshing around with the Yeoman Warder and getting a brief run-down of the campus, we watched the changing of the guards. This was very fun because we kept swearing that the guards were trying to get each other to laugh. Onwards from that, we got to see the crown jewels, which brought to mind the famous Sherlock episode in which Moriarty steals them.

One of my favorite parts of the Tower of London was seeing the houses in wich many of the Yeoman Warders live. They are gorgeous, with well-maintained flowers out front and beautifully painted doors. I started to wonder if I should join the British Armed Forces just to get a chance at living in one of those cute cottages.

In the end, we spent the entire day at the Tower of London. I'm still not sure if we saw it all. From the exhibits showing what the original menagerie looked like, to the weapons on display in the White Tower, I was transported back in time and learned so much about old London. We even found a dragon protecting its hoard of gold!

Thank you, Tower of London.

A little bit of backstory on Tower Bridge

It was really exciting to arrive and little by little begin to see the buildings and monuments that we had seeing on postcards. And when we began to see Tower Bridge, my heart began beating really fast. On postcards, it looks beautiful, but nothing compares to seeing it in real life - it's simply indescribable. We took a tour of London that lasted for 48 hours, which is why the photos look slightly different, as they were taken across two different days.

Tower Bridge forms part of almost all of the postcards sold in London. Without a doubt, it's one of the most important places that cannot be missed by tourists. London's Tower Bridge is located across the famous River Thames. 27 million bricks were necessary for its construction.

(Beautiful view of Tower Bridge from a distance. If you think that the image is a little bit cloudy, that's because the city usually is. It's not so uncommon for it to be raining and cloudy, but this doesn't take away from how beautiful it is. )

In 1876, a competition was held to choose a design for the bridge that would join two parts of the city together, which was all going well until the winner announced was actually one of the judges! And why is it called Tower Bridge and not just London Bridge? Well, this is because its design was inspired by the white tower from the tourist attraction, the Tower of London. It was built in 1894, and is the colour blue due to it being Queen Victoria's favourite colour.

(In this photo, you can appreciate Tower Bridge in the background, a little bit to the right. This photo was taken five minutes walking distance from the bridge, and it's another attraction that you couldn't miss for the world. )

We crossed the bridge on the tourist bus, and, although the view from the top floor was amazing, we regretted not having crossed it walking, as there is a wide pavement on either side for the pedestrians to use and enjoy. So, if you go on a tourist bus like us, don't hesitate in getting off and crossing it on foot - the view is 100% worth it - and you will be able to see exactly where the centre point is, which they open so that boats can pass underneath it.

(Here you can better appreciate the blue colour that Queen Victoria liked, which is a very light blue. )

Exhibition at London's Tower Bridge

If you have enough money left, don't hesitate in going up to the Tower Bridge Exhibition, which consists of a glass floor installed in the top part of the bridge, where the walkways are raised up and ends in the Victorian machine rooms, which help you to better understand how the mechanism of the one of the most famous and important bridges in the world works. You can go up in either of the two towers by a lift, walk along the glass floor, and go down the other side. Originally, these walkways were not built as a tourist attraction, but as an option for pedestrians to cross the bridge when the pavements were closed off for long periods of time, as the pedestrians would prefer to wait for a boat to pass than to cross underneath. After being closed for a long while, it was decided that it would be made into another tourist attraction that could take your breath away. If you buy the 'London Pass', you can access the exhibition without paying any extra, as your entrance to more than 70 London attractions is included in the price you paid for the pass, amongst many other discounts, etc.

(Above, you can clearly the walkways that form part of the Tower Bridge Exhibition. )

These days, the walkways are not raised unless there is an important boat/ship that really cannot pass underneath them. They usually announce in advance the next time that they have to open the bridge, so, if you want to see it, ask when the next big boat is due to pass through. If you want to go to the tower's exhibition and experience these incredible views for yourself, just remember that final admission is at 5pm because the sun sets early. Also, bear in mind that entry without the London Pass to the exhibition costs £9 for adults.

(A beautiful view of the famous River Thames.)

The London Eye is a spot visited by tourists who visit the city immediately. The London Eye is a ferris wheel that is not historic but one of the popular tourist spots in London. Because the London Eye is a very popular place, it may take longer to get your ticket immediately upon arrival. Skip fast laps (fast passes) or book online at bus stops in the city. It can go on for a long time for your holiday and not wait for a long time. In addition, while the view is spectacular late, the ticket queue shortens.

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