Days 3-4: London

Tower of London
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Day 3 On day 3 of our London trip, we decided to do a very thorough tour of the Tower of London.  We joined in on a free guided tour.  Our tour guide was a real Yeoman Warder (or "Beefeater").  He was quite funny and informative.  We got to see the tower where all those queens were executed, heard stories of men being tortured, and even got to see the ACTUAL crown jewels.  We also got told the legend of the ravens.  Legend has it that as a royal astronomer was trying to study the sky, he was constantly interrupted by the throngs of ravens that would surround the palace.  The astronomer pleaded with King Charles II to get rid of all the ravens.  The king was ready to agree, but was reminded of a legend that if all the ravens were to leave the Tower of London, the tower and England itself would fall.  To this day, there are always 6 ravens (and 2 unofficial off-duty ravens) at the grounds of Tower of London.  To be sure, they have clipped their wings so they won't fly away.  Besides not being able to fly they seem to have it pretty good.  They get fed nice and treated like kings.  One raven lived to almost 50 years at the Tower, and they only live to about 15 in the wild.

Ravens of Tower of London
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After the Tower of London, we decided to take a boat to Greenwich, right to the east of London.  We had a pretty fun river cruise tour guide.  TJ really liked him, especially when he said: "I don't buy dogs anymore because they die.  Instead I bought two fish.  I named 'em "One" and "Two".  That way, if One dies, I still have Two."  That was all it took to send TJ into tears of laughter.  Once we got to the sleepy town of Greenwich, we hiked up an incredibly steep hill to the Royal Observatory.  There we officially stood on different sides of the world (eastern and western hemispheres).  We then went into the Royal Observatory, which had some brand new exhibits.  It was all very beautiful.  The outside of the Observatory looked old and pretty and was actually designed by Sir Christopher Wren (same architect as St. Paul's Cathedral).  The inside has been completely renovated and is modern and pretty.  The newest exhibit is a planetarium show.  It showed the birth and death of a star.  We were pretty excited, but Melissa had taken 2 Dramamines before the boat ride and was feeling the full effects of the drowsiness.  She was having a hard time staying awake during the show.  After that, we headed back to London and back to the hostel to cash in on our complimentary dinner.  It was super yummy!

On both sides of the Prime Meridian
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Day 4 Our fourth day in London was rather short, considering we had to leave by mid-afternoon for the airport.  We headed out early to the British Museum.  To get there, we had to walk through Russell Square and found a nice small cafe in the park.  We each had a croissant and coffee for breakfast.  We then headed on into the museum.  The museum was a lot bigger than either of us expected.  We were able to view exhibits from all over the world.  TJ particularly liked the Asian exhibit rooms.  They were able to trace back some of the history to the prehistoric ages (old carvings, artifacts, etc.).  We were also intrigued by the Egyptian exhibits, but all the school children had taken over those rooms and those rooms ended up being incredibly hot and stuffy and loud.  We pushed our way through and eventually tired out and left the museum.  We then took a quick stop to Chinatown in Soho.  Since we were both being cheap, we decided to try a restaurant where all their lunch items were 3.99 pounds (that's still like 8 bucks!).  We ate at a restaurant called the Laughing Buddha.  It was really really good.  It was now time to head off to the airport, since London Stansted was about 45 minutes away by train.  We were now off to Oslo....