London Day Six

On our last full day in London we started out by going to The British Museum. It’s an absolutely huge museum full of ancient artifacts from all over the world. It would probably take more than a full day to see everything in it, so we just focused on the pieces from the Ancient Near East, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. We saw Cleopatra’s mummy, pieces of Assyrian and Babylonian temples and walls, Greek and Roman sculptures, and the Rosetta Stone. Those were just the highlights, and we didn’t stay as long as we could have.

The British Museum


Sheepishly fist bumping a god.

The London Zoo

After leaving the museum we headed over to the London Zoo. It was less crowded than some of the other attractions we had been seeing, so we really enjoyed being able to walk quietly through it. They had a pretty good selection of animals, but the best part was how closely we were able to view them. The tigers were just on the other side of some glass, less than a foot away from us. We saw komodo dragons, Galapagos tortoises, meerkats, lions, giraffes, zebras, ring tailed lemurs, and gorillas, but our favorite was probably the tamarins. They were super cute and had a couple young babies that would cling to the backs of their parents.

London Day Five

On Tuesday, we tried again to go to Windsor Castle. This time we were allowed in and showed up right as they were having a changing of the guard ceremony, complete with brass marching band. After watching that for a bit we went through Queen Mary’s Doll House exhibit and toured the staterooms. We got to walk through where the Queen hosts parties and meets with heads of state. It turns out that she was actually staying there at Windsor Castle while we were touring. We missed seeing her drive away, but the flag flying above the castle meant that she was residing there as she does most weekends but you usually cannto see her. We were very disappointed as she did make an appearance and many got to see her and wave to her.

We had a nice lunch outside the castle, then went back in for a guided tour. There we learned some of the history of the castle (it was originally founded at that site in 1066 by William the Conqueror). We were also able to walk through St. George’s Chapel and see were several royalties are buried (including Henry VII–Jenn’s favorite). It was incredible to hear the history of the buildings and to know that they are still used today as a royal residence for Her Majesty the Queen herself.

Windsor Castle was probably one of our favorite things we saw in London. The processions, the parade, the changing of the guard ceremony were all so royal and amazing to view so close.