A rainy London excursion

Our first academic excursion started straight after breakfast.
We had our "stylish" red backpacks and after an one hour bus trip we arrived at the beautiful but - SURPRISE SURPRISE - rainy London.

After we met our Blue Guide at the Barbican, which is a big tourist center in Central London our tour began.

At first we saw a hospital, which is now meant to be a home for old people.
Our guide also told us some spooky stories about each place we visited.
During our tour we passed a pub that is allowed to "open too early and to close too late", a church where in front of it a mass plague grave is situated and we also pased St. Bartholemew's, where the Scots patriot from Braveheart died.
Afterwards we passed a golden boy, which is a marker for the big fire in 1660. One of the last things we saw was the marker for the old Roman wall.

It took us about two hours to see all those things. The walk was quite wearisome and therefore we all were very hungry.
So we got our lunch bags and walked to the Tower of London.

I was in a group of about six people and all of a sudden we didn't see any red backpacks. I thought that we got lost.
Fortunately I was wrong. I just didn't know that we were allowed to visit the Tower of London on our own.
The Tower Bridge is really beautiful and I also saw a ship on the Thames passing under the bridge.
Inside the tower I saw the Spanish and British Armoury but the Crown Jewels were definitely more impressive.
They are beautiful and it's amazing how they are made. One crown even consists of about 536 carats.

Although the weather was bad I really enjoyed the trip, but I feel very sorry for the Beefeaters (guards) that have to stand outside no matter how the weather is.