leaving already?

flying to prague this afternoon - how is it already time to leave london? we definitely didn't allow enough time for this portion of the trip, and will have to schedule a few more days here at the end.

yesterday was devoted to seeing london city, the old part of town with ancient roman walls and beheadings at the tower of london and such. it was...fine..., but i am now convinced that i will never again come to london in the summer. the tower of london was horrendously expensive (and they include a 10% donation in your ticket price that you have to awkwardly ask them to take off if you don't want to pay it...what crap!) but completely unenjoyable because you're stick in one endless line, pushed past anything you might want to pause to read about by the pace of the crowd behind you. seeing the crown jewels was like going on a theme park ride that seems not too crowded by the size of the line outside but is secretly hiding a much longer line inside the building. yuck. it was a little bit cool seeing the crowns (apparently there's one for coronations and a different one that is then worn for the procession out), and i think bryan liked checking out the armor and weaponry in another building, but otherwise i would have been happy walking around the outer perimeter of the building...for free. had fish and chips for lunch but didn't get any vinegar with it, which i had been led to believe was standard. hmm.

crossed over the river via the tower bridge, which was more colorful than i'd imagined it, wandered past the globe theater and the prison that gave the moniker "the clink" to the rest of the world, then re-crossed on the harry potter bridge (you know, the one that's destroyed by the death eaters...) and spent some time at the museum of london, learning about londinium and plagues and great fires and beatles and telephone booths. it's amazing to realize that this city has 2000 years of history behind it already - how much fun it must be to be an archaeologist here! maybe i'll go back to school...

-rachel