Visiting the Tower of London

On our second day in London, we only had a few items to check off of our itinerary. Short of seeing Big Ben, The London Eye, and Tower Bridge, after we ticked those stops off of our list we thought we'd just kind of walk around and see what was what. As we were walking around, we were approached outside of the Tower of London by one of those off-site ticket sellers offering discounts on the regular gate admission. We kind of went back and forth, debating if we wanted to waste time going though as we really aren't fans of the royal family, and at first agreed we'd move along to something else. About 10 minutes later, we figured what the hell, and went back to the ticket guy and bought admission.

Since Mariah had her school i.d., she was able to get the student rate, and Allison qualified for the child rate, so we paid right around $80 for the 4 of us to tour the grounds.

Even though it seemed like there were tons of tourists going in, the grounds are fairly large so everyone is spread out and you can move through the towers quite quickly. However, in the smaller tower rooms it can get a bit crowded if people choose to take up space reading the plaques and looking at the artifacts for prolonged periods of time, but we found that to be minimal.

There are usually a group of 6 captive ravens that live at The Tower of London, and their presence is traditionally believed that they protect the crown and tower. Superstition says that should they fly away or get lost, the crown will fall and Brittan will fall with it. This raven was so chill, people were getting their phones up real close for photos and he didn't budge a bit.

Since the changing of the guard happened earlier that day at Buckingham Palace and we missed it, the girls were quite pleased to see some of the Queen's Guards outside of the tower that guards the Crown Jewels.

There was quite a long line to get in to see the Crown Jewels, but it actually moved fairly quickly for how long it was. I believe we waited about 30 minutes in line before we were able get in.

Any kind of photography or video is strictly prohibited where they house the crown jewels, so I wasn't able to snap any pics of those. There are signs everywhere stating this, but it didn't stop the lady in front of me from trying to snap photos, though she was quickly reprimanded by the employees there.

In The Crown Jewels Tower, you will see 600 years worth of royal robes, staffs, dinnerware, and other ceremonial regalia. You can take your time looking at these artifacts, but once you get to the actual royal crowns, you step on a conveyor belt to view them as you are constantly moving at a slow pace to keep the line down. You can go back on the belt as many times as you wish, or if you choose, you can view the crowns from a small distance away on a carpeted platform.

All in all, we spent about 2 hours at the Tower of London, which was well worth our $80 entrance fee. Even if you aren't into exploring the royal atifacts, you get some pretty spectacular views of Tower Bridge from the towers that almost make the entrance fee worth it in itself. If you're headed to London and are on the fence about making a stop, I say go for it. We had a great time there and highly recommend!

Would you be more interested in exploring the grounds or seeing the royal artifacts at Tower of London?