London, England 4/9/10

Took a Ryanair (Southwest cheap-type) flight to London Stansted from Salzburg. Although pricey, it is nice to not have to take a night train and instead arrive within 2 hours. After checking into our hostel and picking up a weeklong Oyster metro pass (very convenient, all you do is slide the card to open the gate like Tom Cruise in Collateral), we headed to the Tower of London. It’s the site of many executions for the royal family in addition to being a wartime castle and a monarch’s residence in peacetime. The crown jewels were a rich sight to see. The tale of the “Bloody Tower” about the two princes killed by Richard III (my guess as to who did it) was pretty interesting. The Torture tower didn’t have much aside from 3 main torture devices. Traitor’s gate was something interesting to see (think Man in the Iron Mask). Afterwards we walked over London Bridge (didn’t fall down) and then briefly visited the Globe Theater (will tour sometime later). We actually saw the original site of the theater afterwards. Interestingly, the Brits really like to drink outside as evidenced by the mobs outside of pubs. We hit up the free Tate Moderne where we saw some Warhol’s, Picasso’s, Dali’s, Pollock’s, Monet’s, and Lichtenstein’s for free. Pretty slick. I hit up a St. Christopher’s pub at the end of the day for fish and chips. Alright, but I’ll find better. The first pint I got was a Kronenbourg 1664 lager: excellent for a non-dark beer. The “semi-dark” Bombardier was only alright, though.