Fare thee well, London Town

Last day, perfect weather and off to the Tower for us.  We took the short cut and just walked around on our own.  We're just not guided tour folk. 

I think they spiffied up the Tower for the Olympics and the Queen's Jubilee celebration.  A lot of it looked new, but there was enough old stuff to remind you that they really did cut off heads there.  Surprisingly, about 12 people were executed in the 20th century at the Tower.  !!!! 

The coolest thing I found about the Tower was this:

This is a wooden bust of Queen Elizabeth, made in 1779 and I figure it's what she looked like.  I always thought she looked like Betty Davis, or Cate Blanchett, or Luisa Puig (inside joke).  But this apparently is it. 

And later on, in the Tower Store, there was this for sale:

And it can be yours for only 2000 pounds.  A steal!  (a steel?)

Our energy level ran out on us early on and it was time to pack, but I'll leave with a few observations about London:

In Madrid, we looked around and just fell in love with the old old buildings that were just everywhere.  In London, it seems like they're intent on put up silly buildings.  For example

This one is called "The Shard".  Can't imagine why, but it sure looks scary to me:

All I know is that our London hostess hates it with a passion because there used to be an underground with  clubs & shops and this building totally wiped it out. 

Then of course there is this now-iconic building that you always see any time there is a show based in London.  It is about 5 miles from the center of town, by the way.  I don't know if it's called "The Egg" by the locals, but seriously, how could it not be?

It's really the headquarters of some Swedish company.  Everywhere I looked there was yet another silly building going up.

I'm so tired of seeing girls walk around, having forgotten to put on their pants.  They stop at tights and call themselves dressed for the day.  Ugh.  Make it stop.  And if they don't wear tights and call it slacks, they'll put on a flimsy summery dress and then put thick black tights on with it. 

And one last thing:  Kate Middleton isn't preggers, regardless of what the tabloids, like US Magazine say.  How do I know?  Because there is not word one in any British tabloid, newspaper, magazine, what-have-you.  And our hostess says they don't DARE print any rumor about anyone in the Royal family unless they want to deal with the Royal family.  And if the Royal family ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

London has given me many fun memories and in return, I leave it with 116,996 of my footsteps.  Oh hell, let's call it an even 117,000

Paris, here I come.