December 30th....one last day to get everything in...

Saturday was our final day in London, and we had a decent list of places we wanted to get to. Fortunately, most everything is within walking distance, so it wasn't too hard to do. Plus we had a beautiful sunny morning, which made it very nice to be out and about.

We started the day at the Tower of London, home to the Queen's Jewels among other things. We wandered around the grounds, taking lots of pictures and enjoying the view of the Thames over the tower walls.

Next it was off to Leadenhall Market, which, for the Harry Potter fans out there, is the shooting location for Diagon Alley. The problem of course is that on Saturdays, Leadenhall Market is closed, as is nearly everything else on that side of town. We walked and walked and walked, heading towards St. Paul's Cathedral, where we finally found a little French Restaurant that was open, and grabbed a bite to eat there while looking up at St. Paul's Cathedral from our seats.

From St. Paul's, you can walk straight across the Thames over the Millenium Bridge. For those who remember, when the Millenium Bridge first opened it wasn't all that stable, but I can now confirm that it is possible to walk across it without it wobbling every which way. On the other side of the bridge is the Tate Modern museum, the newer of the two Tate museums (the other being the Tate Britain). Everything in the Tate Modern was created in the 20th or 21st century. The highlight for us was the new exhibit of slides. Yes, slides. There were four of them, one from each of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors, and all going to the first floor. Adults, kids, anyone could go on the slide. We were mesmerized by them. We started calculating which slides were better for adults (the 5th floor slide, because it had a steeper drop at the end and shot you right out onto the mat).