Day 7 7/7
Our daughter wanted to see as much of London as she could in 1 day. I thought the best way to do this would be some kind of tour. We ended up booking City Wonders "Full Day Walking Tour". It ran from 8:15 am to 5:15 pm. We had to meet at the ticket office at the Tower of London at 8:00 am. We were out of the apartment by 7:00 am & heading to the Tube station. We had purchased 7 day Oyster cards for the 3 of us & an Oyster card for daughter, putting 10 pounds on it. She only needed 3 Tube rides & I thought this would be enough. We did have a problem when exiting at the Tower Hill Tube Station - the card readers weren't working. The staff was just telling people to go on thru. I knew this would be a problem for our daughter's card & now she would be charged fare to the farthest point on the Tube line. We didn't want to be late for the tour, so figured we'd deal with it on our way back or just put more money on the card if we had to.
We met our guide, Josh, at the ticket window. There were maybe 20 or so people on our tour. The group was actually larger, but had been split among 2 guides. Josh was a Londoner, very personable and funny. There turned out to be another family from our Western New York area on the tour & the mom had gone to the same high school as me, although several years later so we didn't know each other. We can usually find some kind of Buffalo connection wherever we go!
The tour started w/early entry to the Tower of London. Josh took us in, while giving us info about the Tower on the way (we all had headsets). We saw the opening ceremony where the Yeoman Warders march with the keys to officially open the gate. We were then told we should head directly to the Crown Jewels. How nice to see them without the massive crowds! We could take our time. We then had free time to look around the Tower, but only about an hour, I think. This was why we had gone to the Tower earlier in the week. I knew an hour wouldn't be enough time for my husband & me, but it was plenty for our daughter. We went on a speedy visit to the White Tower & visited the torture room (at daughter's request!). We made it to the meeting point outside the exit gate with some time to spare. Josh took pictures of the 4 of us with Tower Bridge in the background.