London Rain, Tower of London, and Gandolf

For our second full day in London, we headed to the Tower of London. This place has so much history we had to see it. About 5 minutes into our walk to the underground - it rained. And it rained. And it rained. All.day.long. I've heard it rains a lot in London, but man it just rained all day and did not let up at all. So we made it to the Tower of London and I thought not many people would be out and about because of the weather - I was wrong. A lot of people were out braving the cold and rain just like us.

The White Castle in the Tower of London

Chapel in the White Castle

We first walked around the perimeter and through the outer towers. Each tower gave a little history about the entire fortress. Next we visited the White Tower. This is the tower in the middle of the fortress and holds the military weapons, gun power, armor and other such items. We viewed the armor of some of the kings of England. They were some large fellas!

Henry VIII Armor

We also visited the Bloody Tower which tells the story of the Two Princes that went missing during Richard III reign in England. And we saw the tower of torture that showed replicas of some torture methods used during interrogations.

Lastly, we visited the crown jewels on ground. Words cannot describe the beauty each piece. Unfortunately we were not able to take any pictures. Completely rain soaked and freezing, we trekked back to the hostel to devise a plain for the next day.

The Crown Jewels

Sitting and making our plan, we met a very sweet traveler named Allie. She's from Wisconsin, but is studying abroad in Germany and is traveling on holiday before returning home. We chatted with her for a while and then headed back out to The Grapes which is Ian McKellen's pub near London. It took us 4 train rides and a long walk through a quiet deserted looking town to find it. When we arrived we received several odd looks, but when seated at the bar - the bartender started talking to us. She was extremely friendly! Separately I ordered two whiskey's that she recommended. The first one was Laphroaig and had a nice smokey flavor. The only thing to make it better would have been a cigar and steak. Next was Monkey Shoulder which was more of a traditional scotch whiskey. While there we took several photos of Ian McKellen's staff from Lord of the Rings where he plays Gandolf.

Gandolf's staff on display at The Grapes

Caleb all of a sudden says "Hey guys" and motions to his right. In the pub is Ian himself! He took a photo with some patrons and promptly left. Sara and Kerri ran outside to see if they could catch him. After a minute or so we joined them and they did catch him! We got a photo with him and he seemed like he was in a hurry but was so very nice to get the picture with us.

The group with Ian McKellen!