We woke up incredibly early (for a vacation) to be at the other side of London at 8am for opening hours at St. Paul’s Cathedral.  The audio tour was interesting, the ground floor was impressive, and the view from the dome was amazing.

Similar to the National Gallery, photos were not permitted inside.  Still, this was definitely a highlight of our London sightseeing.

After St. Paul’s, we headed over to the Tower of London and enjoyed the view across the Thames of the London Bridge.

We took a Thames boat tour up to Westminster street and got our first glimpse of Big Ben.

While we were close to the river, we decided to see Parliament from all sides.

Unfortunately, we could not tour Parliament or Westminster Abbey.  This was because Pres. Obama was in town and they were closed for security purposes.  We still managed to get some cool pictures from the outside.

However, we happened to see Obama.  By accident.  Since Westminster was closed, we decided to see the Churchill War Rooms nearby.  After leaving the museum and walking toward Westminster Street, the presidential motorcade happened to drive right by us.  We weren’t expecting it, so unfortunately no pictures.  But we were about 10 feet away from the President and saw him clearly in the car driving by.  We didn’t even have time to wave.

We finished the day off with more culturing by viewing Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well in the Globe Theatre.

After the show, we walked the Millennium Bridge back to the Tube (subway) station.

This is our last day in London and we were exhausted and ready to leave the chaos of 8 million people.  The food was good and the sights were great.  Now we’re off to Northern England.