London 🇬🇧

We boarded the chunnel train back to England for our last couple of days on our European adventure to explore bits of London and shore up final errands before setting back to the States.  We’ve been fortunate to visit London during our last five years overseas but still hadn’t been up Tower Bridge or visited the Natural History Museum.  We also got to see the new and shiny Big Ben without its scaffolding which has been up the past five years.  

Tower Bridge construction began in 1886 in order to improve access to London’s East End after significant commercial expansion.  Located next to London Bridge and Tower of London it crosses 800 feet across the River Thames.  About 40,000 people cross the drawbridge everyday and in 1952 a bus, not minding the gap, ended up jumping across the bridge.  The bridge attendant actually forgot to use the alarm before opening the bridge, however the bus made it across with all 20 passengers onboard. It was interesting to hear about the building process and get some amazing views as well as braving the glass walkway!  

At the Natural History Museum we got to see Dippy the Diplodocus.  Reaching a length of 85ft, this little guy has been touring around UK museums since 2018 so lucky for us we got to see it.  The cast was made from the bones of a diplodocus discovered in 1878 in Wyoming.  Some other highlights were the mastodon, blue whale, and dodo bird.  Unfortunately we didn’t have time to explore it all.