Our second day in London started at the Tower of London. I'd had a rough night having woken at 3am & not being able to get back to sleep. The jet lag was to blame but I wasn't ready to let it ruin the holiday. We arrived not long after opening to avoid the crowds.
We waited just inside the gate for the next tour guide. The Tower is guarded by Yeomen who are all ex-army. This has been tradition for a very long time. These days the Yeomen are chosen for their story telling abilities & wit. Our guy (above) was a great story teller & most certainly had a sense of humour.
Our friendly Yeoman pointed out all the interesting places in the Tower such as the Tower Green & Queen's House (above) & the White Tower (below) The White Tower is the place where the royal armoury is stored.
There's quite the collection of armour in the White Tower. Henry the VIII seems to have the most items in the collection. It's all very oversized for someone who was small of stature (as well as other things).
The crown jewels are stored in Waterloo Barracks (below) within the walls of the tower. The jewels are all very flashy but you aren't allowed to take photos of them. Lots of bling I can assure you.
The Jewels are guarded heavily by a number of different military types including the ones wearing the busbies (below).
From the walls of the tower you can see a few of the London sights including the ridiculous gherkin (below).
Julie met us for lunch outside the tower before taking the ferry (below) along the Thames to Greenwich.
The ferry took us under the Tower Bridge and past many of London's tourist sights.
At Greenwich we stopped at the markets (because that's what women like to do when on tour). There was all kind of local handy crafts. The typical kind of rubbish at most markets the world over.
I knew little of Greenwich before we arrived there. I knew the world's 0 deg meridian ran through it & was named after it, but that's it.
Greenwich is home to a building called Queen's House (above). I'm not sure why because she doesn't live there. Greenwich University is right across the road. Both are pictured below.
The big landmark in Greenwich is the Royal Observatory (below).
The main game with the Royal Observatory is the bench mark for the Prime Meridian (Zero degrees latitude).
All the bench marks have the current version & the older technology. Below is the older Prime Meridian, above, the flashy new monument.
The bench mark for world time is also at Greenwich. The atomic clock lives inside one of the buildings at the Observatory.
Again, the old world clock is still on show (below) along with measurement bench marks for length & sea level.
There is a complex sundial (below) that is calibrated for all times of year. It's great that they've created a piece of art in the process.
The observatory has a planetarium & a big telescope (below).
Time to leave Greenwich. It was a pleasant surprise for me & I had never even contemplated going there. Hat's off to our local guide, Julie.
A few more sights in the afternoon including HMS Belfast (above) from the ferry and Cleopatra's needle (below).
We stopped for a while for a beer at The Porterhouse, one of many pubs along the Thames. Later we had dinner before going our separate ways. The girls went to a show (Jersey Boys) & I went for a wander to take in the sights at night.
Trafalgar Square (above) was my first target. It looks very different at night time.
Westminster Abbey (above) takes on a very sinister appearance. The caked on soot doesn't help its image.
The Houses of Parliament are definately more photogenic at night.
Even the London Eye has some aesthetic qualities at night.
The 3am start had finally caught up with me so I caught the tube back to the hotel, had a shower & crashed for the night. Kerri came back not long after. Tomorrow we'd be on the move again.
It's quite a pleasant trip over all. By the time we'd navigated the Metro (like the Tube in London) we arrived at the hotel around 11.30am local time & ditched our bags with reception.
Our hotel was just around the corner from the Eiffel Tower so we stopped for a couple of tourist snaps before going for a cruise on the River Seine. 
Many of the bridges over the Seine bear the markings of opulent Napoleon times (below). 
After floating past many of the famous sights of Paris such as the Louvre, we came across Notre Dame (below).
We grabbed a baguette from a street vendor & ate it in a surprisingly quiet garden at the back of Notre Dame. From the park, the famous flying buttresses of the grand cathedral are evident (below).
After lunch we lined up at the side of the cathedral in order to climb the towers. We were lined up for 20 minutes or so but were entertained by a street performer who wore a scary mask, snuck up on unsuspecting passersby, scaring the living daylights out of them.
After climbing seemingly endless flights of spiral stairs, we reached the top. There are plenty of gargoyles to be seen from street level, but the ones at the top of the tower are much more interesting (above & below).
The view across Paris is pretty much uninterrupted as well. Montmartre (below) on the hill in the distance was easy enough to see despite the smog. 
We descended the spirals to the ground and went into the cathedral.
The gothic architecture is most dominant inside.
The stained glass windows are legendary, particularly the giant circular windows (below) the French hid from the Germans during WWII. 
We stopped outside in tourist central for a photo of the main entrance (below).
We caught the next river boat back to Place de la Concorde. After some tricky traffic dodging, we found a traffic island where we could take some photos.
The Obelisk in the centre has some gold features that change to green depending on what angle you look at it (see above & below).
There's also a fountain, Pont de la Concorde (below).
Looking away from the Obelisk & the fountain you can look all the way along the Champs Elysees (below) to the Arch de Triumph.
As we were leaving Place de la Concorde we saw a guy making huge bubbles with a hoop (below). It kept the crowd amused for a little while.
After more traffic dodging we found a Metro station & made our way to Montmarte that we'd seen from Notre Dame earlier in the day.
There was a festival of some sort at Montmartre. They had live music & lots of food & craft stalls. There were also lots of people! We found a restaurant to have dinner & a couple of glasses of red.
Dinner was nice (but a bit pricey) & the desserts were pretty nice as well.
By the time we'd finished dinner it was dark. We took a couple of photos of Montmartre before catching the Metro back to the hotel.
We were straight back on the tube & surfaced again at Piccadilly Circus (above). Julie lives in London & was our tour guide for the day (and the next few). 
The girls wanted to stop at New Zealand House (above) for some reason (something to do with country of birth or some rot).
There were the obligatory tourist shots like the phone box.
Kerri & Julie took the tour of Churchill's war rooms. I opted out with some jet lag issues.
We got our first proper look at the London Eye. It wouldn't be the last time. You can see it from all over the city. 
Later in the afternoon we crossed the Thames so we could see the tourist attractions from another angle. The Houses of Parliament (below) are unobstructed from the South Bank.
