Tower of London, Columbia Road Flower Market, and the Natural History Museum

Greg stayed with me for one final weekend here in London and we did a bit of exploring.

Regent street is still decked out in its NFL and American flags.

We paid a visit to the lovely and free National Portrait Gallery, and found a Greg lookalike in one of the paintings!

After the Gallery, we made our way through Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly circus, stopping here and there to pick up souvenirs for our families.

We also stopped into the London M&M world in Leicester Square, where I found this little cutie.

We paid our visits to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.

After seeing Versailles in all its glory, Greg felt only so-so about Buckingham Palace!

That night, we met up with my friends at the local Wetherspoons bar and came up with the plan to pay a visit to the Tower of London the following day!

The Tower of London boasts a history almost 1000 years old and is full of gruesome stories. Inside the Tower, you can see anything from torture chambers to the Crown Jewels in all their glory.

After getting our fill of history and even some entertaining reenactments, we left the Tower in search for some food to fill our rumbling bellies! We found a nearby BBQ restaurant serving up American-style classics and ordered plates upon plates of pulled pork sandwiches, vegetarian burgers and enchiladas, and tons and tons of chips (or fries as we call them back home).

Greg and I split off from the group to peek our heads into St. Paul's Cathedral (no photographs allowed inside), where we arrived just in time to sit and listen to what sounded like a chorus of angels singing at the high altar. 

After a night of flat-hopping, we got up the next morning to take a trip down to Brick Lane and the Columbia Road Flower Market.

Anyone could easily get lost in the rows and rows of beautiful flowers on Columbia Road on a Sunday morning. It's a London experience worth giving a try!

Greg and I left Columbia Road to get on the tube and head over to Kensington in hopes of poking our heads into a museum. We got absolutely poured on in our attempts to take a nice stroll through Kensington Gardens over to the Natural History Museum, but nevertheless arrived, even if we did look a bit like drowned rats.

The entrance to the museum exhibits makes you feel like you're entering the Earth's inner core.

A huge portion of the museum is dedicated to wildlife and includes hundreds of extremely life-like "animals" behind glass walls.

The museum itself is a beautiful sight to see!

Greg and I spent his last night in Europe feasting on pizza, fries, and mozzarella sticks, and watching the Lion King. We both agreed that it was the best night we had the entire time! I accompanied him to London Bridge station the next morning where he caught a train to Gatwick airport to begin his long journey home back to Boston. I couldn't have been happier with how his visit went.

And I think he agrees!