London Bridge is Falling Down

Today we went on a Thames River bike tour. It was really an enjoyable way to see the city. And much easier on the feet. We learned a lot from our guide David about the city. Since I love trivia, especially about history, this was the tour for me.



First: This bridge is not London Bridge








This one is

We all know that the London Bridge was moved piece by piece to Arizona. But we don't know the history of the bridge. This is the story our guide told us, which I have paraphrased from the same story on Wikipedia:

In 1014, the bridge was pulled down by the Norwegian prince Olaf, as he was aiding King Aethelred the Unready, in what, if true, was a successful bid to divide the defending forces of the Danes who held the walled City of London plus Southwark, thereby regaining London for the Anglo-Saxon king. The men tied their boats to the bridge and literally pulled it down with their boats. This episode has been thought to have inspired the well-known nursery rhyme "London Bridge is Falling Down".


We rode our bicycles across the first bridge, officially named The Tower Bridge. It is actually a drawbridge that was erected during Queen Victoria's reign. The new London Bridge is only about 35 years old.

The history of London dates back over 2000 years. The architecture of the city reflects that long history.
We saw many old buildings.



Tower of London where Anne Bolyn and others were beheaded




And many new:

London City Hall across the river
This one has many nicknames, such as Darth Vader's Helmut and The Lone Testicle (coined by the former mayor)


We also went to Borough Market for a lunch stop. We went by the Globe Theater where Shakespeare plays are performed. Did you know (more trivia) that the official language of England was Latin until Shakespeare began writing. He is responsible for over 14,000 English words that he introduced in his writings, including the word Excellent as well as many common phrases. English was an evolving language that he almost single-handedly made the official language of Britain. We rode to Covent Garden and Trafalgar Square before finishing our tour. And then, because we have not walked enough, we walked back across the river and to our hotel

We are going to the theater tonight to see 39 Steps since we did not get to see in in LA because of our travels. We leave tomorrow morning to finally go back to LA. We have had a wonderful trip, but we do need to get back home, even if it is just for a couple of weeks.

Love,
Sharon and Joel