Our Third day in London

Today was a beautiful day in London! Sunny, warm and we accomplished everything we wanted - and more!
Our day started with heading to the London Eye with Gail, Kathy and Judy (the three John Denver friends we are cruising with).
The Eye was very cool! A nice smooth ride up and over London. We purchased Flexi Fast Passes so we could arrive at any time and get priority boarding - that worked out very well. We got some great pictures from The Eye like this one with Parliament and Big Ben in the background. We also got pictures of St Paul's, Buckingham Palace, and other London attractions.

After that we took a boat ride on the Themes to the Tower of London. The Tower was very impressive with some very ancient parts and quite the history. We started out on the Beefeater tour, but it was going rather slow and the main attraction was the Crown Jewels so we cut out on our own with Rick Steves' Pocket London tour notes.
The Tower is famous for it's torture and executions and we saw some of the torture equipment and many tales of famous executions before heading to the Crown Jewels. There was quite a line, but it moved fast. The Jewels were very impressive, including the Coronation Crown (that is only worn for 20 minutes) and many other crowns, scepters, orbs, challices, patens, and regal paraphernalia.
Next on our list was Buckingham Palace. It was very impressive to see the balcony where William and Kate stood for their famous kisses.
We noticed the Royal Mews was nearby and we had free admission so we stopped in. The Mews contained the Royal coaches that were used for various purposes including the Australia Coach and the Coronation Coach.
That wrapped up our day and our London sightseeing. Tomorrow we head to the Crown Princess to begin our cruise!