London New Year's Day Parade Trip - Day 1

Tracey, David, and I recently took a trip to London because David's high school marching band was invited to participate in the London New Year's Day Parade 2017. David flew over with the 160 band members, parents, and siblings. This trip was planned for nearly 16 months. Tracey and I decided to go over on our own sometime in the Fall of 2016. Our trip started on December 28th, 2016 as we said goodbye to our family and kids in Knoxville and flew first to Washington DC, then to London.

We flew overnight and arrived in London the morning of December 29th. Our first stop was at the hotel to drop off our luggage. On the tube from the airport, was the first of many sightings of the "Mind the Gap" signs around London.

We made our way to the London Eye Pier where we caught a tour boat to take us to the Tower of London, where the band was scheduled to eat lunch. Here's some shots we took along the way.

 

After we arrived at the Tower Pier, we walked around the area looking for anyone from the band. We found some parents we knew, talked with them and finally found David with his group eating lunch at a sandwich shop.

We ate lunch with some of the parents and got some photos with Tower Bridge and Tower of London in the background.

After visiting for a while, we toured the Tower of London with one of the Beefeater guards.

After the Tower of London tour, we walked over to the Tower Bridge. This bridge is an amazing sight. We went up inside the bridge where they have a glass floor to walk on. They also had several areas where you can stick your camera out a window and get pictures looking down the River Thames.

After finishing the tour of the Tower Bridge, we walked back to the south side of the river and found a pub to eat dinner at. We both had fish and chips, which was okay. We then found our way back to the hotel and went to bed around 8:00. We were very tired from the trip and getting little sleep on the plane.