London Tower, High Tea at Harrod's, and Oculus Rifts

Foggy London (photo by TravellingFool.com)

Thankfully this morning I was able to confirm my bottom bunk for the rest of my time here in Camden. After doing that at 6am I went back to bed then we got dressed and rushed over to the Tower of London to try and beat the massive crowds we met the day before.

EJ and I met Danielle and Andy at the tower at about 10:30am (it opened at 9) and there was already a massive wave of people! Our timing was pretty great though because a tour had just started as we walked in. The Beefeaters who do the tour is my favorite part of the tower. After listening to the history of the different parts of the tower we went to the armory and saw all the cool weapons and armor that England used through the years.

The day was classic foggy London so the view wasn't all that great. Once we were done with the tour of the tower we started off towards Harrods for tea. When we got there we wound our way through the store and two other restaurants to find The Georgian where we would be doing afternoon tea.

Quail egg with caviar and champagne for afternoon tea (photo by TravellingFool.com)

Everything about the room and the meal was ornate. Danielle ordered the champagne version and I got us the luxury version since the price difference wasn't that much. Everything was delicious. We had quail eggs with caviar and prawns to start with rose, mini sandwiches, cakes, scones, trifle, strawberry's with Pimm's sauce, and of course tea.

All the yummy things for tea (photo by TravellingFool.com)

By the end we were so stuffed that we could barely move. Then again over 3 hours of eating will do that to you. Everytime we thought we reached the end there was another course. Finally we had digested enough to have the energy to lift ourselves from the plush red chairs.

Beary good times at Harrod's (photo by TravellingFool.com)

We walked through Harrods and found all sorts of cool and amazingly expensive things. Like a thousand pound pillow and a forty pound infants sweater. We also tried to find the Opera singer but she wasn't singing this day unfortunately. Eventually we bought our souvenir gifts and found the exit. 

 

Facebook has a nifty office (photo by TravellingFool.com)

Still full of mini foods and quite a bit poorer we made our way to the Facebook office to meet Andy and play Oculus Rift. I hadn't had a chance to play before and it was amazing. There were some things, that as a video game enthusiast, that felt off. The sights of the gun didn't seem to line up with the actual shooting mechanic - I even tried closing my eye and looking down the sights but that didn't improve my long distance accuracy - and the movement being reversed where the forward and back buttons were on the right hand but the turn button was on the left. Regardless it definitely made the allure of VR more apparent. I'm even thinking of how I could justify the investment.

A bit sweaty from the enclosed room and having survived nearly unplugging the headset while playing we decided to head off to the local pub. We enjoyed a few pints and a few bags of crisps while swapping stories of our college days and travel adventures. With the pub closing it was time to head home. I was surprised to find the hostel bar completely empty. Compared to the last St. Christopher's it's night and day. I'm not sure where all the people from the hostel went but I booked a couple bar crawl tickets for EJ and I to try and find them tomorrow for new year's.