The only plan for the day was to meet up in the evening for a pub tour, so we decided to go for a walk around the city. The destination? Borough Market.

The market is one of the largest and oldest in London dating back to 1014. More explanation is probably worthless without some pictures/videos so... Here ya go:

There are all sorts of vendors selling their wares. Surprisingly most of them were also giving away free samples (something we didn't know about and that Amanda happily engaged in). It's great opportunity to try a lot of new food without having to spend any money.

From there we went for a walk next to the Thames river seeing the HMS Belfast, tower bridge as well as the tower of London. We didn't have the time today to check anything else out further, we needed to go eat and go across town to meet up for our pub tour.

There are lots of pub tours out there, and many of them with really cheap prices. With those prices comes an inferior experience: large group sizes, boring pubs, little history, and no interaction with your guide. Having gone on two different tours now, I am convinced that we have found one of the best.  

I originally found London Tavern Trails 2 years ago when we came to London for our honeymoon. We went on a tour where it was just us and John (who we later found out is one of the owners of the company). He guided us to 4 protected English heritage listed buildings providing interesting commentary at each as well as making stops along the way to point out things of interest. The tour is only listed to run 2 1/2 hours, but we ended up spending nearly 5 hours talking with John. That trip was no exception.

Similarly, this time around John brought us to 4 different pubs on Fleet Street. We started at The Old Bank of England (which formerly was the bank for England's law courts). It's a very impressive sight walking in, however versus the pubs to come it is a bit newer (~1880s):

Next up we traveled around the block to Seven Stars. This pub is possibly the oldest in London with much of the original interior from 1602 still intact. Additionally there is a bar cat there that had been dressed up a bit the day we were there:

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese was our third stop of the night. It has older origins, but it needed to be rebuilt in 1667 after the London fire of 1666. The inside is rather dark, and at least in the upstairs bar, is rather quiet and intimate.

Blackfriars was our final stop and I'm sad to say I only snapped a single picture in there (we had been drinking a bit by that point). John has another guide named Greg whom we met 2 years ago on our first tour. Back then we ended up having drinks with both of them and chatted for a bit. Well Greg was doing the same tour that night with another couple.. and upon seeing me shouted out "snatch!". Mind you this is in relation to the movie with Brad Pitt, however I imagine it gave a few people a bit of a fright. Amazing that he could remember that from 2 years ago.

We drank with John until the bar closed and had another great time. I cannot recommend London Tavern Trails enough; if you are wanting a pub tour in London, you should definitely look them up. In a few weeks when we come back to London we will probably do the other tours that John leads as well.

Tomorrow? We will probably nurse a hangover and possibly do something in the evening. We shall have to wait and see.