Last weekend I found a cheap flight to London to visit my friend Elisa. I would only have two full days to tour the entire city so I searched for the best way to see every touristic spot there is. Low and behold my bff Google introduced me to Free Tours by Foot. The "All-in-one" tour would be 6 hours, so I prayed our tour guide could keep my attention that long.

Gregory, 32 and a native of London was by far the most passionate, knowledgable, down-to-Earth tour guide I have met so far. He helped me not only learn the info but retain it as well. It wasn't your average history textbook tour. It was a 6 hour tour of fun facts worth sharing.

St. James Palace

1. Every tourist runs to see the guard change at Buckingham Palace, but St. James Palace is the best place to go (and there's not thousands of people).

Green Park

2. The original Hardrock Café located near Green Park, reverts its prices back to those of 1971 every year on its birthday.

Buckingham Palace

3. English tax payers only actually pay on average 40 pence/year to the royal family. I was under the impression they sucked money up like vacuums.

The London Eye

4. The London Eye was only supposed to be there for 1 year, but being that it generated 1,000£ a minute, they decided to keep it. Now it makes 29,000£ every hour. People have wedding receptions here and are legally married by the time they reach the top.

Big Benny himself

5. No one truly knows why The Elizabeth Tower is called Big Ben.

My friend Declan and his fish & chips

6. Fish & Chips has nothing to do with the English. The French Huguenots introduced 'chips' and the Jews introduced fried fish. Both fish and potatoes during WWII were the main food source.

Royal Courts of Justice

7. Guy Richie & Madonna were divorced here.
8. If you put one foot in front of the dragon, and one behind, you are in two places at once (Westminster and London). Too bad it would have to be a split because that thing is wide.
9. This pub is exactly how it was in the 17th century: no tv, no music. They want you to come to their pub to be sociable.

St. Paul's Cathedral

10. Hitler dropped 28 bombs on this church. Several young firefighters lost their lives to save the cathedral from exploding.

Millenium Bridge

11. Millennium bridge was deemed "Wibbly Wobbly Bridge" after swaying back and fourth when 9,000 people walked across it in the year 2000.

London Bridge

12. An American bought a replica of the London Bridge thinking it was the Tower Bridge...clearly he hadn't been to London.

St. Bride's Church

13.  The inspiration for the traditional wedding cake

Tower Bridge

14. A double decker bus was caught with traffic behind, and an opening bridge ahead. The driver stepped on the gas to jump the bus to the other side.

The London Tower

15. It was a family day to sit here and watch executions pan out. A duchess who refused to pay her killer to do a good job was chased around the building and axed 16 times until her head finally fell off.
16. The soldiers wear these tall, Canadian bear skin hats to appear taller, thus more intimidating.
17. This unbelievable building is vacant. No one wants to buy it because it is on the south side of the river.

Special thanks to Free Tours by Foot for a great tour!
Another special thanks to my awesome friend Elisa for hosting me in her city :)