Advertisement
So this morning, Angela, Emily, Brian and I arose to another beautiful day! We had a great breakfast, a la Marriott rewards club... thank heavens! Tea, coffee, muffins, meats, cheeses, fruits.. yummy!
We tried to use the spa there, but the water was 120 degrees, and that is just too hot, even for my toes! Beautiful though, lots of great equipment, and given more time, a delight to use...
Angela and I headed out for an adventurous day of sight-seeing. We scoped out Westminster Abbey, but were just a bit late for services, so we didn't head inside. It's still quite daunting to see the outside and the architecture there. We headed to the Jewel Tower next, which was Edward III "personal treasure-house" after being built in 1365. It's neat because there is a moat and it tells about how the Thames used to come up a lot further than it does now with all the building they have done since then. Also, this building survived any fires that have taken much of London's past history, and it's one of the oldest places. We hiked up some very curvy stairs, and were trying to imagine doing that without the railings
that they now have installed, and wearing big dresses... it was not a pretty picture since we could barely walk as it was! There were also all sorts of details about Parliament and how it is run, which took lots of thought to read, but we got some out of it! We bought a book, so that is helpful.
After the Jewel Tower, we headed to Buckingham Palace... again you cannot enter anything, but it is still quite amazing to see all of the gilded gates and gardens leading up. Plus, it was gorgeous weather! Don't know what Angela brought with her, but I appreciate the sunlight! Still haven't actually seen changing of the guard, but we did giggle at how the guards trade marching times. There are only two of them, in their funny hats and uniforms and they would strut around every once in a while, which we captured on video and laughed about! We then wandered into St. James Park area, found some swans, some fat pelicans sleeping, lots of little ducks, and swarms of people. Once again, the Tour De France events were surrounding us, so there were screens and people watching the happenings, which was
a pretty big deal!
From the park, we worked our way back to the Thames, hopped on the tube to the London Tower. This is the old palace area, and there are many exhibits. It's right next to London Bridge, and the Thames, and they do a great job at explaining how different things used to occur at the Towers. We ate take away fish and chips while waiting to buy our tickets, and then headed inside. They have "yeomen" guides who we learned actually live on the grounds, and they are very entertaining. We heard about executions, in particular, torture, and varying prisoners. We then went off on our own and saw the armory which houses many old weapons. There are guns, the armor that many generations of kings wore, (including their horses' armor), swords, torture devices, a preserved "privy." We tried to imagine the stench of these early bathrooms and how people dealt with it. Someone said that one king had so many homes so that when it got too bad he could go to another one and they could clean things up while he was gone. We also saw the crown jewels, and a neat video of
Queen Elizabeth II's coronation. She was so young! It's hard to imagine what was going on in her head as she carried a 52 carat diamond wand. Don't you wish to know if she thought even for a second that she might be able to grant wishes like a fairy godmother? We saw where Sir Walter Raleigh was kept for years, where many a prisoner carved things into the stone, and the ravens. The ravens are just huge, and kept there as a tradition.
By the time we finished all the exhibits at the Tower of London, we thought we could do no more, but we met up with John and Darryl (my roommate and his friend visiting), and we headed to the tube towards Spitalfield Market. By the time we got there they were closing up already, so we found a pub and had dinner. English food is really not as bad as people make it out to be... yes the mushy peas really aren't necessary, but otherwise, we had a great goat's cheese tart with potatoes, spring greens, carrots, and I had some pie as well. It's hearty and maybe used to not be made so nicely, but
really conducive to sharing, so it's cheaper too. Don't remember the name of that pub, but our second one that evening was "Dirty Dick's" and we laughed about that. We've noticed that the women who work in these places are often less friendly than the men, and don't know what to make of that. We finally headed back to our beautiful hotel for some r and r, much needed! Hooray for the most comfortable beds ever! I wore Angela out greatly, and tried to get her to adjust to the time, but I also was glad I hadn't done many of these touristy things until she arrived so we could really enjoy them together.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.061s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0363s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb