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Published: April 11th 2023
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Today we woke up to pouring rain. We made coffee in our rooms and started repairing our suitcases. Our time in London is drawing to a close. We have tickets for the Tower of London but not until noon. We were going to ride the hop on hop off buses but not in the pouring rain. I’d read that the rain would stop for a few hours around noon. We decided to take a taxi to the coffee shop, Paul’s Three Quays, right across from the Tower of London. It wasn’t crowded and the views were great. We each got something to eat and drink as we awaited our turn to get in. Once the rain subsided we went from shop to shop avoiding the rain.
There seemed not to be a long line at the Tower until we wanted to see the Crown Jewels….it was crowded. It went clear down the hill toward the cafe and gift shop. The good news was the line was moving very fast!
I had never been to the Tower of London unless we went when I was in College and just don’t remember. It was pretty awesome. The oldest thing I saw
there was a Coronation Spoon labeled 1150. It’s the only item that survived the medieval time period. Some items were already removed to prepare for Charles coronation on May 7.
Most impressive was the punch bowl or wine cistern. It was 3 feet across and weighed 456 pounds. Even the ladle was enormous. It could hold the contents if 144 bottles of wine. There was a plate called The Last Supper plate that was also 3 ft across and weighed 29 lbs. it would take several people to move these pieces, especially if they were full of food and drink!
Chrissy was disappointed that the ravens were in big cages. They used to roam around freely. The reason being the avian flu is prevalent and they are trying to protect the birds. It was also interesting to note that for many years The Tower was a zoo of sorts, home to exotic animals that were gifts to the king. I don’t as okay with it all until I learned they wrapped the snakes in blankets and put them on the stove to keep warm!!!
While we maneuvered in and out of buildings the rain stopped and the
sun came out for a while. We even thought of walking around the area and heading toward Paddington (an hour walk away) just to see some of the site. When we left the Tower there was a taxi stand so we hopped in a cab. Within 5 minutes the sky opened up and it poured. So glad we weren’t out walking around
Back to the Balmoral House we went. We had to finish packing and rearranging our suitcases. We were leaving for Lyme Regis in the morning and we only wanted to take our small bags with us. Flavio will let us leave our luggage here until we return on Thursday.
Dinner tonight was Italian, a place Flavio recommended, so it should be good as he is Italian. I ordered a salad, Lasagna, and cheesy garlic bread. The bread was really a pizza crust with oil m, garlic, and cheese. It was delicious. Everyone was satisfied with their food. After dinner we walked in and out of shops until we stopped in a cute little cafe with very good looking pastries. We hadn’t had dessert and it was early so we thought we’d take dessert back to our
rooms. It was very good! We also cracked open the champagne Corey and Jennifer were give on the plane, said out good nights and headed off to our rooms. Tomorrow is a moving day for us all!
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