London Day 3

Wow, our last day in London! I cannot believe it has flown by so fast!

Ok, so I know yesterday I was a bit down on London because of the weather, right? Well, as dreadfully awful as yesterday was, today was the exact opposite. It was quite pleasant most of the day, and actually got a bit too warm towards the afternoon. Yesterday made us ready to leave, then today made us wish we were staying longer; enough of that.

We started our day hopping the Tube to Tower Hill; which turned out to be our favorite part of the trip. The Tower of London is amazing! So much history, and so much to see! The pictures really do not do justice to how amazing it is, but make sure you click on the pictures and go to Picasa in order to read the comments I left if you want. From the execution sites, to the chapel, to the many towers (including the Jewel Tower); you could easily spend 4-5 hours there if you wanted to see everything.

Ok, ok, I know what you want to see/hear about; the Jewel Tower. Well, they do not allow pictures inside it, so you will have to look up your own pictures on the web; but let me just say that the many different crowns and the golden Royal dish set are amazing! The jewels in the crowns are huge, and the Royal dish set is solid gold; including a wine cistern that weighs over 230 kg (I’ll let you convert that to lbs.) There are also quite a few solid gold scepters with jewels inlaid in them—I kept wondering how fast I would die if I tried to touch anything in there. (Probably pretty fast, considering that the Yeoman—tour guides—are all ex-military, with over 20 years of service, and distinguished medals; quite a few heavily armed guards walking around the whole time, and they entire collection was incased in a very large vault. (No telling how many MI-6 agents there might have been walking around as well.) One interesting side note about the Tower Palace, since Edward II (I believe) they have kept at least 6 ravens in cages on site; because someone decided that if the ravens which lived in and around the Tower were ever to leave, then the King/Queen would fall and the empire would crumble. This was worth every penny (or pence!)

From there, we walked towards the Tower Bridge; (This is the most famous bridge in London, if you read the comments below the pictures at Picasa you will find out which bridge is actually called London Bridge.) which is in amazing shape considering that thousands of cars/buses travel across it every day.

Then we quickly headed for St Paul’s Cathedral, because we spent much longer than we anticipated at the Tower. Again, no photography allowed inside the cathedral, but you probably tell how intricate the place is from the pictures of the outside. (We stopped for a bite right outside the cathedral, and were accosted by a gimpy pigeon, who once I gave a bit of bread to, called all of his friends over.) Inside the cathedral is beyond description; the ceilings, floors, and walls are so intricately laid out and painted it is simply stunning. You may climb to the very top of the cathedral if you would like, all 530 steps (ha!); or you can crawl up the last 20-30 steps to the Whispering Gallery (163 steps) as we did (think tiny spiral staircases and corridors that I barely fit through).

After St Paul’s we headed across the Millennium Bridge to Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, where we had tickets to see “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. The theater is an amazing replica of the original theater which stood in the exact same spot. It is an interesting design, as the seats are covered, as is most of the stage, but the “yard” in the center of the building has no roof. In the yard is where the “groundlings” stand throughout the performance (you can get cheap tickets, just like they did in olden times); the lords and ladies sat in the seats, and the poor folk stood in the yard. If you like theater, especially Shakespeare, you will enjoy this immensely as we did.

Following Shakespeare’s, we headed back to the Tower Bridge, which unfortunately was closed by the time we got there, so we could not take the tour; but we did get some nice pictures anyway. (There’s always next time! ;-) ) We took some pictures of the real London Bridge too, not impressive. Then we hopped the Tube to Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace. Lot’s of pics to tell that story.

The pictures of the baby carriages (for Jessica and Krista to drool over) and other stuff are from Harrods, which is a huge department store, (a full city block in size) they have everything—literally. From fresh meats, to shirts, to furniture…the list goes on and on.

Finally, we hopped on the Tube back the Gloucester Station (our stop) to find some fish ‘n chips! Which weren’t really that exciting—basically it was Long John’s or Captain D’s fish filets and fries. Then back to the hotel, after hitting a Starbuck’s for Jenni (imagine that!).

Well, tomorrow we wave goodbye to London via the Eurostar (and the Chunnel) and hello to Paris! Au Revoir!