London, Days 3 and 4
Yesterday was Day #3 for us in London. I had work events to attend all day, so I didn’t get out to see much of anything. The work event was great, though. I finished-up with the group with a few drinks at a nearby pub. Well, we started to go to a nearby pub, and it turned out that pub was running out of beer. Oops. So we ditched that place and went to the same one we were at the previous evening. I enjoyed a few drinks with the guys there, then headed back on the Underground to see if I could meet Jenny for dinner.
Our plan from the morning was that Jenny was going to go out and explore some places on her own. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be doing a work dinner with the guys, or if I was going to be free. We agreed that if we were both at the hotel between 19:00-19:30 and we didn’t meet-up, we would have dinner on our own. I got back to the hotel at right around 19:00, so I waited around until just about 20:00, when Jenny came in. She ended up out a little later than she had expected, and had not had dinner yet. After talking about her adventures for a little while, we headed up the street to a nearby gastro-pub for some good (but expensive!) dinner and a couple of pints. Yum good.
Jenny had been exploring Westminster, visiting Buckingham Palace for a tour, walking around the outside of Westminster Abbey, walking around Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, and enjoying a nearby park. She took a lot of pictures. You can find them here:
http://www.jennyandjonathangetmarried.com/gallery/v/London_September_2008/Day3/
Today, Jenny and I set-off to tour the Tower of London. This was high on Jenny’s list. It was on the expensive side (16.50 Pounds/person), but it was one of those things that was just so intriguing that we had to do it. I was initially worried that it would be something like a one- or two-hour tour, and then we’d be done, so I had a few other things planned for the day. Well, the Tower of London is easily an all-day affair. After we got moving this morning, took the Underground to the right place, and bought tickets, it was probably close to 11AM. We got moving with what I think was the 10:30AM walking tour with one of the Yeoman Warders (these are the guys in the funny navy-and-crimson uniforms). The tours run for about an hour. He took us to a few of the major spots, gave us some interesting historical information, and showed us what was where along the way. We started at the tour at the Middle Gate entrance, which is currently the main entrance to the Tower grounds. This was the side of the medieval Lion’s Tower, so-named because of the menagerie nearby that included lions and tigers, who I guess would growl at incoming guests. Wow. The ruins of that tower have been excavated and can be viewed from the walkway above Middle Tower, which is pretty neat. When crossing from Middle to Byward, we walked across what I think was at one time a drawbridge (it was in the days of Lion’s Tower, at least) that crossed the moat. In the mid 19th-century, the moat had become so full of sewage and garbage that it consistently stank, and was rumored to have been the source of multiple cholera outbreaks at the time. It used to rise and fall with the tide on the Thames, but even that was no longer enough to flush it clean. It was drained and filled, leaving a lawn and gravel ditch around the Tower’s outer wall. Today, the lawn is used for some residents to exercise their pets and for demonstrations by what we would call re-enactors.
From Middle Tower, we were led inside Byward Tower and onto the outer grounds, which is a roadway named Water Lane. When the Tower was first built, Water Lane was, well, the Thames on the south side of the tower grounds. We saw the curfew bell, which was (and I think still is) rung every night. In the days of executions on Tower Hill, it was also rung immediately before every beheading. Fun stuff.
From Byward Tower, we continued on the south side of the grounds along Water Lane to Traitor’s Gate, the Bloody Tower, and the medieval tower palace of Edward I and Henry III. Here we heard about the palace’s construction–including that the original structure collapsed twice during construction. The king at the time blamed it on a mistake that had been committed during an earlier king’s reign, where Archbishop Thomas Beckett (one t or two? I can’t recall) was murdered by a few people who thought they were doing the king a favor. Oops. The current construction people swore that they saw Thomas’ ghost at the site levering-out the bricks from the wall with his crosier. The king decided that they would build an oratory dedicated to Thomas inside the palace. This was done, and there were no further issues during construction. Cool again.
From Traitor’s Gate, we walked up through another vault through the inside wall and into the inner grounds of the Tower. Up the ramp here was the actual Tower of London (circa 1100 or so, with lots of changes through the centuries), the Barracks building that houses the Crown Jewels vault, the Royal Chapel, the Queen’s House built for Queen Anne Boleyn, the Beauchamp Tower, some other residences, and other associated outbuildings (and, of course, don’t forget the ubiquitous tourist-trap gift shops).
From here, the tour took us into the Royal Chapel. Here, our warder told us about the 1500 bodies that had been buried under the chapel. This is the third chapel to be built on the site since the 1100’s. I can’t recall the year that this chapel dates from, but I believe it was the 17th century. At one point (I think under Queen Victoria), there was a massive effort to restore the chapel. When they were doing this work, they exhumed the bodies buried under the chapel in haphazard fashion, and reburied them in one of a few places. One place where a majority of them were re-buried was in a tomb in the one wall. Queen Anne Boleyn, along with a few other queens whose names I don’t recall, were buried under the altar. I believe that they remain there. Another interesting story was of a tomb sitting in the middle of the chapel. It was built by someone who worked at the Tower by himself, as he loved the chapel and wanted to be buried in it. At some point after it was built, he upset the king, who tossed him out to live in the countryside. He was not permitted to be buried in the tomb that he built, so it still sits there today, empty.
Here’s where things get really good. After the tour, there is still a ton of stuff to do and see. The tour really just gives an entertaining picture of the long history of the tower, and shows one the major sites and how to get to other interesting things. We literally ended up spending the rest of the day there. We were inside the gates until they closed at 17:30. To top that off, we actually didn’t even have time to see everything. We never made it into the Beauchamp Tower or the tower across from the Bloody Tower (I forget what it was called). There was also the Fusiliers Museum that we had to skip. We did get through all of the floors of the White Tower (the actual, original Tower of London) where the armory collection is kept. We went through the Jewel House in the old Barracks building, where the Crown Jewels are on display in their vault, along with other antiques of unimaginable value from the tower and royal family. We toured the Bloody Tower, the medieval tower palace of Edward I and Henry III, did the South Wall Walk that actually walks around two sides of the tower, terminating in a display titled “The Making of the Crown Jewels,” where multiple former crowns are on display (minus their jewels), and information on how the jewels were mounted and where they are now was presented. This ended with a walk through the life of the Cullinan Diamond. The largest piece of that stone is called Cullinan I, and is in the royal sceptre. The second-largest piece, Cullinan II, is mounted in the Crown of State. As it turns out, all of the other major pieces (there were nine all-told, not counting fragments) are also owned by the royal family. If I’m remembering the story correctly, some of them are currently in a brooch worn by Queen Elizabeth II. By this time, it was nearing 17:30, and the Tower was about to close to the public, so we made our way for the gates.
One of the highlights of the day was seeing a wedding party arrive by carriage. When Jenny and I came out of the White Tower (I think that was what we had just visited), I was watching the changing of the guard in front of the Barracks building. I then heard a Warder moving the crowds back, and heard horses. Around the corner came a carriage with what looked like two bridesmaids, plus a young girl and young boy dressed in high style. It was around 15:30, so we thought that the wedding might start near 16:00. We decided to wait to see if a bride showed up in a carriage, too. Sure enough, at just about 15:55, another carriage arrives with the bride and her father. We grabbed a few pictures. It was really pretty interesting. We’re not sure if it was the child of a warder or one of the royal guards, but it was likely someone who lives at the Tower. Speaking of that, did you know that all of the Warders (and at least some of the royal guards who guard the Jewel House and Barracks) live on the Tower grounds? I didn’t. They all live in the residences there, including the Queen’s House and residences on the inside of the outer wall.
All in all, today was a great day. After we got outside of the gates, we realized that we had only eaten cups of soup for breakfast, and were really quite hungry. We walked up a nearby street to find a gastro-pub called The Hung, Drawn and Quartered. Their kitchen was still open for a little while, so we grabbed some food and beer that turned out to be awesome and pretty inexpensive (for London, two full meals, two pints, and an appetizer for 26 Pounds seems to be a really good deal). It was good to sit down in a comfortable spot for a while and watch some football (soccer) while enjoying some good food. I had their fish and chips, and Jenny had a artichoke, pesto, mushroom and cheese sandwich that she really enjoyed. We also had an order of nachos. We were more than full by the time we were finished.
After that good meal, and the long day walking around the Tower grounds, we were pretty much done for the night. We decided to walk down in front of the Tower and sit by the Thames for a while before heading home. A little while later, I thought I remembered hearing that there were fireworks for both nights of the Thames Festival, which celebrates the yearly election of the Lord Mayor of London (different from the Mayor of London, the Lord Mayor is elected yearly and is primarily a ceremonial position, whereas the Mayor of London is elected for a term and is mayor of the Greater London area). We decided to stay where we were to see if we could see them. At about 21:30, one of the Warders comes by and starts telling everyone still down at the water that the West Gate was about to close, which was the only exit from where we were. We left and headed up towards the Underground station at Tower Hill, figuring that we would wait on Tower Hill for a little while to see if we could see them. Then Jenny suggested that we head over to Westminster station, since that deposited one right at the water next to Big Ben and across from the Eye, which is where the fireworks were supposed to be. We went down there and waited for a while. Then I remembered that I had my Blackberry, and it was working again internationally, so I looked-up the schedule. Of course, the fireworks are only on Sunday. Oh well. Back on the Underground and back to the hotel, after a long and completely awesome day.
Recommendation from today: Definitely do the Tower of London, if you at all into history. You’ll have far more questions about how things work when you come out of it, but it is really pretty awesome. There are special passes available if you want to do multiple events over a few days that would save a few quid per ticket, and these are recommended. We weren’t sure what we were going to do when we got here, so we didn’t get them. Knowing what we do now, if you want to visit the palaces, you’ll probably want to get these passes. Yes, it is pricey, but we spent the WHOLE DAY there. Really. We could have spent more time if we had it. The hours on Sunday are shorter, so definitely plan to do this on a weekday or Saturday.
Pictures? Of course. Here: http://www.jennyandjonathangetmarried.com/gallery/v/London_September_2008/Day4/
