This morning we woke up, fully on London time, ready for a full day. We headed straight out for the days adventures, stopping at an Internet café on the way to the subway to check our email and book an excursion to Stonehenge for this coming Saturday. We then figured out the subway system and bought our handy dandy Oyster cards, which can be used on all the public transport in London and garner you a 30% discount on River Tours, one of which was the main event on the docket for today.
We took the subway from Edgeware Road to Westminster and came up right next to the Westminster Pier and our first awestruck view of Big Ben. We got on a river tour that ran from Westminster Pier to St. Katherine’s Pier, on the far side of the Tower Bridge. We rode the boat past the London Eye, The National Theater, Cleopatra’s Needle, under London Bridge, and the rebuilt Globe Theater to St. Katherine’s Pier where we disembarked to visit the Tower of London.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="604" caption="Tower of London and Tower Bridge"]
[/caption]As it so happens, there is not one, but twenty towers at the Tower of London. We saw most of them on a tour guided by a Yeoman Warder, also known as a Beefeater, throughout the Tower complex. We stood outside the Bell Tower where St. Thomas More was held before his execution, although we didn’t get to go inside as that building is one of the few that is closed to the public. We saw the place where Anne Boleyn lost her head, as well as the ravens housed in cages just outside the White Tower due to a centuries old superstition about terrible havoc falling on England should the Tower ever be without them. It is illegal to have no ravens at the tower and so six are always kept around, but currently they have seven, just in case.
It also so happens that all the Crown Jewels of England are kept in the Waterloo House at the Tower of London and we got to see them as well. While waiting in line we got to see footage from Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953, which looked amazingly like the coronations that happen in most children’s movies with happy endings. In a rare show of British ingenuity, the most heavily bejeweled crown, scepters, and jewelry in the collection were displayed in a long row bordered on two sides by moving sidewalks to keep people from loitering too long in front of the gems.
We enjoyed some authentic British fish and chips outside the Tower complex before running to catch the 4:30 boat back to Westminster. It began raining pretty heavily on the boat back so we sat inside instead of on the deck like we had on the way there. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and interesting, though, so all in all it was a half an hour well spent. When we reached Westminster we braved the rain to stroll past Big Ben up close and around Parliament to Westminster Abbey. When we reached the Abbey we were disappointed to find it closed to tourists. But, as luck would have it, it was just after 5pm so weeknight Evensong was just starting, and the Abbey never charges for people to worship. Putting on our best Anglican faces, John and I made our way into the Abbey to listen to one of the most amazing choirs I have ever heard sing the Magnificat and other sacred hymns in at least 6 parts. After the service we walked through the church, stopping on the exact spot where English monarchs have had their coronations for centuries and next to the grave of famous scientist Isaac Newton. The rain was just coming down harder, though, when we got outside and so we made our way back to the Westminster subway and squeezed into a rush hour train back to Edgware.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="604" caption="Westminster Abbey"]
[/caption]RANDOM FACT OF THE DAY: London is one of the smallest capitol cities in the world, technically covering only about one square mile, and Westminster, where Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Parliament, and Big Ben are all located, is actually a separate city.
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