Another early alarm clock day. As with most of our adventures,
we pre-bought tickets for the Tower of London tour. This gave us early access
to Tower, which includes the Beefeater Ceremony of the Keys to open the
Tower. This ceremony has been taking place for over 700 years! The history and
traditions of London continue to amaze and impress us. After the ceremony, we toured the Tower with all of its armor, weapons, and other interesting and astonishing artifacts.
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| Beefeater. Why are they called Beefeaters? Even they don't know where the name originated! |
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| The keys to the castle. Literally. |
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| This adorns the bottom of his armor, all the way around. This stands for Henry and Katherine (of Aragon...one of the 3 Katherines he was married to!) Note the heart in the middle. Aw! The tour guide said that having armor this elaborate was the equivalent of having a private jet today. I'll take the jet, thanks. |
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| I don't know what to say about this. Tour guide said that Henry was getting up there in age, but had a young wife and was trying to show the kingdom his....virility. I think she might have been making stuff up along the way? |
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| If I said anything about this at all, there would be a new Collar of Torment invented for husbands. |
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| This armor would actually fit me! (the armor on the left, not the right...) |
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| Copy of the Coronation Chair - we saw the original in Westminster Abbey! |
We also had early access to see the Crown Jewels. There are over 100 artifacts in this collection, with the oldest being a 12th century Coronation Spoon and the most spectacular being a 530-carat clear cut diamond set in a scepter. We were not allowed to take pictures on this part of the tour, but someone (*cough* Sherri *cough*) just had to sneak one of the amazing Imperial State Crown from a distance after we exited the tour. I almost called the bobbies on her, but it would only be a matter of time before she’s paroled, and she would find me…. I was also relieved to see that there were no Crown Jewels for sale in the gift shop, but that didn’t stop Sherri from asking if they had any “in the back.”
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| That's some real bling! |
We also really enjoyed the ravens at the Tower. There are currently eight ravens that live on the grounds, and it’s actually a royal decree that there must be at least six, as it is believed that if they leave, Britain will fall. Although this is amazingly superstitious, it was surprising to me that these ravens are not in cages given what is at stake. They are free to fly wherever they want. If the fate of the entire country is resting on six birds, I think I’d want a little more assurance that they’d hang around. That said, they do spoil them, so I guess there’s no compelling reason for them to leave. The lesson we learned here: the best strategy to overthrow Britain would not be heavy artillery, but instead to lure the ravens away from the Tower of London.
We also got a few good pictures of the Tower Bridge. We learned that the Tower Bridge is not nearly as old as some of the other buildings and structures in London. It was built in 1886 and finished in 1894. However, the design of the bridge was made to be consistent with the Tower. And folks, please remember that despite what Fergie (the singer, not the Dutchess (sic) of York) says, this is *not* London Bridge. This is the Tower Bridge. This bridge is structurally sound, and everyone knows the London Bridge is falling down. Falling down. Falling down.
We then Yelped our way to another awesome food spot. Gordon Ramsay’s Street Pizza. For £15, you get ‘bottomless’ pizza straight out of the oven. The pizza is thin-crust made with sourdough bread and it is really good. They had 5 different kinds. Emily got a shot of some that the waiter accidentally dropped. Legit street pizza!
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| Authentic Street Pizza! With some pepperoni on the side. |
After lunch, we headed across the street to St. Paul’s Cathedral; yet another amazingly beautiful church. Absolutely stunning inside and out. St. Paul’s is on the highest point in London and the original church site was founded in the 600s. 600s!! The current cathedral was built in the late 1600s. There are multiple levels, or ‘stages’ of the cathedral. There’s the Whispering Gallery (259 steps), the Stone Gallery (378 steps), and the Golden Gallery (528 steps). Unfortunately, the Whispering Gallery was closed, so we couldn’t see the interior of the Cathedral from this higher level. The Golden Gallery is at the top. Did I mention that it’s 528 steps? 1056 round trip. The view from the Golden Gallery is phenomenal…. you can walk around the entire outside of the dome see all of London. It almost helps you forget the 528 steps you just climbed and the 528 you have to climb back down. Almost! But not quite. But almost!
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| Modern sculpture in the church - "Mother and child" |
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| Lots of steps, but we're still smiling! |
Once we finished touring the Cathedral, we headed back to the theatre district to see if we could get tickets to another show. Along the way, we finally had to open our umbrellas after being here for several days…. we’ve had unbelievable weather during our stay so far. We were able to get five tickets to see Come From Away (this time, three in front and two in back…. damned karma!), an award-winning musical about the town of Gander in Newfoundland. Gander took in 38 airplanes full of more than 7,000 people into their town of 9,000 after the 9/11 attacks. These planes were rerouted and grounded in Gander for several days. The musical was recommended by several people that we talked to while we’ve been here and was definitely one of the best we’ve ever seen.
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| It's like we never left Phoenix! |
After the show, we grabbed some dinner and dessert and then headed back to our place at around midnight. Another action-packed, 16-hour day in the books!
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Uh oh, there go all of those steps....
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