Wednesday in London
We got up and going a little earlier today and made our way down to the Tower of London. We knew this was an important place to visit but not much about the place. The Tower of London is not very Tower like. It looks like it may have sunken some below street level so the first two stories are below the street level. This was one of the few places that were really crowded and that we had to stand in line to get in to things. Part of the Tower goes back to 100AD and the Romans but most of it was built starting about 1000 years ago, as a castle and royal palace, eventualy a storehouse for the crown jewels and a prison. There are still some people living in the tower, including the local sheriff, mayor, priest and doctor as well as guards known as the Beefeaters; they have some pretty crazy outfits to wear. We visited some of the medieval castle part, which was over the river so that people could come in and out by boat. This part took a lot of going up and down steps and very narrow circular staircases in tower turrets. After this part we went to lunch. They have great café’s in these places. Lydia and I went exploring on our own, visiting the torture tower and the prison tower. Sir Walter Raleigh was sent to the tower three times, and lived there with his wife and family 13 years. 2 of the times he was sent to the tower he was under a death penalty and the final time they did cut off his head. At lot of rooms had graffiti in them from the prisoners; we also learned to watch out for pie since one of the prisoners had been sent a poisoned pie, the senders of the pie spent 5 years in the tower for that. Marci and Granny sat in the sun and people watched. It is fun to catch snippits of different languages and a little girl of 2 chased pigeons all around for the hour they sat.
The next stop was the Temple. This is in the law district. Apparently you have to be a member of one of four different Inns in London in order to be a lawyer anywhere in the UK. The Temple was a very old church with effigies of Knights Templar’s on the floor. Interesting exhibit, even if we are not fans of Dan Brown and his books. (Divinci Code etc)
At this point Lydia had gotten info on summer reading books she needed for school and she and Marci went looking for them but the bookstores did not carry them. I guess “How To Read Literature Like a Professor” is not an international bestseller. Mom and I went on to take the Westminster Abbey tour, which was great. The Abbey is beautiful, very historic and tied in with many of the things we had been seeing and learning about during our trip. Plus, they have these great audio hand sets that you carry around and push the buttons at the display that you want to listen too. If you want more info or a sample of the Sunday music, or even want to watch a video of a room that may be closed at the moment, just type the number into the handset and presto! All at your own pace.
We all are getting tired. Marci and Lydia went to get some food for us all- bypassing all the expensive sit-down restaurants, and finally bought an entire meal of hot pannini, fruit, chips and desserts from Starbucks and brought it back and we just had a picnic in the room, Don’t know if we’ve mentioned that the prices at some of these places are different if you “take away” or “eat-in”. Guess if you take up table space, and they give you china plates for your muffin, it costs a little more. Hope the US doesn’t catch on to this program.
Last Day in London
We had to hurry this morning to get to the Globe Theatre (Shakespeare’s famous one) for a tour in the morning. We are finally getting the hang of the subway and busses, so it is less crazy, although we traveled during rush hour and obviously it is aptly named “rush”. No pushing though. We walked across the “Millennium Bridge” which was constructed in the last few years as a thoroughly modern pedestrian walkway over the Thames. It was open a few days and then started wiggling. SO they closed it and at another $7 million pounds or so, stabilized it and reopened it. Pretty cool. It takes you right to the Globe theatre and the Tate Museum of Modern Art.
The tour at the Globe was good, although our guide clearly wasn’t also an actor (they often are) and loved, absolutely loved, to use the phrase “At that time” There was Bear Baiting Fights at that time. The groundlings (peasants who paid 1 penny to stand on the dirt floor in the muck) at that time were also called ‘penny stinkers’ for lots of unhygienic reasons. The Paris Hilton person at that time would have sat in the box behind the stage and made a spectacle of herself coming in so the rest of the audience would stop paying attention to the play and look at her. Some things haven’t changed.

After the tour of the Globe Theatre itself we went back to the exhibit. The Globe Theatre is in reality a recent reconstruction. Apparently, Shakespeare monuments in the London area were limited to Poet’s Corner at Westminster Abbey, important versions of the Portfolios’ at the British Library and a small plaque on a brewery saying here stood the Globe theater. An American actor of the name Sam Wannamaker (?) apparently thought this was a tragedy and decided to rebuild the theater and so the current version is only about 20 years ago. The exhibits are very complete but have an American succinctness that was refreshing.
After this we went next door to the Tate Modern Art Museum, which is also new and in a very large 7 story open building converted from some industrial purpose. After light refreshment we went up to the one of the modern galleries. Although modern art can be hit and miss they seem to have gotten some of the better pieces and placed them interestingly together and not all of them in row but some up higher on the wall like you might in your home. After a ½ hour or so Lydia and Marci peeled off to go to Westminster Abbey which they had missed the day before. Granny and I stayed on for another 45 minutes or so and missed a torrential downpour. It is nice that the Tate, as many other museums in the city is free. This means that you can stay for shorter time without feeling that you have wasted your money. Art galleries are best enjoyed a little bit at a time with some time out of doors to clear the head before the next dose.
Granny asked for some gardens so we made our way to Kensington Garden although it took 3 tube line changes. Within a minute of walking into the garden the street noises and even the sights of buildings faded away. There are some nice planted areas but much is left more natural with longer grass and large trees. It is a nice break from the city. We walked across with a nice view of Kensington Palace and the elaborate Prince Albert Memorial and Albert Hall. It seems when you want to get something to eat nothing is available but we finally did get a snack at a university cafeteria. Finally we got our final underground trip to Victoria and back to the hotel.
Marci and Lydia came back and they and Granny went off to several second hand shops for trendy clothing. We packed up for the trip home tomorrow and then walked some to find food. This is always a little difficult. Lots of Pub Grub but the food has been indifferent, to uneatable with an occasional good meal. I think that most patrons, and there are a lot, have somewhat dulled the senses with ale which may make the food less objectionable. The several pubs we passed were packed and spilling onto the sidewalks. Don’t know if Thursday night is Pub night, but seemed to be very happening.
There were several ethnic restaurants, but Marci doesn’t care for spicy food and spicy food doesn’t like her either. Finally, we stopped at the Giraffe (we had eaten there before so knew it to be good) for trendy hip food which was pretty good. We paid in cash using almost all our pound Sterling and pence and pound coins and 2 pound coins – they have a multitude of coinage options- to use then up.
We all have decided that we have had a great time but the legs and feet could use a day off from all the walking and stairs.
This morning we easily made it to the Gatwick Express (train to the airport )–a 12 minute walk pulling our luggage, and jumped on board with just a minute to spare and are now over Ireland on our way home.
Over and Out; Cheerio, mate.