Day Eight, Time to Shop!

Today we took it a bit easier and headed out to the Westfield shopping center. It is the largest shopping mall in London. Naturally, both Ben and I were able to find lots of interesting things to buy. I have a lot of new DVDs to watch when I get home, and Ben found lots of CDs that he hasn't been able to find in the U.S.

This evening we will be going to dinner and then to see the play The Lion King. Tomorrow we will visit some museums, and then we are going to see "Romeo and Juliet" at the Globe Theatre. We are going to be "groundlings" (standing up in front of the stage).

Day Seven, The Bloody Tower

Today we started out at the Tower of London. We had a good introduction to the history of the tower from a guide, then we were able to walk around and explore the various buildings and exhibits. There is a special exhibit going on at the moment titled Henry VIII: Dressed to Kill. Ben enjoyed studying all of the suits of armor that were made for King Henry during his lifetime. They were on display, along with his measurements, so that it was obvious to see how he went from being an athletic young man to a greatly obese one in his old age. There were also displays of armor that was made for horses, as well as information about the jousts and the various instruments and weapons that were used during those competitions.

The guide pointed out this green area in the middle of the buildings. This was where the executions took place. Not many people were executed at the tower, but two of them were wives of King Henry VIII: Anne Boleyn (who changed her name from Bullen, apparently, to sound more French!) and Catherine Howard (who died a queen, but would rather have died the wife of Thomas Culpepper). Both of the former queens are buried at the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula directly behind the place of execution. Their graves aren't marked, but rather identified by plaques placed in the church.

Surprisingly, the tower wasn't very crowded during our visit, and we were able to take our time viewing the Crown Jewels. They are displayed in cases you view from a moving sidewalk. We were able to circle back around for another look. The Sceptre with the Cross contains the second largest diamond in the world, the 530 carat Great Star of Africa.

There was also a small military museum, the Royal Fusilier’s Museum. This is a regiment based in London, and it was all about their involvement in various military campaigns throughout the world. I was very interested to see their section on the American Revolution. It is interesting to see how "the other side" viewed the conflict. The display stated that the Americans objected to taxes that were imposed by the British king to pay for the defense of the colonies from hostile action by the French and Indian attacks. How ungrateful!

We next headed to the Tower Bridge for the Tower Bridge Experience. This includes many short films placed at intervals along the tour that discuss how the bridge was built and how the drawbridge works. We walked along both of the upper walkways and took photos of the views of the city from each side. It was interesting to learn that when the bridge was originally built in 1894, it was painted chocolate brown. Later, it was "battleship gray." It only gained its current recognizable red, white and blue paint scheme in 1977, in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee.





There were small windows at the top of the small staircases that you could slide open to take unobstructed photos. When those were opened, however, it was extremely WINDY! I managed to hold on to the camera long enough to get some good photos:

At the end of the evening, we had a scary encounter with some local characters. "John Bishop" and "Sarah Farmer" were two of the guides from the London Paranormal Society who took us around Spooky Smithfields. There were plenty of gruesome stories, including the burning of Protestants, body snatching, unsolved murders, and the general sufferings that took place in Newgate Prison. The area covered was not very large, but there were plenty of blood-chilling events in just that small area!

Tomorrow we are going shopping, and then on to the Lion King.

Day Six, On the Road

Today we started out with a tour of Windsor Castle. It took around an hour on a bus for us to reach it. The entire complex is very large and would take a long time to explore. Unfortunately, we only had about an hour to visit. We started in the state apartments. Although tourists are admitted when there are no events taking place, the state apartments are still used for meetings and to house dignitaries on their visits. Ben enjoyed the displays of knives, swords, guns and suits of armor. We weren't allowed to take photos on the inside, but we could take as many as we wanted on the outside. Like this one:


Also, since the flag was flying, that means that Queen Elizabeth was inside the castle today. We didn't see her, though.


We were able to walk through St. George's Chapel, where many kings and queens are buried. We saw the tombs of King Henry VIII, Jane Seymour, Charles I as well as that of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the current queen's parents. Some of the tombs were just commemorative slabs on the floor, and others were more elaborate, with effigies of the deceased on top. These were even personalized with animals, such as a favorite dog or a heroic monkey.

Next it was on to Bath, the city where the Romans took advantage of the natural hot springs to build a large complex of thermal baths.

There was a very interesting exhibit of how the baths were built and operated. We especially liked the display of gemstones that were taken from the drains. The speculation is that the hot water caused the settings around the stones to loosen, so that when the bathers got out of the water, they discovered the stones had been lost in the water. There was also an interesting display of curses that were written on small metal tablets and directed toward people who had stolen things to get boils or lose their mind as a suitable punishment.

There was a restaurant where "Bath water" was available for drinking, but we didn't have a chance to give it a try. This was probably a good thing, since I've heard the water isn't that great tasting!

Finally, we made it to Stonehenge. It was interesting to see the image of how Stonehenge looked when it was completed:


Over the centuries, various bits of stone were removed, either for other building projects or even as souvenirs by visitors. Now, the part that is left is protected and you can walk around the entire thing along a path.
It was very windy and cold walking around the stones, so you can hear the wind whipping around as I took the video.

Tomorrow we are touring the Tower of London and going on a Ghost Walk!

Day Five, Ben Gets Tortured

We started out the morning at the London Dungeon. There was a long line waiting out front, but we already had our tickets, so we didn't have such a long wait. Inside, it was dark and very hard to see where we were going. We saw displays about the Great Fire of London, Jack the Ripper, primitive surgery, and the plague, among other things.

Ben was chosen to be the victim in a demonstration of torture devices by a beautiful ghoulish woman. First, she showed how pincers would be heated and then applied to the tongue. After giving the tongue a few good twists, it would be yanked out. So that the victim wouldn't drown in his own blood, the tongue was then fed back to him (although how he could eat it without a tongue wasn't explained). Then, a large hook was waved around. It could be used in many places, including both the head and the backside. Finally, she brought out a device that would have been used to cut off Ben's "dangly bits." Before she did that, though, she had to get a smaller version of the instrument.

At the end of the displays, we were guided into the "drop", which gave us the experience of being hanged. We dropped suddenly, as if the trap door had been sprung, but we thankfully weren't stopped by a rope around our necks!

Next, we headed over to My Old Dutch Pancake House for lunch. Ben had a "Hot Dutch" pancake with pepperoni, chorizo, cheese, red chillies & tomato sauce. We will definitely have to go back and try the sweet pancakes next time.

After that, we headed off for a London Walks tour of the British Museum. Since there is so much to see there, we wanted to get a quick overview of the highlights. The museum was very crowded and it was hard to see some of the exhibits. We were able to see the mummies of the Egyptian display and the Elgin Marbles in the Greek display. There was also a fascinating area displaying archaeological finds from Britain. The most interesting was the complete ship that was found buried with many artifacts enclosed.

Then, we had to hurry off to White City to the BBC Studios where we had tickets to be in the audience of a new game show being filmed. The show was called "As Seen On TV" and this was the first episode. There were 300 people in the audience. The show consisted of a host and two teams of three celebrities who answered questions about television shows. I only recognized two of the celebrities: Michelle Collins ("Cindy Beale" from "Eastenders") and Debra Stephenson ("Shell" from "Bad Girls"). Most of the questions were about British TV programs, so we didn't know a lot of the references. It was still fun to see how the show was filmed and to see the numerous "re-takes" and "do-overs" that were necessary. We have tickets for a sit-com filming later in the week, too.

Tomorrow we are off to Windsor Castle, Bath and Stonehenge.

Day Four in Greenwich

We planned to go to Greenwich today with the London Walks tour. I had also planned to meet my pen-pal Doris from Germany in Greenwich. We arrived at the start of the tour early, so Ben and I decided to walk across the Tower Bridge:

Not only was the bridge interesting, but there were lots of good views of notable sites as well:

Sadly, it was incredibly windy up on the bridge, so my "bad hair day" got considerably worse before we even made it to the tour.

We met up with the tour and boarded the boat to Greenwich. We were able to get a seat by the window, so we had good views as a member of the boat's crew informed us of the sites that we were passing along the river. I was happy that it was very clear and easy to hear the commentary.

Soon after we got to Greenwich, it was time to meet my pen-pal Doris from Germany. She was visiting London for a few days with her friend Gabi. They come to London every few years to shop and go to musicals. Sounds like a good idea to me! We had lunch in a pub and posed for photos (note the aforementioned bad hair situation).

Ben ordered some weird kind of chicken (it involved bones) and I finally got to try roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. I was a bit worried that the roast beef might be somewhat red, but it was fully cooked.


It was very good! Next, we walked to the top of the hill to visit the Royal Observatory and to be able to stand on the Prime Meridian, with one foot in the Western Hemisphere and one foot in the Eastern Hemisphere. Unfortunately, the entire population of both hemispheres was there also trying to get photos made, so we had to just take a photo at the end of the line.

We were able to take some photos of the beautiful panoramic views from the top of the hill over the city of London below us.

After walking down the hill, we made our way to the Greenwich Foot Tunnel in order to walk under the river. There are identical domed buildings on each side of the river connecting the two tunnels:

It only takes about 10 minutes to walk from one end to the other. Unfortunately, the elevators were not working, so there were a lot of steps to climb at the end to get back up to street level.

Once we got back into central London, it was time to use our tickets to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. Ben was able to pose with lots of celebrities:

With Miley

Moseying Along with My Little Pilgrim

Advising Sir Isaac Newton about Gravity

Giving Einstein Hair Care Tips

Frisking Amy Winehouse for Drugs

That's all the excitement we could stand for one day. More tomorrow!

Day three, a day late

Due to seeing the musical Oliver last night, it was too late to update our activities. So I hope I will remember today what we did yesterday!

We started out with the intention of going on the Notting Hill and Portobello Road Market London Walk, but naturally, we arrived at the meeting place early. Luckily, there was a Patisserie Valerie nearby, so that we could fortify ourselves.

Once the tour commenced, we saw the beautiful Victorian neighborhood of Holland Park. The houses were build so as to appear to be made of stone, even though this was not the case. In the places where there is space between the buildings, the brickwork can be seen. Apparently, it was too expensive to build with stone, so they had to do the best they could.

We also saw many of the buildings which were used in numerous films. The one film most people seemed interested in was the romantic comedy "Notting Hill," starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. Even though many of the buildings featured in the film are actually in Notting Hill, locations had been changed and the fronts of some buildings and interiors of others were switched around. The guide was able to point out all the relevant locations and explain how things had been changed, but it had been so long since I'd seen the film that I didn't really know a lot of the scenes that were discussed.

After that, we reached the madhouse that is the Portobello Road Market on a warm sunny day. There were throngs of people everywhere, and booths lining both sides of the street. It was difficult to know where to look. I tried to take some videos, but I mostly only succeeded in capturing all the people who kept wandering in front of me:

Although we looked at a lot of things, the search for food was a bigger concern as the afternoon wore on. There were many restaurants along the route, but most of them were really, really full. We finally found a free table at a restaurant called "Uncle's." It was also very crowded, and the service was very, very slow. It took forever to get orders taken, drinks delivered, food, etc. We had to ask for the bill three times. Oh well, at least we didn't starve to death.

The next order of business was to find the theatre where Oliver was being performed. It turned out to be near Covent Garden. While we were waiting for the performance, we walked around and saw some of the street performers. Ben especially enjoyed "Lucky Jim":

After that, we found our seats for the performance of Oliver. We were expecting to be somewhat disappointed, because I had just read that Rowan Atkinson would be out until May 4. However, when the character of Fagin made his appearance, we were able to see that he had come back early. He was definitely the stand-out performer of the show (although everyone was very good). I could have done without the violence to "Teddy," but I guess you can't have everything!

Day two and are my feet sore!

After a nice breakfast at our hotel, we ventured out to get a cell phone so we could call the U.S. cheaply. It was very inexpensive and easy! Next, we relaxed in Green Park until it was time to join the London Walk to Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey. Our guide was able to position our group in such a way that we had a good view of the changing of the guards. First off, we saw the guards going off duty:

Followed closely by the guards coming on duty:

After that, we hurried to Westminster Abbey for the tour of the cathedral. We weren't permitted to take photos or videos inside the Abbey, so there isn't much photographic evidence for this section. We enjoyed seeing the tombs of Queen Elizabeth I and Isaac Newton. Ben was most excited to stand on the grave of Charles Darwin, since he said he'd written enough papers about Darwin!

I thought the walk would only last 2 hours, but it was nearer to 3 before it was finished. There was no time to eat lunch, because we had to hurry to the next London Walk, the tour of St. Paul's Cathedral. Once again, no photos. We were able to learn about the many churches that have stood on that site, plus how Sir Christopher Wren was given the duty of rebuilding the cathedral after the previous one was destroyed in the Great Fire in 1666.

The tour was sadly in late afternoon, so it was nearly closing time as our tour ended. Ben and I climbed up to the "Whispering Gallery" to test the acoustics. I walked to one side and whispered, and Ben claimed he heard me, but I didn't hear him. I was probably unable to hear him over my heavy breathing from climbing all those steps!

Finally, we went on a ride on the London Eye. We had been looking forward to it, because it is a very interesting part of the London skyline. I had wisely purchased "Fast Track" tickets, so it was a treat for once to go past the long, long line waiting to get on and go right in. If only I had a "Fast Track" for the other parts of my life!

The views from the top of the wheel were really spectacular. We were handed a "view360" guide before we boarded, which pointed out all the noteworthy sites from each direction. Even more helpfully, the sides of the capsule were labeled "east, north" and so on.

Finally, on the way back to the hotel we had some yummy food at a Mexican restaurant. Ben enjoyed the tacos, even though he had to assemble them himself!

Tomorrow we'll investigate the markets and hope that Rowan Atkinson is back on duty as Fagin in the musical Oliver.