Today was the "whirlwind tour" of London. We tried to cover as many of the must see sights as tomorrow the plan is to separate into two groups (one to Portsmouth and the other to do not much of anything). We started with The Tower of London - Tina had booked the tower the Superbloom which is a change where they dug up the lawn in the moat and replaced it with a variety of wild flowers that will be blooming in waves throughout the season. We walked through the moat before going inside.
After the moat we walked around the outside and saw the Bridge and then made our way inside. The castle dates from the late 11th century (with a variety of additions over time) and sits on the site that Romans fortified hundreds of years earlier when it was called Londinium.
The tower itself contains a lot of exhibits on various weapons. We started with the "Line of Kings" which has been a tourist attraction for hundreds of years - it shows off the armor of various kings and their horses, most notably of Henry VIII.
We also got to move through the tower up and down stairwells and so on. After the tower we went to the execution site and burial of Anne Boleyn. The whole site was a bucket list item for Tina. Continuing on we saw some other oddball areas including the torture chamber and several outer towers and the walls. Unfortunately the crown jewels were lined up several hundred people deep, so we didn't bother.
The next stop was a tube ride away - St Paul's Cathedral. Because of the absurd entry fee (roughly $30 CAD per person) only I went inside as I really wanted to see Lord Admiral Nelson's tomb under the dome. I've wanted to see this for over 20 years. I wish I had more time to fully explore, but since I knew the rest were stopping over to get fast food lunch I had a quick look around. The crypt is fully of notable English including Lord Nelson's tomb at the very center. My plan, as I told Tina, was today to see where he rests and tomorrow to see where he fell.
I made the mistake later to climb the 528 steps all the up to the top of the dome. It was a really cool, but tiring, experience. Probably the best high up view of London.
Another short tube ride took us to Big Ben and the Houses of Parlament. Next door, Tina paid the again absurd entry fee to see inside Westminster Cathedral. She enjoyed a quick look around while we sat outside. Thankfully the weather in London has been very reasonable with lots of clouds.
After Westminster we took a traditional London black cab a quick mile away to Buckingham Palace to take a look. We strolled down "the popular and famous street the royals go down" as Tina called it between the palace and Trafalgar square. The previous day the square was full of thousands celebrating the English ladies' win in Soccer, which we didn't know about and missed. I educated everyone on what the Battle of Trafalgar was, and why "who's that guy" is standing on top of a very tall tower and looking out. That "guy" is the same person who's tomb was over in St Paul's and his statue is looking towards Trafalgar, an area off the coast of Spain where the battle occurred and he was killed.
Using the tube again, we returned to the hotel and collapsed from a long day. Later, we took our one and only red double decker bus ride to King's Cross where Pieter got to see Platform 9 3/4 from Harry Potter and we stopped in for some Indian food which was excellent.
For once the food I ordered was "Indian hot" and not toned down because I am white. The naan bread was fresh and so much better than the grocery store stuff we're used to. We forgot to take much for pictures until the end of the meal.
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