Saturday October 10, 2009 – London Day 2

We got up on time Saturday morning and started to get ready for the day. One little snafu was that the adaptor would not work. At first I was kind of upset, that I could not use any electrical tools for my hair. I contemplated renting one from the front desk, but then just let it go – this was the whole reason I grew the layers out in my hair, so that on this trip I could pull it back if I needed to since I was not sure what our accommodations would be like. So I threw my hair up and finished getting ready.

We went down stairs to see what was for breakfast – I was not impressed. Shannon grabbed some food, but I decided to grab one of the granola bars I brought with me. Plus I knew I needed to buy some water so I would have the opportunity to grab something then. We then went back up the 6 flights of stairs to our room. Dragging our luggage up had not been a lot of fun and neither one of us looked forward to lugging it down. But we needed to check out before we left, so we did. I ended up sliding it down most of the way. The luggage room was just packed and Shannon and I did not want our stuff to be so close to the door, so we took it upon ourselves to rearrange things so that our could be in the back. We figured no one would mind a little organizational help. Then we were on our way.

As I was putting the schedule together for London, I calculated the times on the tube with a tool on their website. I noticed that when I put in Saturday’s date an error would come up. Well come to find out the reason was that the Victoria and Jubilee Lines were closed for scheduled maintenance – refitting train wheels or something like that. That meant we would have to take buses that were running the tube lines as replacement transportation.

So we headed up to Victoria station to catch a bus. There is a nice shopping center at Victoria station and we stopped in, I needed to get some bottled water, which of course I needed to get cash for, so I found a ATM and got some pounds. After purchasing some water and juice, we were on our way to Piccadilly Circus.

Piccadilly Circus is a famous road junction and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminster, built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with the major shopping street of Piccadilly. In this context a circus, from the Latin word meaning a circle, is a circular open space at a street junction.

We got on the bus, which unfortunately was not a double-decker one, and pretty much went past the first half of our itinerary for the day. We got off the bus and we were standing in the middle of Piccadilly. People refer to it as the Time Square of London, but I don’t think that is completely accurate comparison since Piccadilly has just this one corner with the big signs and advertisements and Times Square is huge with many buildings covered in sings.

Obviously I was not paying attention to the commercial playing when I took the pictures.

Here is Shan in Piccadilly Circus. Here is The Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain in the middle of Piccadilly Circus. Across the road is this Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum. Looking down the street from Piccadilly Circus. From Piccadilly Circus we walked down Piccadilly Street towards Buckingham Palace. On the way I needed to take a quick detour on Bond Street.

Bond Street is a famous street in London known for its high end stores. It is where Sotheby’s and Tiffany’s are located. It is where the term “bond paper” comes from and is mentioned in many movies and books, including some of Jane Austin’s books.

Bond Street is home to the most elegant and expensive shops in London. Designer clothing such as Gucci and Armani; perfume; art and antiques; and more Royal Warrant holders (suppliers to the royal family) than anywhere else in London.

Previously I spent some time wondering in some of the shops here, but we did not have time, we just took a quick picture. From Bond Street we continued down Piccadilly Street to walk past the Ritz.

Here it is from a block away. The signs – The Ritz has been in many books and movies as well – it is where Julia Roberts stayed in Knotting Hill. A close up – nothing fancy, but well-recognized. From the Ritz we cut through Green Park to go to Buckingham Palace.

The path in Green Park. Next up was the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace....

St. Paul’s Cathedral/Greenwich/Victoria Astor

From the Tower of London we headed over to St. Paul’s Cathedral.

St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral on Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral is one of London's most famous and most recognizable sights. At 365 feet high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1962, and its dome is also among the highest in the world, St Peter's Basilica in Rome being higher.

This Cathedral is where many of the Royal Families events take place since it seats more people than Westminster Abbey.

It is where Charles and Dianna were married.

From St. Paul’s we went to the Cannon train station to catch a local train to Greenwich to visit the Prime Meridian.

It was at this train station we heard that Obama had won the noble peace prize – to which we both ask why? What did he do? We then noticed it was on the front page of all the newspapers. Crazy we thought. We got on train for the 25 minute ride and continued talking. Across from us a guy sat, in the seats facing us, reading a newspaper and intently listening to our conversation. I was very amused at how he didn’t even try to hide the fact that he was ease dropping on us talk about U.S. politics. I also noticed that several pages of the paper he was reading covered Obama and the peace prize – there were significantly more articles about this in the London paper than any typical paper in the U.S. When we arrived in Greenwich we were not sure where we had to go. The map of London we had did not cover this area and what I had read online made it sound like the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the home of the Prime Meridian, was very easy to find from the train station. We did not find it quiet as easy to find as we were lead to believe. I even think I had to ask to directions. Looking back now, we did walk further then we needed to, but the way we took brought us past this….

What on earth is a Humped Pelican and why does it need a crossing? It was not until after we got home I was able to google it and found out that is means that there is a raised pedestrian crossing – something like a speed bump – in the road. Why they use that terminology… Who knows? I am sure someone had a good reason at one point….

We finally found the park and by the time we arrived it was dusk out. We noticed there were not a lot of people around but continued to the Observatory building.

Thankfully there is laser light showing where the line is.

As we got closer there was this huge hill to climb. A family was coming down the hill and they told us the Observatory was closed but there was a gate that was unlocked where you could get in to take pictures on the line.

As we got up to the to the Observatory area we found the gate to get into the main area locked. We were a bit disappointed and wondered if there was another gate that was open. We did find an open gate that lead to path that went around the Observatory. We decided to follow that path to see if there was another gate into the Observatory area. This path took around to the back of the observatory, into some gardens and dead ended into a grassy area. By this time it was getting pretty dark out and we decided maybe we should be sneaking around back here. So we went back the way we came. We decided the gate we went through was the only one unlocked and were not able to get to the top. So we decided to take some pictures…

Here I am “breaking” into the Royal Observatory.

Shannon “breaking” in. Here is the area we were trying to get into. The Latitude/Longitude sign. The official clock. Standing under the line.

Here is the wall where you can stand on the line. Split between the east and west hemisphere. Shannon straddling the line. Here I am in the Western Hemisphere and Shannon is in the Eastern Hemisphere. After we spent some time taking pictures we decided it was time to go. With all the running around and trying to get good pictures we had been there for about an hour. We started down the path to leave and we heard a noise coming from speaker. We did not really think anything of it and kept walking towards the exit.

Within a couple of minutes a security car with flashing lights came driving quickly from behind us with some one yelling over the speaker. Again we did not think much of it since we were walking out of the park. As the car caught up to us the security guard shined a light and started yelling at us for being in the park. I told the rent a cop we were on our way out and he asked us how we got in. I said we walked in the gate and he said the gates were locked the park was closed and again asked how we got in. I said we came in when the gates were open and that we had been in the park for a long time. The rent a cop said that was not possible they had been driving around looking for people. By this time I was a bit frustrated by the interrogation since we had not done anything wrong and we were on the way out. Plus I was a bit tired. I made some comment about how we had been in there for about an hour and had the pictures to prove it. So maybe that was not my smartest move, arguing with the security official especially once I remembered that they were probably military personal. I think he finally got sick of dealing with me, and he ordered us to leave out the nearest gate. I of course had to ask where the nearest gate was. He said follow me. He took off in his car and we followed. When we got to the gate he had to get out of the car to let us out. He then speed off in the other direction.

Once we left the park we started to laugh about the whole thing, of all the things to get in trouble for – trying to leave the park. Then it dawned on me that what if he had not came along, and we got to the locked gates, how would we have gotten out? We were almost locked in the Royal Observatory for the night – now that would have been an adventure!!

We then walked back to the train station and headed back to London.

You can't come to London without getting this picture....

We got off at Victoria Station and went back to the hostel. We were got to the hostel there was glitch in the system and we still could not check in. They did give us free internet time – so we were both able to send some emails. We then were able to get into our room. We were in an all girls room with 4 people. We took one of the bunk beds and met one of the other people in our room.

Here is our room…

We were both pretty tired so we settled in for the night. Tomorrow was another busy day and we planned to be on our way at 9:00 a.m.

The Tower of London

Since we had such a short time in London and a lot of places to visit, I knew we would not be able to go on tours at many of the sites. Shannon narrowed the possibilities down to three, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London. On previous trips I have spent significant time at each of these locations; it took me no time at all to choose the Tower of London. It had been a highlight in the past.

After visiting the bridges we made our way over to the Tower and still had plenty of time. Just before the entrance there was a Starbucks where we made a quick stop. Here I introduced Shannon to the wonderful taste of caramel hot chocolate. We then headed to the ticket booth

We then headed through the ticket entrance and meet our Beefeater Tour Guide.
The Yeomen Warders of Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, popularly known as the Beefeaters, are ceremonial guardians of the Tower of London. In principle they are responsible for looking after any prisoners at the Tower and safeguarding the British crown jewels, but in practice they act as tour guides and are a tourist attraction in their own right, a point the Yeoman Warders acknowledge. There are conflicting reports on how the Yeomen Warders got the nickname Beefeater – but it There are conflicting reports on how the Yeomen Warders got the nickname Beefeater – has stuck. It is actually a very prestigious position…All warders are retired from the Armed Forces of Commonwealth realms and must be former senior non-commissioned officers with at least 22 years of service. They must also hold the Long Service and Good Conduct medal.

Our tour started outside the outer wall of the tower of London. This is where to mote once was. There are lots of stories of how this area was once used including as a sewer deposit and a zoo. It was funny as the Beefeater started the narrative about the Tower of London, I had forgotten how morbid and graphic some of the details were and how it focused so much on all the deaths at the tower.

Here is our guide leading us towards the Byward Tower – our entrance into the Tower of London. This is the entrance to the complex.

Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London (and historically as The Tower), is a historic fortress and scheduled monument in central London, England, on the north bank of the River Thames. It is located within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and is separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space known as Tower Hill. It is the oldest building used by the British government.
The Tower of London is often identified with the White Tower, the original stark square fortress built by William the Conqueror in 1078. However, the tower as a whole is a complex of several buildings set within two concentric rings of defensive walls and moat.

The tower's primary function was a fortress, a royal palace, and a prison (particularly for high status and royal prisoners, such as the Princes in the Tower and the future Queen Elizabeth I). This last use has led to the phrase "sent to the Tower" (meaning "imprisoned"). It has also served as a place of execution and torture, an armoury, a treasury, a zoo, the Royal Mint, a public records office, an observatory, and since 1303, the home of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.

Some of the most famous people kept and executed here were the wives of King Henry VII.

Our tour guide led us through the gate to the space between the outer and inner rings. Here is a gate from the River Thames in the St. Thomas Tour.
Under an arch to some of the inner buildings. The Wakefield Tower The Bloody Tower The White Tower The Bell Tower This is the Tower where the crown jewels are kept. Don’t you love the modern glass building in the background between these two ancient towers. More Towers There is gift shop in this building
This is Mint Street – looks like they are doing some renovations. The Beefeaters actually live inside of the tower – this is where they and their families live. Here is the Tower Bridge from inside the Tower of London. After the tour ended we went to go see the Crown Jewels, but were not allowed to take pictures of them. Shannon mentioned that she expected them to be more then what they were – I remember that from my first visit. We also looked at the special exhibit, Henry VIII – Dressed to Kill – which was a collection of armor. It was a bit drizzly while we while were walking around some of the different Towers. At one point we were climbing up an old, narrow, wet, wood, spiral staircase and I tripped and fell. On my way down I hit Shannon in the rear and hurt her. I landed on one knee and it really hurt (the bruise lasted for months.) I quickly got up and started laughing – that is what happens when I wear sensible shoes like tennis shoes. Put me in my strappy sandal heals and I am good to go.

After we had our fill of the Towers we headed to the gift shop. I found this fake tabloid that made me laugh.
I also found the giant beefeater teddy bear I had my picture taken with 10 years before. I can’t believe I am doing this, but here is the original picture (it was 1999 and the whole matching outfit is just a coincidence – although that backpack on the floor – brought the same one with me on this trip!! It has been all over the world!) Here is my new picture with the bear.

London Bridge is….

Nothing more then a regular concrete bridge like you would find in any city around the world. :)

We were actually running a head of the London schedule – which was great. Next on the list was to go to the Tower of London since the last tour started at 3:30 pm and then we were going to hit up the London Bridge. Since we were doing great on time and the bridge were on our way to the Tower we went there next.

As children you learn the song/nursery rhyme “London Bridge is Falling down” and see pictures of an elaborate ornate bridge. Those pictures often depict the Tower Bridge which is the next bridge upstream from the London Bridge and an iconic symbol of the city. In addition the current London Bridge is not even the original one. There have been several bridges dating back to 55 AD in the location of the current London Bridge.

The London Bridge just preceding the current one was designed by John Rennie in the 1820’s. By the mid 1960’s the bridge was falling apart and need to be replaced and the London City Council came up with an interesting plan….

In 1967, the Common Council of the City of London placed the bridge on the market and began to look for potential buyers. Council member Ivan Luckin had put forward the idea of selling the bridge, and recalled: "They all thought I was completely crazy when I suggested we should sell London Bridge when it needed replacing." On 18 April 1968, Rennie's bridge was sold to the American entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch of McCulloch Oil for US$2,460,000. The claim that McCulloch believed mistakenly that he was buying the more impressive Tower Bridge was denied by Luckin in a newspaper interview. As the bridge was taken apart, each piece was numbered to aid re-assembly. The bridge was reconstructed at Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and re-dedicated on 10 October 1971. The reconstruction of Rennie's London Bridge spans the Bridgewater Channel canal that leads from Lake Havasu to Thomson Bay, and forms the centrepiece of a theme park in English style, complete with a Tudor period shopping mall. Rennie's London Bridge has become Arizona's second-biggest tourist attraction, after the Grand Canyon.

This is the London Bridge.

It’s sign. This is the Tower Bridge (taken from the London Bridge) As you can see it is the more picturesque of the bridges.

Me on the London Bridge with the Tower Bridge in the background. Shannon with the Tower Bridge. I love this picture of the Tower Bridge in the rain with the pop of color coming from the umbrellas. Next stop the Tower of London....