England Day 11 - The Tower of London, our Thames cruise, and the London Eye
With the Circle and District lines out indefinitely, we decided that the easiest (if not most cost effective) way to get around would be to use the Big Bus tour again. It was at least a system we were familiar with, and used to dealing with tourists who have no idea how to get from point A to point B (whereas on public buses you always feel like you’re holding up the daily commute as you struggle with map and unfamiliar coins).
Though the first bus wasn’t supposed to leave from near Paddington until 9:02am, we arrived at 8:50 just in time to catch a blue route bus bound for Marble Arch. We did our normal switchover at Marble Arch to the Red Route, then listened to the commentary as the bus took us around to our goal: the Tower of London.
Our guide wasn’t quite as proficient as some of the others had been (or maybe we’re just jaded, having heard it so many times!), and there was definitely more traffic as we hit rush hour going around to all of the stops. But the day was glorious (sun! though both Alana and I managed to get nasty sun rashes. In London, of all places XD;;), the wind up top felt good, and we hopped off at the Tower stop.
Just a short walk up the road from where the bus lets you off you’ll see the entrance to the Tower. As I’d pre-booked the tickets online, we were able to bypass the ticket queues (not that I think they were very long at that time of day) and enter right into the Tower. As in the other places we’d visited there was a security search; just a manual checking of bags.
I bypassed the calls to join the free tour of the Tower, picked up a free map from a hidden alcove tucked away just after the portcullis, and marched us all directly over to the crown jewels. Success! You can truly get a feel from the amount of rope you have to walk through how slow a process seeing the crown jewels must be when the masses have descended on them. Strangely enough, I had the sensation of being at Disney World, with video loops set up to entertain you and ‘prepare you for the experience’ as you walked through. We enjoyed seeing them so much, and there were so few people there that we just walked back around in the exhibit room itself to get another look. It’s amazing to think that the jewels are actually real!
Stepping out into the sun we wandered back over to the entrance. As we passed through the grassy quad a group of school children could be heard from across the grounds: “Torture? I love torture!” and an increasing chant of “Bloody Tower, Bloody Tower, Bloody Tower!”, which got quite a few giggles out of the people who could hear them.
We arrived back at the entrance and the start point of the tours, where one had obviously just left. A Yeoman announced to all newcomers that a tour would be starting up again for twenty minutes, so we contented ourselves to wait. I had a nice conversation with a man from New Zealand (“not Australia, thank you very much”). Good lord but our group turned out to be huge! The Yeoman that led it (different from the one who had been gathering people) was spectacular, though. He had a wonderful stage-voice, and a wonderful delivery (“Remember that every single tale I’ve told you today is Absolutely True!”). I was reminded of the Midnight Circus from the Last Unicorn, and Ruk repeating his line “Creatures of night, brought to life!”.
In the middle of his speech at White Tower the clock chimed 12 noon, and everybody paused for a minute of silence, to remember those lost in the terrible events of last Thursday. London was united in that moment in its stance against terrorism and remembrance of those fallen, and I can only hope that all those prayers united were able to do some good in the world.
The temperature had been steadily climbing all morning, and in such a case is not a friend to someone decked out in long-sleeved all black. After stepping around to some of the towers and Traitor’s Gate, we ended the tour with everybody crammed into the pleasantly cool chapel. After being released we felt the effects of having skipped breakfast that morning, and we made our way over to the Tower’s Café to have some lunch.
The fare was surprisingly good, especially for an attraction. We got a plate of pasta with tomatoes and a plate of roasted chicken with mashed potatoes, and proceeded to tuck in. Alana got two scones and some jam and clotted cream, which we all shared in the end. Way too much food for all of us to eat; the portions were incredibly large.
After lunch we wandered about the bottom levels of the White Tower, shopped, tried to find the entrance to the Bloody Tower, failed, shopped some more, and eventually decided it was time to catch our free Thames tour back to Westminster Pier. We delayed to shop some more (eh heh ^^;;), thereby missing the nice, new ferry, and being relegated to a much older one, captained by a very unique individual. We wouldn’t have traded it for all the world.
“What, this ship? This is the flag ship of her Majesty’s Navy!”
Our captain proceeded to regale us for the next half hour with constant puns and a unique view of London, as he tried his best (“I am not a tour guide and do not pretend to be one”) to make the trip interesting for us all, while pointing things out along the way. (“That over there is the Tate Museum Modern. Admission is free, which I understood when I took my children over there for the day. Bits of rubbish everywhere. They have an entire display full of old tires, piles of bricks, and another one with a rusted car…my children couldn’t tell that they’d ever left home.”) Now there is a man who earned his tip!
Off of the boat (which again, they never checked our tickets for!), we took a quick walk over the bridge and arrived at the London Eye. With a quick drink stop we queued up, and it didn’t seem like much time had passed before we entered our pod. Again there is a security checkpoint prior to boarding. Light glinted off of Big Ben and we rose into the sky, offering a wonderful view of the city. On the way down our flight was captured with a photo, which for a mere 7.50GBP could be ours! Sad to say, we bought it. Consummate tourists are we!
We picked up a Big Bus again and got off at the next stop, Covent Garden, just to see what the market was like. The Big Bus guy waiting at the stop was very helpful to point us into the right direction, and for once we actually didn’t mess it up! The market was indoors, which I wasn’t expecting, and didn’t grab us for very long…probably because we’d seen much of the same stores in other locations. But it did satisfy my curiosity.
We re-boarded the Big Bus and settled down for the long haul back to our stop. Eventually we had to switch off of the Red Route and onto the Blue, but we ended up on a *very* crowded blue bus, and since there was another one right behind that one, we hopped off and boarded the other one instead. Ah, seats!
Not willing to make the whole circuit around on the blue to make our stop, we got off at Marble Arch and simply walked the way back to our hotel. It only took about 20 minutes and was a direct hike back down Edgware Road. Feeling like we’d accomplished much and again rather overheated, we collapsed back down on our beds. Mom went down to speak with the concierge, at which point she discovered that we couldn’t do the Balloon tour (*pout*). But she was able to book us a full day tour of Leeds, Dover, Canterbury, and Greenwich, which sounds very nice indeed.