It rocked. It was so cool. It was so worth the worse-than-Kentucky schizophrenic weather. I know we all joke if you don't like the weather wait five minutes but in London, at least on Monday, it was completely true. We were waiting on a Tower tour and from 11:18 to 11:25 (the tour start) it was sunny with blue skies, downpouring, drizzling, sunny AND raining, and completely overcast but no rain. The tour itself was super-cool - the Yeoman Warders (beef-eater guys) seem to be hand-picked to have a great sense of showmanship and humor which added to the subject matter made for an awesome tour. They showed us where Anne Boleyn (and 2 other queens) were executed; they talked about the famous prisoners and they went over burial locations of the Crown's "evil bad guys". A weird thing to me: they bury people IN the churches here - the tower, St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey all have lots of people buried beneath the floor, in crypts, or just laying about in the church proper. When they had to re-do the chapel in the Tower they found hundreds of corpses buried in there under the floor and altar - seriously (the three queens got to be the special altar people). We saw the Crown Jewels and the Armouries and actual official guards that patrolled the building with the Crown Jewels and the building with the keys to the Tower. It was fantastic. It was a little pricey, but worth every penny and even a few more. It fascinated me to hear little tidbits like the Tower has been open for tours since the 1700s. It's been a tourist spot for longer than our country has existed!
When we finished up, including visiting about 17 of the gift shops on the grounds, we leisurely strolled toward our pre-picked lunch location; slowly but surely we're working through timing and best meal values etc. Here's a cute pic of us with Tower Bridge (see Kris we really ARE in London!) Concerning food - we have been using the Zagat's book for restaurant recommendations and while the places they recommend are
good the food is PRICEY (although lunches are pretty decent when price-fixed). After re-fueling we headed to St. Paul's - we got there after the tours finished so we got some exterior shots, and got to hear some of the Evensong which was also pretty cool. Dinner was a "curry house" right up the road where you have to PAY EXTRA FOR RICE. It's the teeny differences that kinda shock me. Why would they think Korma would be good without rice?? On to Day 4 and the British Museum!
4 comments:
Hooray! You really ARE in London!
How was the korma? More pictures more pictures!!!!
Did you get to see the crows at the Tower? It's so much fun reading about you guys going to the same places and falling in love with London just like we did. Don't forget Platform 9 3/4! Also, I can't remember if I told you to visit Madame Tussaud's about 1.5 hours before it closes, the lines are really short then.
I had a problem with the super-narrow steps in the Tower. I was also a little weirded out by walking over graves in the churches.
You guys are making me want to go again!
Oh, and parts of Madame Tussaud's are cool, but there's a also a lot of wax soccer and cricket players I didn't recognize.
this is amy my husband says that he does not believe you two are in london. Those are in fact your stunt doubles and that you two are kicking it back in L.A.
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