Pictures: 1) Statues in front of the palace, 2) Big Ben, 3) Me in front of the theater, 4) Me in front of Parliament & Big Ben, 5) The Sherlock Holmes room, 6) In front of part of The Tower of London
So today was absolutely insane. I felt as though I were in a real life game of Mario Kart racing. We tried to cram in as much as possible with our last day. We went back to our new favorite pastisserie, http://www.patisserie-valerie.co.uk/, for an apple turnover to jump kick our day. That sugar was definitely needed and worked off quickly. Hopped back on the tour bus to get back to the Tower of London so we could see the Crown jewels.
Okay, so here's a little funny story. Along the route we have to pass by this attraction called the London Dungeon which is a display/ride/tour that covers England's darker history (i.e. Jack the Ripper) so there are gruesome characters outside. Well, we got stuck at the light right in front of this place. So we're waiting there and just our luck, we had just come down to sit in the bottom because we were turned into icicles up top from the wind. Two of the characters came over to the side of the bus and were banging on it and making scary faces, trying to freak people out. Well, out of nowhere comes this midget dressed in character, trying to scare us. All I could think of was Wayne in Wayne's World when he's trying to scare Garth with The Leprechaun impression. It gets better. He actually ran along side the bus when we started moving for quite a ways. I already get weirded out by midgets, but this was just ridiculous. Wish I had gotten a picture!
Man, was that ever a LONG bus journey. We knew it was all the way across the bridge, but we had no idea that the tour was going to be so long. Yet, it was smarter than getting in a cab and paying a huge amount- the bus was free because our passes were still good at that time. Finally, we made it (thanks to some green lights) to the tower. It was freezing this morning so standing in line outside, waiting to purchase a ticket was pretty brutal. Thank goodness for my wind-breaker (and the steaming hot cocoa I bought). Waiting in line did prove to be worth it, however.
We had this awesome tour guide who made all the history so interesting (as if it wasn't already) and he was so dramatic and funny that is was just appropriate for the location. We got to see where Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey stayed before they were executed and we went into the church where many people are buried underneath in shallow graves such as Anne and Jane Seymour. One story he told us that was horrific, yet interesting was one duke's execution was botched. It took 5 swings of the axe to behead him. After his execution it was discovered that there was never a painting of him for that family lineage so his head was stitched back to his body so a painter could paint the portrait. Guess that was the ideal subject- he never moved a muscle. We also saw the rooms where people were tortured, the site where 1 king and 5 queens were beheaded publicly (in the middle of the grounds inside), etc. But the best part was the viewing of the Crown jewels.
You cannot even fathom the beauty, the ornate metalwork, the craftsmanship and patience that went into creating these dishes, spoons, everything. The gems were absolutely breathtaking- I have never seen jewels of that clarity, color, or size in person in my life. We saw everything for coronations, the crowns of many monarchs, scepters, royal trumpets, orbs, crests of the different royal lineages dating back to William the Conquerer (1066), etc. There are really no words to describe it. Unfortunately, we could not take pictures, but take my word for it. We also found out that all of those precious items are actually removed for coronations and used. How cool is that?
The gift shop was even ridiculous. There were items you could purchase from De Beers up to about 60,000 pounds.
After that we hopped back on the bus to go to Shakespeare's Globe Theater. By this time we were starving so we stopped off at this Italian restaurant where I had some awesome pizza and salad. We also tried Piccidilly Whip which is the ice cream Margaret Thatcher created while she was a chemist (prior to her Prime Minister days). It was so different from anything I have ever eaten. It was kind of like an ice cream mousse. You have to try it one day.
Back to the Globe...the outside is now all modern which is kind of sad, but what can you expect. They do still keep some tradition though. The theater is outside and it is still round, but it is obviously not the original structure. It was kind of a bummer because we were not allowed outside to check it out because a play was going on and we did not have a ticket. And they wouldn't let us out there after it let out because the crew would be setting up for the next show that night. We sort of caught some glimpses at it through a window though.
By this time we still had about 2 hours to kill so we headed off to Oxford Street....with MUCH difficulty. Apparently, London handles their cabs much differently from us. So when we got to the street again...Problem #1: It was deadsville. Honestly, like no cars or taxis. Finally one of the tour buses came and we got on, but were soon getting off. The driver would not let us ride it because our ticket had "expired" like 3 hours before. So we were back to the drawing board. We tried to hail a cab a couple times and that's not hard by any means...or so we thought. When Amanda stuck her arm out to hail the car, the driver just looked confused and then waved. He had nobody in his car or anything. So we asked an elderly couple what we were doing wrong. They told us to do the same thing we had already been doing and that was obviously NOT working. After waiting around for 20 more minutes the man alerted us to a cab that was luckily dropping someone off right there so we hopped in it. We must have looked so dumb because we were sprinting down to it. Not to mention hailing cabs the wrong way or something.
After that mishap we got to Oxford Street where we popped into some London stores that were super cute, but very crowded and crazy. We then got a cab (we did hail it!), went back to the hotel to retrieve our luggage and got to the train station. Once there we had some other ineteresting experiences. While trying to order food in this one place, this man was ranting and raving and causing all sorts of trouble because he didn't think his food was coming quick enough and that he was being mistreated. It was crazy.
The train ride was only about an hour and a half and we had this little English girl next to us who listened to our conversation quite intently for the entire way. She must not have been used to American accents, ha-ha!
Oh, interesting fact: there is some protest going on in London Square where one man has even been camping out there for 9 years protesting capitalism and war, etc. Crazy people are even there. We also saw a bunch of Middle Eastern people walking around dressed like sketchballs protesting the British government (that was on our lovely cab ride to the station- which was a cab ride from hell...the cabbie had no clue where he was going or anything).
Back to classes & reality tomorrow and the start of week 3! Crazy.
Hope you had a wonderful Father's Day, Dad! We can do a post-celebration when I get back! xox
Photo 1: Buckfast Abbey
