Day 3 – Stairways to Heaven and Hell

We woke up slightly more adjusted to the local time. The biggest jet lag problem for me had been my hunger…I was getting hungry at the oddest times! One useful tip: I forced myself to eat during the regular times anyway (like morning breakfast, 12:00-1:00 lunch, 7:00-8:00 dinner) and if I did get hungry at 10:30 for instance I either grabbed a cup of latte or protein bar…or both. After breakfast we immediately headed off to Tower of London. It was such a peculiar sight walking towards the complex, the towers looked so ancient compared to their surrounding. The visitor center and ticket booths looked so modern and polished. I didn’t expect such a tourist-oriented entrance, it was looking a bit like a theme park (coming soon: Disney London? *shudders*).

Once we were inside however, the feeling of “uh-oh-we’re walking into a tacky tourist trap” disappeared. There was hardly any crowd, the towers looked so handsome and staggering, and there were Yeoman Warders (Beefeaters) everywhere. Based on tips from guidebooks and travel forums (thank you TALFers) we went straight to the Jewel House to see the Crown Jewels. I didn’t know we had to go through a labyrinth just to get to the them. OK, labyrinth is an exaggeration…but to see room after room filled with bars and small movie screens playing historical features, it was strange. Then it dawned on us that these rooms were for people standing in line to see the Crown Jewels. OMFG! I couldn’t imagine how crowded this place must be during the height of the tourist season. We were so fortunate to have been there with only 4 other people. The popularity of the royal bling was also evident by the automated moving walkway that only allowed us to catch a glimpse of the jewels. Because it wasn’t crowded we just went around and around, even walking in reverse to stay in one place. It was such a privilege to view the infamous Koh-I-Noor diamond,…and not just because we’re Doctor Who fans .

Afterwards, we raced towards the entrance to catch a tour guided by a Yeoman Warder (Beefeater). The tour was very entertaining, I highly recommend it. The Yeoman Warder guiding us seemed to bear a resemblance to Winston Churchill. He was quite funny and animated. There were about 20 other people with us as we walked around the Tower of London complex. Mostly Americans apparently, after the Beefeater took a poll. My favorite part of the tour was when he discussed the tales of the two young princes, and the notorious wife-collecting-executing Henry VIII. Our tour ended at St. Peter ad Vincula chapel, where they found the remains of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. The chapel is still being used as a house of worship today, and families of Yeoman Warders get to have weddings and baptisms there also.

Our next stop was the White Tower, and the first room we walked into appeared to be an extensive collection of armories. Very impressive, and quite gruesome from some of the descriptions on how a particular weapon was used. I was particularly impressed by the Line of Kings, a magnificent row of sculptured horses and armories featuring 17 kings from William I to George II. However, only Henry VIII and Charles I were represented by their personal armors, the rest were given armors of the Tudor or early Stuart periods, regardless of date. One display amused us, an armor of King Henry VIII (see my Flickr photo). The armor originally formed part of a garniture of interchangeable pieces which could be adapted to different uses in tournaments or war. What we were wondering about was whether the piece that seemed to protect the nether regions was custom-made to Henry VIII’s personal measurements . Armories aside, another highlight of White Tower for me was the Chapel of St. John The Evangelist. I loved the elegant simplicity of the architecture, the space seemed light and airy despite being housed in a compound known for torture and murder.

Having gone up and down the stairs at White Tower, which seemed to be the pattern of the day, we decided to rest on a bench right outside the Tower. It’s people watching time! There were lots of school children, some groups behaving badly, most very well-mannered. The crowd definitely got heavier as the day progressed, with a lot more people in the Beefeater tour groups. The sky cleared up just in time for us to eat our lunch. When we looked up we almost didn’t recognize the bright celestial orb peeking through the clouds . I headed to the ladies restrooms after lunch and was pleasantly surprised by framed awards on the wall announcing “Loo of The Year” 2006 5-star award. How silly I thought, but couldn’t help but smile at the unusual enthusiasm for clean public lavatories. I fully intended to take photos if not for the sudden loud sobbing I heard coming from one of the stalls. Very…awkward…moment, I wasn’t sure what to do but it sounded like an adult lady so I thought well she could take care of herself, and I just left.

The weather was still cooperating, so we climbed the stairs (beginning to see a pattern here?) to The Wall Walk, where we could see the River Thames, Tower Bridge, and the rest of the castle. It was such a pleasant walk, and it was nice to walk in clear weather for a change, however short-lived. We checked out St. Thomas Tower, where the bedchamber of Edward I a.k.a Edward “Longshanks” was recreated. Then we went to the Bloody Tower, where gruesome torture devices were displayed such as Scavenger’s Daughter (no, it’s not a country song title), and the Rack. Later on that night we saw a replica of the Rack in action during one of the scenes in “Elizabeth I” (HBO miniseries).

We didn’t see everything at the Tower of London, there were so much stuff and not enough time since we also wanted to see St. Paul’s Cathedral. When we entered the cathedral I was startled by the contrast between St. Paul’s and Westminster Abbey. True, that both had different architectures (Baroque vs. Gothic), but there was a feeling of vast expanse in St. Paul’s. I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of chapels and monuments in the Abbey but in St. Paul’s I was astounded by the scale of the interior. This was confirmed when the audio guide we rented mentioned Sir Christopher Wren’s plan to make the interior feel so much larger. What a genius, I was so impressed by his brilliant ideas, especially on his insistence to build a dome instead of a spire on the cathedral.

I noticed how so many things in London were affected by World War II, and St. Paul’s Cathedral is no exception. The American Memorial Chapel was beautiful and very touching. There was a case there containing a book of remembrance, the American Roll of Honour, on which 28,000 names of fallen US soldiers were inscribed. When we moved on to the crypt, we saw Nelson’s tomb, the audio guide described the funeral procession quite vividly. Personally, I was more drawn to the Florence Nightingale memorial. I’ve always been a voracious reader since I was a child, and had read her biography along with Marie Curie’s when I was a little girl. Their stories as strong, intelligent women inspired me to do well in school and to always set higher standards for myself.

All the brilliant architectural achievements and inspiring monuments must have really gone to our heads, as we insisted on climbing all the way to the top, from the main floor to the Whispering Gallery, then on to the Stone, finally to the Golden Gallery. All 530 steps. I had nightmares that night of never-ending spiraling, narrow stairs going on and on. The view of The Dome from The Whispering Gallery was breathtaking. The scenes of St. Paul’s life were masterfully painted to look as three dimensional as possible. A number of people were trying out the acoustics of the gallery, to no avail. I didn’t try it myself as I knew that there was too much ambient noise for it to work, there were too many “wall whisperers”. The view that rewarded us in the end, when we reached the Golden Gallery, was priceless. It was a cloudy day but we could see the beautiful city of London properly. There were a number of people up there already, enjoying the well-earned rest and fantastic views. A couple of tourists couldn’t figure out the name of a certain bullet-shaped building, and must have expected a more elegant answer than Gherkin (Swiss Re) from me. They kept repeating the question until I finally just spelled it out for one of them so she could write it down.

We must have been gluttons for punishment because we completely ignored our sore legs and continued on to cross the Millennium Bridge. On the way there I noticed a chalk graffiti on a brick wall saying, “I want a red dress I want it flimsy and cheap.” At first I thought it was just wishful thinking from a teenage girl for her prom dress, but I googled it and found out that it’s a line from a poem by Kim Addonizio. Gotta love a city with poetic graffiti, I mostly see gang insignia in US cities. The walk across Millennium Bridge led us to The Tate Modern Museum. I wish I could tell you that we actually saw some marvelous modern art work there. Nope, not a chance. Our legs finally gave out and we just sat on the floor, waiting for the rain to stop (oh yeah did I mention it started raining again?), with our open wet umbrellas in front of us. We must have looked pathetic. The plan to go to the British Museum most definitely did not materialize. So we just took the bus back to our flat, getting a nice tour of London on top of double decker buses.

We decided to go out for dinner and there was a charming small pub nearby, Bunch of Grapes. The minute we walked into the pub, a wall of cigarette smoke greeted us. Ah, how spoilt are we here in the US with our non-smoking regulations. I couldn’t stand that much smoke, so we went upstairs to the dining area. There we had our first fish and chips in London, with the interesting green concoction called mushy peas (quite yummy actually). We were seated by a large window so the view, London traffic in the rain, was fabulously moody. For dessert we shared a treacle pudding with custard…delicious!. I had a John Smith’s Extra Smooth and my partner had a Kronenbourg 1664. During vacations, I guess I don’t mind the slower pace of food service, as it did fill up our evening quite nicely and we were able to just linger and enjoy the street view. For the record, dinner took almost two hours (three courses, I forgot what we had for starters, probably some soup). We topped off the evening with what else but TV-watching, in bed, resting our hellishly sore legs.