Day 3, Thursday, 17 September – Feeling very refreshed we woke just after 6 am. Had breakfast in the hotel which was included in the rate.
Today we took the tube to Tower Hill to see the Tower of London. The Tower was used primarily as a fortress against invaders but was also used as a prison at various times. The rail passes gave us 2 for 1 entry saving us $34. Got there just before opening and we were first in line to see the Crown jewels. HELLO? Simply magnificent and did the travelator thing twice, once to see them from the front and another to see them from the back. All the pomp and ceremony of the monarchy requires mace, scepters, etc., all in gold. There was a gold urn that held 114 bottles of wine, used at banquets. I thought that would be useful at our house!! So many crowns, you have to wonder why they can’t just use the same one as before? Same is true for maces, etc.
Howard started to feel a bit jaded about all this wealth being held in one family. I ask the guide about insurance for the jewels and stuff and he tells us they AREN’T insured!! Either they can’t get insurance or can’t afford the premiums!! The whole complex is fantastic, Howard was appalled at the executions that took place here, I just admired it for its history. I did not know that Sir Walter Raleigh was held prisoner here for 13 years and his family lived with him in their own compound in the complex. There is incredible workmanship and this is also the site of Roman ruins. While we were there an exhibition of Henry VIII armour was on display. Got a guide book, the first of many on this trip.
Tower of London precint. Look at the stone work.
awesome ceiling!
Green where all the executions and hangings took place.
Tudor section of London Tower
Howard
Traitor’s Gate which was the entrance for prisoners being brought to the Tower.
Left the Tower for a coffee at Starbucks opposite then off to St Paul’s Cathedral. Tried to get in with a 2 for 1 offer but evidently I downloaded a ticket for 2 weeks in the future and they wouldn’t honour it. Read on for my future comments in relation to the amount of money being received.
Anyway, it’s an incredible building with its mosaic ceilings and statues honouring various people (in the main military people who have defended England at one time or another). The immense wealth of the church is so hypocritical, much like the Catholics. Even Howard carried on about his feelings about the immense wealth. People are buried in the crypt and God only knows what the criteria is – one woman who died in the 1700’s was between 97 and 100 – no other reason given for having been buried there. The most famous sarcophagi, of course, are Christopher Wren and Horatio Nelson. Yes, it is beautiful and yes, it is historical but a place of worship that has 4 admission counters in the main body of the cathedral plus a café in the basement (as well as a gift shop) – smacks to me as being hedonistic and capitalistic. It even had donation boxes (and yes, people actually put money in them!)
I estimated easily over 200 people entered the two hours that we there. At £11 pound per person that’s over £2,200 per day (conservatively speaking of course since I only estimated the number of people over two hours). Multiply that by 365 and that’s over £803,000 or AUS$1,600,000 per annum just for that one hour. Say it’s over 7 hours and the figure becomes £5,621,000!! And to think that the church is poor!! And they wouldn’t let me use a future 2 for 1 ticket!! Is it any wonder that I am so cynical about the church?
From there we went to Fleet Street for a good old fashioned pub lunch, Howard had steak and ale pie with mash, vegies and gravy and I had fish and chips with minted mush peas. Not bad!! Wanted to eat outside but it was the only place smokers could smoke and just literally stank so we settled for inside. At this point I tell Howard that with all the planning that I did for this trip I was hoping that actually doing it was not going to be a let down. Far from it!
From Fleet Street we intended to go to the National Photo Gallery but we passed a plaque to “Samuel Johnson’s House” which I believed to be an 18th century house. We went there and of course, it was the house (rented) of the author who produced (amongst many other works) the English Dictionary. By this time we were starting to flag so we went back to the room and a kip for Howard who is suffering from jet lag.
We got ready and trained it to West End to Queens Theatre for Les Miserables. My favourite musical, it was a FANTASTIC show!! Voices divine, acting superb, and a standing ovation at the end. We were in row B (second row) and seats in the middle. Booked the show in May so was able to select good seats. I had purchased a show/dinner package and so it was off to Chez Gerard around the corner for a 2 course meal. We both had goats cheese lightly grilled on sourdough on a bed of mesculin lettuce. For main Howard had the haddock fishcakes while I had the citrus chicken. The show/dinner package was £55 each, excellent value given the quality of both the show and the meal. It was time to go to bed but good luck was not on our side as we caught the wrong train (yes, it can be confusing) so we ended up having to double back and got home after 1 am. Yes, a long day!
Day 4, Friday, 18 September 2009 – Had set the alarm for 7 am but Howard actually woke up prior to that – I know, I couldn’t believe it either!! Got ready to go to Buckingham Palace, we arrived at 9:15 am for the first opening at 9:45 but had to get tickets 2 blocks away. Got in line and guide tells us the first opening is in 10 min, that it’s roughly a 1 hour to 1:30 hour walking tour with NO facilities so if need be use the public ones. At this stage Howard panics and has to go. Gets back just in time as we go in!! God forbid the peasants using the palace loos – even if there are 478 of them!! There are more loos than bedrooms. In practice, when ‘one’ is hosting a dinner party for 300 or a function for 1,000, ‘one’ can never have enough loos!
The tour is only on over July and August when the queen goes to Balmoral for her holidays (I would have thought that every day was a holiday for her). The tour is a recent event, meant to raise funds for the restoration for Windsor Castle after it had a fire. At £16.50, a head it it’s a real money maker. Groups go in every 15 mins, and I am sure our group had at least 200. Extend that out for the day and assume 27 starting times. That means 5,400 people a day. Times £16.50 that is £86,670 per day. Times 60 days over summer that is £5,200,000 per year. It’s been going for about 7 years so how much are the renos to Windsor going to cost?? Methinks a moneymaker is happening at the palace!! (Readers may start to realize a thread here!)
Anyway, the palace was just beautiful although Howard did remark that the rooms that we saw did not have any windows and most had bar electric radiators in the fireplaces. The audio tour was good and at your own pace, we saw 19 of the State Rooms, words cannot describe the beauty, the design, the furnishings of each. The silk paper on the walls, and the gilded panels as well, each having a pattern similar or a decoration shared. The Sevres porcelain, the rugs, the silks, the lamps, the fireplaces – just magnificent.
I was writing this while sitting on the step leading to a fire exit on the 4th floor of our hotel. To my left I see (looking down) people having drinks at 5 on the footpath and to my right see rooftops and fireplace chimneys of other converted Victorian homes. Anyway, back to the tour. It was stunning! No one can compare this to Versailles as this is a living castle. I must admit that I do admire Liz in her position and that she gives it 110%. I am convinced that her goal is to become the longest reigning monarch (I think that Victoria reigned for 63 years). Given that Liz ascended the throne at 21 that means she will be have to be at least 90 years old. In technical terms that means Charles will be a pensioner when he takes over!!
The decoration of all the rooms is what we liked. We got to the end of the tour to find gift shop, café, etc, and of course I bought my second official souvenir book. The palace’s private gardens are basically a pebble front garden and no flowers at the front or back. We did ask about the lack of flower beds and were told that there are some, planted outside the Queens personal apartments.
One last observation – although Liz is very pedantic about roles, rules, pomp and ceremony, the standard of her employees shoes is disgusting. The uniforms are quite nice but evidently the shoes are a personal choice – and that includes whether you polish them or not! I noticed this at the beginning of the tour and made a remark to Howard at the end – he immediately looked at every employee’s shoes and agreed with me. It was actually quite embarrassing because he focused on their shoes once they came into sight.
After the tour we found a Marks and Spencer store food store so got some supplies for a picnic: lemon and pepper prawns, smoked tuna, breakfast ham slices, bread, cheddar and brie cheeses and a bottle of Spanish wine – all for £16. Yes, in actual terms it was an expensive picnic!! Still how good was it to be able to say we sat in St James Park in London on our blanket (courtesy of Qantas) and use our collapsible glasses (which didn’t really work as they kept leaking)?
London Bridge
Sites around Fleet Street. Howard and our friend Julian from Adelaide used to drink here when they lived in London.
After lunch we walked past Clarence House (above) where Charles, Camilla (hisssssss!), William and Harry live but didn’t see anyone so we were pretty upset. Just joking! Continued walking and went thru the National Gallery and all its great artworks. Magnificent!! Although I wanted to see Westminster Abbey for the third site of the day Howard told me he was tired. Which was good really, he didn’t just agree to what I was suggesting which then might not occur and then I would be mad. He went back to hotel and I stayed in the city visiting a few shops and seeing the sights.
Got back and he was still in bed, a painter was painting the hallway and as a result the door to the fire escape was open and so I sat out there having a few drinks, enjoying the sun and writing in the journal. A few hours later Howard decided he was never going to wake up, he’s obviously jetlagged so I went out on my own and had dinner at Hungry Jacks with a few drinks at the local pub. Got home about 1 am.
The red buses are still operating, they remind me of ants – there are so many going here and there, overtaking each other! They take off quite quickly and unless you are hanging on to something your body gets shunted side to side. On our first day Howard almost fell down the stairs from the upper deck. What a great start to the trip that would have been!
Summary: Great city, very historical, expensive, would like to go back and see more of England countryside.
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