Sunday, January 15, 2012

 Day Two in London - Big Bus Tour, St. Paul's Cathedral and the Tower of London

As I quickly approach the statute of limitations on my ability to report the details of our trip, it seems high-time I jot some notes here.  Many apologies for the delay. :)

I will start with our second day in London - the first, as you can read if you scroll back to the first post in this blog over a month ago - involved a quick walk around Piccadilly Circus, a much-deserved latte after being up 24 hours and being welcomed to London on a cold, drizzly day, and a early night in to try to beat jet-lag.

Day two started with our hop-on-hop-of bus tour of London (Big Bus Tours).  I would highly recommend it for the live commentary and as a quick introduction to London.  Here are a few pictures I snapped from the bus:

 The BBC...


and (as you can clearly tell from the picture) - The Royal Courts of Justice. :)

St. Paul's Cathedral - we hopped off the bus here to see the Cathedral and find a coffee shop.  We probably should have done the full tour at this point, but this was at the beginning of our Bus Tour and I was more interested in seeing the city at this point.  After waffling over the tour, we continued on the bus, headed towards Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.

 View of tower bridge from our bus...


Crossing - you guessed it - Tower Bridge.

Also included in the Bus Tour is a stop in a quaint, quintessentially English town - the name of which I have now forgotten - but we dropped in for tea and a biscuit.  It was a nice reprieve from the hustle and bustle of London.



Just kidding.  Surprisingly enough, this is actually the courtyard within the Tower of London.  The stone platform with a small crowd is actually a site where they executed some rather famous "prisoners."  A very charismatic 'Beefeater' explains below (I would like to note my apology to this kind gentlemen for filming this without his prior approval.  As we learned later during our 'Jack the Ripper' tour, you NEVER film a tour guide without asking his/her permission.  Ah well,  I was a newbie here):


The Tower of London had a wealth of sights - the Crown Jewels (no photos...suffice it to say they were incredible), the surprisingly beautiful courtyard, and a 'museum' displaying the monarchy's armory.  The latter included many sets of armor, various swords and axes as well as some modern guns.  I enjoyed these displays, but since we had already spent an hour in the Tower and had many more sites to visit (as well as continue our Bus Tour), we sped through here.  Here are some picture highlights:



Our beefeater tour guide, pointing to 'Traitor's Gate.'


You may recognize the beautiful woman in this picture. :)


Classiest cannon I've ever seen. 


The only time wearing a skirt won't inspire ridicule.  This armor was worn by Henry VIII.

 More of Henry VIII's armor.

Definitely not Henry VIII's.  By now we were moving quickly and, pressed by Laura's ridicule of my desire to photograph not only each piece of armor but also the plate indicating the monarch that bore it, I now have no idea what time period or which monarch wore this.  I'm going to say Charles I.  It bears a remarkable similarity to a suit of Samurai armor we saw at the British Museum later in our trip. 


I think I'd ask for it to be sharpened...


A classy addition to anyone's Christmas tree.  Tempted as we were, it was difficult to part with 35 pounds for this 'treasure.'


 The Tower of London's exterior.  Note the ice skating rink on the left margin of the photo.

Later on the Bus Tour, we passed Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey.  Unfortunately, the sun had set and make photo taking rather difficult.  More photos and details of these sites to come.

After a quick meal at a rather lively restaurant (we were surrounded by office Christmas parties and the restaurant blasted music so loud that we could hardly converse), that evening we participated in London Walks' Jack the Ripper Tour.  This tour took about 90 mins as we walked from the Tower tube station through some of the famous sites from Jack the Ripper's murders.  Here are some photos from the evening (sorry for the poor quality!):


Outside the Tower of London, waiting for our Tour to start.


The "prostitute's church" in Jack's day.  Apparently this was a popular 'pick-up' spot.  Prostitutes played an early version of musical chairs by circling the church to avoid being arrested for loitering.  They would speed up around the backside of the church and slow almost to a crawl as they approached the busy intersection at the front.  Apparently Jack picked up a victim here, on a night where he had already murdered another victim but was interrupted.


A pub both Jack the Ripper and prostitutes frequented.  Apparently this pub features in the Johnny Depp film, 'From Hell.'


A church that neighbors the pub, also important to the events (though, at this point, I'm a little foggy on the details).  After our tour concluded, we made our way home for some well-deserved rest.  I full day, for sure!


(despite the affirmation below to the contrary, this post was by Steve!)



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