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!)

Awe-Inspiring Canterbury Cathedral

It's hard to believe, but it's my next-to-last weekend in England!  Wanting to make the most of it and see as many things as I can, my hosts were lovely enough to suggest going with me to Canterbury and then taking me today to see the Seven Sisters park (which I'll talk more about in another post).  My preceptor, Karen, had a driving lesson and wasn't able to go to Canterbury with her husband, David, and I.  We set out early Saturday morning in one of the coldest mornings I've had here, with a hard frost on the ground and the car thermometer reading -2.5!  Of course, that's a little less cold when you consider that's Celsius.  It warmed up as we went along, but it was still enough to warrant starting the day with a nice hot latte to warm my hands, especially since I misplaced my gloves at some point during the previous day.  We started off strolling through Canterbury, intending to slowly meander our way over to the cathedral.  Neither of us had been to Canterbury before and I personally was imagining the cathedral to be set apart from the shopping district by at least some distance, so imagine our surprise when we turned a corner and saw this:

That would be the ancient entrance to the courtyard of Canterbury cathedral, smack dab next to a Starbucks.  

Now some obligatory shots of the outside of the Cathedral, which dates from 1100 (a tour guide told us at one point, "There isn't much left from the oldest part of the church.  Almost everything else you see here is new".  When I asked him when was it re-done, he replied, "Oh, in the 1300 and 1400s." Never assume that new means from your lifetime, or even from your great-great-grandparents lifetime)

 Can you see the scaffolding on the lower right of this shot?  Recently (actually recently) a few stones fell off the outside of the church.  With closer inspection, they realized that there were a few parts that were cracking and putting some of the stained glass windows in danger.  They took all those out and are cleaning them while re-doing the outside of the cathedral.  We're lucky this isn't like the 1300s; they just completely demolished the building then and started over.

 The Cathedral cat, Laptop.

Only in St. Anselm's chapel was the stained glass doing this to the walls.  I just loved it. 

These places are awfully awe-inspiring.  Also, I think of Star Wars.  I have no idea why.

Canterbury Cathedral is the mother church of the Church of England.  It was founded by St. Augustine, but really became something when Thomas Becket, Archbishop, was murdered here by a few rogue knights who thought they were on a mission from the King.  He was sainted at lightspeed (only 2 years) and pilgrims flocked here by the thousands to be healed by touching or kissing his tomb.  Unfortunately for them, King Henry VIII had a big issue with the Catholic church (namely that pesky first wife) and spent a lot of time destroying anything to do with Roman Catholicism, including the relics of St. Thomas Beckett.  He couldn't just destroy them because Beckett was an important figure.  So he put Beckett on trial, claiming that if he was really a saint he could arise from his grave to defend himself.  Since that didn't happen, Henry VIII declared Beckett to be a heretic and burned his bones.

Can you see the arms and elbows in this marble alter?

St. Augustine's Abbey ruins

Canterbury University

London One More Time

Yesterday I had a free day and a few pounds in my wallet, so I decided to hop a train into London for the day.  On my definite "wants" to do for the day was St. Paul's Cathedral, but doing it up proper this time instead of doing a quick look around when walking through the crypt to the loo.  But before I headed there, I wanted to do a good wander around the city and just take in the sights.  (One of my favorite things of traveling is seeing how other people live in other parts of the world, which is why I am always going on about kids climbing on castle ruins, etc.)  So I spent a couple hours just wandering around, getting "lost".  I put that in parentheses bc I had a map and crossed quite a few tube stops, so don't be worried.  I didn't always know where I was, but I was always just loving the buildings, the people having lattes in their cute little coffee shops, and going into their high end grocery stores.  I didn't take many pictures, which I tend to not when I'm alone.

When I first set out, the day was chilly and grey, like most days here.  However, after a few minutes in London, it became very warm and sunny.  Here's my proof of a beautiful sunny day in London:

This pic was taken in Sloane square, just outside the tube station.  Have I mentioned how much I love love love the London underground?

I also spent some time at Hyde Park, which Steve and I walked through together on our time here.  The difference is that when we walked through together, it was definitely wintertime for the flowers.  When I walked through yesterday, it smelled of honeysuckle and roses, all of which were budding or blooming!  That just tells you how mild it has been here, something that people keep telling me is super unusual.  I'll take it!

I also ate my breakfast here in Hyde Park after ducking into a Waitrose, a high end grocery store that I'd heard a lot about here.  Well, it has nothing on Whole Foods, especially the Whole Foods here.  Brits love their cheese, but WF took it to another level, having a massive (MASSIVE!) cheese counter AND a cheese curing(?) room:

I was in total awe here. It's been awhile since I walked stupidly around a grocery store, but this one did it to me. 

And how could I NOT get a meal here?  I love to eat at WF anyways.  It was such an eerie feeling to be sitting somewhere that felt familiar and completely alien at the same time.  Loved it!

I also went back to St. Paul's Cathedral and spent almost 3 hours there, taking in the Cathedral, walking the much touted 267 steps to the Whispering Gallery, and taking a guided tour through the Cathedral.  It was the highlight of my already awesome day.  Sadly, I couldn't take any pictures in the Cathedral, but here are a few highlights:

• The whispering gallery made me appreciate what schizophrenics must hear.  I could hear a multitude of voices, some soft and some loud, that belonged to people whom I had never seen but were saying very odd things.  Eerie.
• Really, 267 steps that are like 1-inch high is not something to be warning people about as being difficult.  I mean, really.
• When offered the choice of taking the free guided tour vs the free audio tour, always take the guided tour.  We got to go places that are off-limits the rest of the time.  For instance, the Geometric Staircase (google image search it) was incredible.  It's a spiral staircase where each stair's weight is supported by the stair underneath it.  We also sat in the quire, where the choir sings.  The benches there were from the 1400s.  Glad I didn't scratch them!
• Hearing the story of how the English received the book of names of Americans killed in WWII while serving on/based from English bases was a little different than what I had heard before.  The difference lay in the sentiment...my guide presented it as something the Americans forced the English to do as partial payment for the debt that the Brits now forever owed to America.  I prefer to think of it as the Brits were so grateful that they wanted to keep the book in honor.  I think my guide had a chip on his shoulder anyway, since he kept singling out the Americans in the group to watch the steps and that we may have to go up a couple steps if we can manage... (and thankfully I didn't trip on any steps.  I just knew I was going to reinforce his ribbing)
• BTW, that book was names was really really big.  I asked the guide and he said they have a facsimile book that family members can look through to find their loved ones' names.  He said it's one of the more touching parts of his job.
• The Churchill gates in the crypt do not mark where Churchill actually rests, they just stand in memorium.  Churchill is buried at his family crypt at some place not St. Paul's.
• St. Paul's was famously a target during the Blitz and was hit by several firebombs, but each bomb fell in a location where no valuable artifacts/art was damaged.  For instance, if one of the bombs had fallen about 10 feet west, it would have irreparably damaged the beautiful Byzantine mosaics on the ceiling that had no arch support.  As it was, the bomb fell exactly where there was support and no damage was really done.

I can keep going about St. Paul's, but I'd never stop.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it.  The view from St. Paul's steps is a little funny:

Can you see some of the tents to the side?  Some sort of Occupy protest, but each tent seems to be protesting their own things. I saw a PETA tent, a Greenpeace tent, and one tent asking for your end of the year bonus.

I thought this was a little funny; people watching and tent watching.  It works.

After St. paul's, I headed up to Camden Market, somewhere I had read was a cool, funky place to go shopping.  It was definitely funky.  

I didn't stick around here for too long since most of the shopping available was rip-off merchandise, which makes me a little uncomfortable.  Anybody from the Goeller family remember the Great Nike Watches Sting from DC trip 1996?  I sure do!  :)

After Camden Market, I headed to Whole Foods, but those pics are up above. It was a wonderful day and a great way to say good-bye to London. I'm quickly drawing to the close of my time here in England, which has gone by way too quickly.  Upcoming posts:  Canterbury/Seven Sisters Weekend, English Healthcare Experiences, Edinburgh Weekend, and English Differences.

Also there has been much talk from Steve about doing some posts from our trip, but those have yet to materialize....