We made a pretty good dent in west London on our unexpected tour of the first day and our very busy tour on the second day - but today was over to the east side to see the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge (up closer). The tube strike was still in effect until midday so we had use the London transport app to navigate ourselves there around closed underground lines. When booking a hotel, we almost booked a place near the Tower of London, but I'm glad we didn't as with the tube strike, we would have added a lot of travel time to our sightseeing.
We had a scheduled time/pre-booked tickets for this site as well but we arrived in good time and tried to grab a coffee at a local coffee shop but the service was so slow that we just went to Tesco and got some almond croissants and coffee. Good value, fast and the croissants were fresh and delicious - and we just ate them on some benches outside the Tower of London.
Straight off the tube and you see a remnant of the original Roman city wall for the city of London. A bit odd that they allow the public to go right up to it and that over a couple thousand years there hasn't been some jerks to put graffiti or destroy it or take pieces of it.
We head over to the Tower of London over some very uneven cobblestone streets. My arthritis in my knee is starting to be more painful - probably partly because of the huge amount of walking we did the day before - and the uneven cobblestone doesn't help. We join into the Yeoman Warder tour with Yeoman 409 providing a colourful commentary on the castle. Its a bit bigger crowd today and we aren't usually into the guided tour thing, but we go along with this one for about 45 minutes.
Carrie, missing her animals, but unaware that she isn't supposed to, has some nuts she feeds to the famous ravens of the Tower. She's embarrassed after the Beefeater (warden) instructs the crowd to not feed them as they are fed well - but I'm sure that she is not the first or last person that has done that (the ravens are huge)
We see the crown jewels - some of them are protected by massive vault doors and guards ensuring you don't take photos of them. They are quite stunning but the crowd impact here is a little reminiscent of Versailles or the Louvre in Paris and it can be challenging to get a good vantage. One neat thing they had was a conveyor belt to ensure people didn't linger too long in front of some of the crowns.
Lots of armaments but otherwise not a whole lot to see at this venue (beyond the crown jewels). The torture display was very light - but another highlight was some prisoner graffiti carved into the stone:
After another £4 per cup of coffee/cappuccino (they are good - but £4 for an Americano is pricey - but this is the going rate) we take a break to see the Tower Bridge from another vantage point:
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| We walked about halfway across - we figured there was no point in going up as we have seen everything from the Eye and the boat tour |
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| From halfway over the bridge - looking east |
Another fantastically clear and beautiful day - we make our way back to west London on the tubes - with the strike action now appearing to be over, it was a little less complicated to navigate back.
We go back to the hotel and get cleaned up and head out for dinner before our show at the Prince of Wales theatre. We pick an Indian restaurant Oorja just on the edge of Leicester Square/Piccadilly Circus and the food is fantastic. One of the better Indian meals both of us have had but I loved my Paneer Tikka appetizer the most.
We make our way down to Leicester Square again and it being Friday night now, the place is crazy busy with people. We are a bit early so we find a convenience store to buy some post-show wine and a cigar and then head to the theater where they confiscate it (but say that we can pick it up after the show- which we do). We have good seats in the front row of the circle (different terms for everything - the "circle" seems equivalent to our "mezzanine" level). The show, Book of Mormon, is a hoot - irreverent and funny but also great performances especially by the performer who played Joseph Smith. Like everything else in London, getting to your seat is a maze of stairs and hallways that make absolutely no sense in the directions they go.
We head back to the hotel stopping to smoke a cigar outside Shaftesbury theater where there are some benches. We feel pretty safe in this city, but maybe that's because I have my excellent security guard Carrie always watching for potential threats.
