Well, It has Certainly Been a Busy Day!

Hello!

Up this morning about 7 am and it looks like it may not be a rainy day! 

Tower with "Shard" in background

Tower of London!

There's a lot of new building/glass around the Tower!

Always a good sign!  Down for breakfast at 8 am, and seriously, this hotel has one of the best breakfast buffets I’ve ever seen.  Delicious! 

Tower Bridge from the Tower

Inside the  Tower

Lots of cannons!

The only funny thing was that R asked one of the waitresses if there was any “hot sauce.”  She disappeared for a long time and then came back with a small container of something to try.  As it turns out, it wasn’t hot sauce at all but rather an excellent chutney – but R used it on his potatoes and said it was good. 

Other than the British Museum, we really didn’t have a specific agenda in mind, so talked about the various things to do in London. 

White  Tower - Armaments Galore!

So odd seeing these new buildings

The Fusiliers' Museum

Decided on the Tower of London, as it has been some years since we have been there.  Headed over about 9 am, figuring that if there was a huge crowd of people, we would do something else.  As it turned out, we walked right up to a ticket window and were in!  Not many people at all at that early time. 

Entrance to the Crown Jewels

Guard on Duty

Beautiful small chapel on the wall

(Turns out, this week has basically been half-term break for most of the U.K. school kids, so there were certainly a lot of them about as the day went by.) 

Can you tell I like that bridge?

Needed to be prepared as we walked the walls!

Famous ravens, part of Tower history

Spent a lovely morning wall walking, and looking at different displays and exhibits – including the Crown Jewels, the collection of regalia that is used when a new monarch is crowned.  (Not to be confused with the Queen’s private jewelry collection, which we saw a few years ago at Buckingham Palace, that is truly, amazingly breathtaking!) (Note:  NO photos were allowed at the Crown Jewels; bummer!) Also taking lots of photos of photogenic Tower Bridge, as well as some of the new buildings surrounding it!  [We wonder how many people mistakenly think Tower Bridge is London Bridge. 

Me walking over Tower Bridge!

Really ornate bridge!

Quite a busy river; figuring that was gridlock!

Do you suppose the guy who bought the old London Bridge for reconstruction at Lake Havasu City made this mistake?]

When we were coming in from Stansted, Robert saw a very strange building out of the train window, and asked what it was. 

That's a lot of glass ... window washers dream!

Looking straight up the Shard!

Sorry ... pizza and salad at the BM!

Turns out, it’s called The Shard – I guess because it looks like panes of glass coming together at the top.  It’s a tapering 95 story glass structure that is now one of the tallest buildings in Europe.  Very interesting but juxtaposed to the Tower of London, it really looked odd!  There are two other brand new glass buildings that probably do have names, we just don’t know what they are!  These new buildings, though, do manage to tower over the real Tower of London.

Gold Minoan cup

Lycian Nereid Monument

Sculpture from Mausoleum

Very much enjoyed our visit, but about noon-time, the place was really beginning to fill up with people – so that’s about the time we decided that we had had enough.  Made our way out of the exit gate on the river, and then headed toward Tower Bridge for a walk across the Thames.  The Tower Bridge is really a different and fun sort of bridge, with quite a long history attached to it.  I’m not sure we have ever walked it before, although R thinks we probably have.  I know we have seen it and ridden across it periodically. Got to the other side, and found a bus that would take us to The Shard, just a couple of stops away.  Found our way there, through the London Bridge station, but saw a line what looked rather ominous.  As it turns out, we did not have tickets or reservations, and at 1 pm they were booked through 5 pm, so we said, “The heck with this”, and headed to the British Museum.

Arrived the BM, and after dropping off our coats at the clock room, headed straight to their small café. 

Statue from Mausoleum

Lycian tomb -- from Turkey!

Seriously, can you believe this scene?

We haven’t eaten there before but the choices definitely looked better than eating in the Great Court, where they basically have cold sandwiches and not much else.  (Also, I didn’t want to return to the BM’s wonderful restaurant, with the intention of being able to eat a meal tonight!)  Found a pizza station, which looked really good – and we ended up getting one slice of pizza (which was huge, and easy to split!) and a salad – we chose the beet, feta and greens salad.  Excellent, actually, and it was more than enough to satisfy both of us for the afternoon.

Westminster Cathedral

Bag 'O Nails!

Fish & chips with mushy peas!

Lasagne with garlic bread and salad

Total, seriously ... YUM!

Then we headed to the Minoan and Mycenaean section, which led naturally, then into the Lycian section of the museum.  Some really lovely Minoan and Mycenaean things, but wow, the Lycian artifacts – most of them coming from Xanthos, where we were a week or so ago!  Very fun!  Something like 43 crates of stones were shipped to the BM in the 1840’s by a British archeologist who had permission from the Turkish government to excavate there.  And seriously, some of them must weigh so much that rooms, I believe were designed and built specially for them.  The main room – the one with the Nereid Monument, was under renovation, which meant that all of the wall and case artifacts were completely covered.  The Nereid itself, though, much like the Pergamum Altar in Berlin, was available to view … and it’s huge!  (Also, this will definitely give us a reason to return yet again to the BM on our next trip to the UK!!) 

Finally, there were several rooms devoted exclusively to the Musoleum of Halikarnassos.  We found these exhibits wonderful, as we had visited the actual Mausoleum site a few years ago when we were in Bodrum (modern name for Halikarnassos), Turkey, but to be honest, there’s not much left of this once Wonder of the World!  Good to see that parts of it still exist!

And finally, really and truly this time, Robert inquired about room 33, which contains the oldest Chinese artifacts on view in the museum.  However, wouldn’t you know – Room 33 is closed entirely for renovation!  Oh well!  Again, just more reasons to return yet again!

Out of the BM about 3:30 pm and walked the block or so to Oxford Street to find the bus.  Took us a few minutes to get to the 390 stop, but the bus came along, we got on, and it took us literally, to within 50 feet of the hotel!  Can’t get much closer than that!  The bus really does take a lot longer these days, because of traffic.  I am including a shot of the sort of day it was from the top of the bus.  Remember that school kids are out this week, but still – from the top of the 390 bus, it definitely looked like ants scurrying everywhere!  How these bus and cab drivers have the patience to drive in downtown London now, I have no idea.  The last time I drove here – some years ago, it took forever getting through town – and now, truly, it’s much worse than it was!

So – thinking about what to do for dinner, and figuring that we might try another pub – and old friend that we haven’t visited in years, the Bag ‘O Nails … stay tuned!

m

xxx

Just back from The Bag ‘O Nails.  [We just love that name!] We are thinking that we have eaten there at least twice in the past.  One time was with Mom, and the second was with Norm and Marg, our Australian friends.  At any rate, we caught the 148 bus just a block down the street from the hotel, and it took us just a couple of blocks away from the pub.  The Bag ‘O Nails is somewhere between Victoria Station, the Westminster Cathedral and Buckingham Palace.  Nice location to have!

The downstairs was pretty full, so we went upstairs to their dining room.  Robert ordered their “ultimate” fish and chips, with mushy peas!  (Mushy peas are interesting and very English … these came out looking like a lump of wasabi, so that’s the green lump you will see on R’s plate.)  I had their lasagna with garlic focacia and salad.  To be honest, we both absolutely cleaned our plates.  While it wasn’t the best meal we have ever had, it was good, honest cooking, and we enjoyed it.  R declined dessert (which I should have too) but their Oreo cheesecake sounded too good to be true.  It was!  Wow!  Relished each and every bite!  Then, back to the 148 and seriously, in probably 10 minutes we were back in front of the hotel once again.  Now getting ready for bed, as tomorrow we make the move to Gatwick to pick up the car, and then head to Philippa and Dan’s house near King’s Lynn!

Much love to all,

m

xxx