Continued from Day 1.
I ended up making it to the Tower of London after not setting an alarm in the morning and therefore waking up terribly late. I forced them to go on without me but Dad grabbed a coffee at “Paul’s” which made him super happy and allowed me to catch up 20m later.
We ended up easily walking in within our timed entry and wandering around.
It was cloudy but projected to be sunny by noon. We followed some people around and ended up going in the right direction.
It was awesome to learn about the history of the Tower.
I’ve mostly associated it with the Tudor era of imprisoning and beheading quite a few people.
However, it was interesting to see how it started as an armory, residence, treasury, menagerie, and more. It’s pretty sad to think how many “animals” are gifted to royalty and what they had to do to manage them.
Cindy took so many random photos but it showed how empty it was in the morning. I was also suprised at how small the buildings seemed. There were a lot of buildings though so it was definitely spread out.
There was an audio tour but for whatever reason we had ended up not initially buying it so we just walked around and read all the cards. I liked it, it was super interesting.
Every room had a huge fireplace, which makes sense. You could feel how cozy the rooms would be.
There were fireplaces in the rooms where the prisoners were kept. It makes sense but still felt weird.
They had the most interesting carvings on the walls from the prisoners. They had put plastic/glass over them to preserve it but it was fascinating to read the stories. No pictures of it here but I really liked reading all the history behind it.
Fascinating stuff!
We stopped halfway through our tour to go see the Crown Jewels before it got busy. Gorgeous! Such amazing history.
The sun started to peek out and on one side we had a great view of the city buildings.
And on the other side, we had the London Bridge! We exited out of that side and decided it would be fun to walk over the bridge and find someplace for lunch.
It was a nice little walk across and we took some fun pictures.
Except nothing opens up until noon and it was 11:30. So we grabbed a passing taxi (since service was terrible and Uber wasn’t loading) and asked him to bring us to a fun Pub near Westminster Abbey!
The Red Lion was a perfect Pub. The driver had three recommendations and we went with this one. It had a lot of history (it’s across from the Parliament building so some fun stories that I don’t remember now) and the food was pretty good. The server was a bit odd but he grew on us.
It was a small little place on the 2nd floor. Very cozy. But it filled up and was packed by the time we left.
We then walked over to Westminster Abbey.
Ahhh… gorgeous! I have seen this church so many times on television for William & Kate’s wedding… for King Charles’ coronation.. funeral for Queen Elizabeth.
It was very cool to see in person. We did get the audio tour this time and it was super cool to walk through and hear all the history.
I always love seeing and appreciating the Tomb of the Unknown Solider. (In this case, it’s Warrior.) Very nice to reflect on that for a moment.
I totally ASSOCIATE these candle stands for prayer, reflection, and grief with Catholicism. Even though I’m not Catholic… I grew up in an Episcopal Church which was an off-shoot from the Church of England and founded after the Amerian Revolution.
Even though I attended church for… a good portion of my childhood, I don’t remember sitting with these candle stands.
But I love the thought of them. I love the quiet reflection, the moment of silence. They had several at the Abbey but this one was lovely.
It was nice to walk through the different sections.
Incredibly cool to be able to see it in person after watching it all on TV.
This was a beautiful area to walk through. The two queens, Mary, Queen of Scots & Elizabeth, Queen of England, were put together essentially to remember all those who “divided at the reformation by different convictions laid down their lives for Christ and conscience sake”. Basically they hated each other in life but were put together in death.
“Stained glass windows in my mind… I regret you all the time…”
Had to throw some Taylor in here. I love looking at stained glass windows. Gorgeous area. The pictures are a little disturbing but don’t look too close!
I’m totally blanking on all the history now but the amount of monarchs buried or memorized here was truly amazing.
Below was Mary, Queen of Scots. 1542 (b) – 1587 (d)
Poet’s Corner is for literature lovers! The tour said more than 100 poets and writers are buried or have memorials within the Abbey. They had 6 short audios about them and then it took me forever (okay, I asked someone) to find where the Bronte sisters were. Right next to Shakespeare!
I couldn’t miss Jane Austen. I love Pride & Prejudice so much. I’ve read the book at least 8 times. Seen the movie more. I will read most adaptations in romance novels on it.
So good.
So that was fun to see that. They actually had Story Time going on right in this area for kids and that was super cute to see.
I’m not that big of a Bronte sister fan, in terms of their work. I know I’ve read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights but I don’t easily recall the stories other than the obvious plot but more so the characters of Heathcliff and Mr. Rochester which were modeled after Lord Byron.
But still, how amazing were they to fight to get their books published? Totally awesome.
Quick bathroom break and appreciating the sun and nice weather!
We were doing really well on time so decided to take a taxi over to Harrods. There was a Prada Cafe out in front and I decided we definitely needed our picture in front of the sign.
Dad wanted to sit down and rest so we found him a nice restaurant for tea and we wanted to explore the shoe section. The shoe floor was called SHOE HEAVEN.
Seriously. It was amazing.
This was just a hallway but each shoe line had it’s own small boutique. It was heavenly. So expensive. Obviously. But gorgeous. When I win the lottery, I’m definitely coming back.
Dad got tea and some dessert. We came back pretty quickly (why do they sell TVs in Harrods!?) and I had a glass of champagne. Then, quickly realized I had some work stuff happening so had to make a few calls.
At that point, Dad went back for a nap but Cindy wanted to hit Regent Street with all the shops that were more in our price range. So we took a taxi over there!
Such a fun street!
I hit up a chocolate shop. We browsed for sweaters. It was tempting. But no purchases made (other than chocolate!).
We went home and relaxed for two hours (well, I ended up having to work!) but then headed off to dinner.
Hawksmore Seven Dials was recommended in many different areas. I was also a little late in getting reservations but I was really happy with this one.
Dad and I shared a cut of chateaubriand which was AMAZING. We also got mushrooms, which again, to die for. We shared a bottle of wine and had to take a picture for Uncle Eric.
I might have to frame this one!
That was our very entertaining Wednesday! It was off to bed.. which I think I only got a few hours of sleep but I did remember to set my alarm this time…
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