Month: June 2013

So far we have walked and walked and walked around London. The city is such a mixture of the old, the really old and the new. Sitting on the banks of the Thames yesterday across from the Tower of London was a little surreal. To our right was the Tower Bridge – a beautiful example of Victorian architecture, straight across was the Tower of London, with the imposing White Tower dating back to William the Conquerer in 1066 with the 30 St Mary Ax (or the Gherkin) in the background, and to our left City Hall dubbed the ‘Armadillo’ with the Shard in the background.

There is a lot of building in London and everything new appears to be made of glass. At least they are attempting interesting architecture with lots of curves.

Highlights so far

The views from the top of St Pauls and the Eye.

The British Museum – all of the British Museum (I could spend days looking at all the exhibits)

The Bloody Tower – torture is always fascinating

Dana going to bed by 8.30 (ie before us) every night so far

The vintage style dress that I bought yesterday (can’t wait for Camden markets on Saturday!)

The London Underground – I love their day tickets, really does make navigating around London easy. We think Dana could probably manage to get herself home on her own already

Negatives

Dana says we have done too much walking

I say that there are too many stairs at St Pauls – my hips are aching

Too many tourists – yes I know we are tourists too but I can still complain about the sheer number of tourists. We have heard so many different languages and accents that you would be hard pressed in some places to know that you are in the UK.

Light by 4.30 in the morning and a bedroom without heavy blinds to block the light out (being awake at 4.30 am is just stupid)

Best comment from Dana – while waiting to enter the London Crypts (as we thought that Dana would appreciate a break from serious culture) – Why are we doing this; it is going to be touristy and stupid.

Next best comment from Dana whilst shopping for London souvenirs after her father and I had both said she could have the bag and the jacket that she liked. – I feel greedy asking for both and I want to buy something from Paris (we bought her both)

Today was our day of the churches. We started off with St Paul’s Cathedral, with its over the top decoration, followed by the more austere Westminster Abbey.

At St Paul’s after a slow wander around the main floor listening to the audio commentary, we decided to ascend to the whispering gallery, then onwards and upwards to the two higher and outside galleries. To the golden gallery at the top was 528 steps, though I’m taking their word for as I lost count inside the first dozen.

From the stone gallery (the first outside), there are great views around London, including across the Thames to the Globe theatre and the Tate.

Obviously if there are 528 steps going up, then there must be the same coming down, which I think to were harder on the legs in the end.

Once back to the main level we descended even further to the crypts for a look around and some very nice morning tea. The cranberry orange cake was a definite winner and we’ll have to find a similar recipe for Dana to cook when we get back.

From St Paul’s it was a quick tube trip round to Westminster, where it was the busiest we’ve seen at road level with it being lunch time for the workers and the high tourist numbers with the Abbey, houses of Parliament and the Thames. There was a short queue to get into the Abbey, then a leisurely stroll around looking at the multitude of tombs and memorials. The lunch time service was taking place to add a sombre note to proceedings.

We took a break in the sun across the road from the Abbey enjoying the warmth and the passing masses.

To finish our day we headed across the Thames for a ride on the Eye. In hindsight we should have paid the extra for “fast track” queueing as after picking up our prepaid tickets it took about 45 minutes to get onto the eye. Once on though and rising the views across the town are worth it, seeing back to St Paul’s

and across the river to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey in the background

After the Eye we crossed the Thames on the Jubilee bridge to Charing Cross station and back home.

We are all struggling a bit with the length of the day here at the height of summer. Today sunrise was 4:45am and sunset will be at 9:22pm, a 16 and a half hour long day.

Twilight is about 45 minutes either side of those times, so it is light from about 4am through to after 10pm.

Only consolation is that we are past the solstice so the days are getting shorter. By the time we leave for home the days will be about 20 minutes less.

Sydney for comparison currently has sunrise about 7am and set just before 5pm for an almost 10 hour day. Even at the height of summer Sydney has rise at 5:45am and set at 8:05pm for a 14 hour day.

Today is the first day of using our 3 day London Pass. After a breakfast of vegemite toast, croissants and fresh strawberries we headed out on the tube for Tower Hill station and then a short walk to the Tower.

Bypassing the ticket queues with the pass makes getting in much faster :). Once inside the White Tower dominates the centre of the complex.

We started by doing the walk around the outside walls and towers. This finished near the crown jewels entry and with the lines really short (ie no queue) we decided to go straight in. The sheer number of gems in some of the crowns borders on them looking gaudy. The size of some of the silver and gold gilt tableware is amazing. There was a punch bowl about a metre across that can hold 144 bottles of wine. Coming out and the queue to get was certainly longer now.

After a quick bite to eat, we went through the White Tower exhibit. The suits of armour for both man and horse are impressive. The range of weapons on display from swords, through pikes to pistol and cannon is wide. In the old armoury was a 19″ cannon that fired shot that weighed 227kg each. Would have been amazing just watching it get loaded. After leaving the White Tower the queue for the jewels was even longer, we’ve been lucky a couple of times now with getting in early.

We left the Tower and headed for Tower Bridge.

Here we did the Bridge experience which starts with an elevator ride to the top, then a walk across the east side, with views along the river and across the city. There were short movies at either end about the design and building of it. We then headed down the south tower and off to the old steam engine rooms, where the engines are still in working order.

Walking along the south side of the Thames we stopped in at the London Crypts in the foundations of London Bridge. A fun mix of history and the macabre here. The horror walk went on a bit long, but its always good to hear Nerida screaming with the actors jumping out and Dana ducking the dangling the hanging heads.

We tried to do the Globe tour, but at this time of year it is only open in the mornings so they can prepare for evening shows. Instead we spent about an hour wandering the Tate Modern until Dana just got too weary to go on. A walk back across the Millennium bridge and onto the tube for home.

Nerida picked up an dress from Tufnel Park that she had been eyeing up on a few trips past the shop. A lovely vintage fabric and design.

Once again Dana has crashed at an early hour for her. All the walking we are doing and a slight bit of jet lag hanging on have defeated her normal night owl preference.

Plan for tomorrow is to do Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s cathedral, then depending on how long we’ve spent on those we will decide what to do next. The Eye is an option if the day turns out as nice as forecast.