England, Wales, Scotland Adventure Begins

Tower Hotel
London, UK

Yesterday the eight people that didn't take the pre-trip arrived throughout the day.  Bill and I decided to walk next door and tour the Tower Museum.  We were so glad that we didn't have anything extra planned.

The Tower of London is over 1,000 years old and besides being a royal palace, it is the castle that protects the Crown Jewels and served as a fortress and is probably known best as a prison. Many a queen, royal subject and criminal were beheaded here. For more details on this, check into King Henry VIII.  The ravens of history still live in the castle.  

We ended up spending 5 hours in the Tower and didn't see everything.  There were many spiral narrow staircases.  The White Tower held the armory and had a sign outside that said there were 204 steps in it. We were so glad the temps were in the low 70's and the sun was shining.  There is no ac in the buildings.

We had a Yeoman Warder guide who was great.  He told us about all the beheading that happened.   

We saw the crown jewels in a building.  You weren't allowed photos but it's unbelievable.  I will never forget all the items that we saw in that building.   Besides all the jewels and gold on the crowns there was so much else to see.  One punch bowl was gold and three feet wide.  

Bloody Tower had Sir Walter Raleigh's "prison apartment".  We visited the mint and the Fusilier Museum.  We skipped the zoo as we needed to get back for the welcome dinner.

The welcome dinner was great and we had a beautiful view of the harbor.  There are 28 people on the tour.  Anita is our program directer and she's very knowledgeable but sounds like a lot of fun.

Today we had a "blue tour guide" accompany Anita.  These guides have a special license.  Stewart was great and there were many laughs. 

We went to Buckingham Palace today.  They only have tours inside for a few weeks out of the year, but tickets are hard to come by.  When we saw the lines, we were happy we weren't in them.

We made another stop in Trafalgar Square for a restroom and coffee stop.  Restrooms are free if you are a paying customer.

Our next stop was St. Paul's Cathedral where the last royal wedding was held.  The dome is the second largest.  We were going to tour the church and then changed our mind and took the tube to the British Museum.  In London, you pay to tour a church but all museums and art galleries are free.  You can visit the church during a service without paying.  

As we were walking up to the door, everyone was coming out the entrance and exit doors.  It seems the fire alarm went off and everyone had to evacuate.  We waited a while and then we were allowed to enter.

I wanted to see the Rosetta Stone.  We viewed the Egyptian display which we enjoyed.  I can't believe how much we've forgotten since our visit to Egypt.  

There was also a huge Parthenon exhibit.  There was much more here, than when we visited Greece.  It would take you a week or longer to see all the floors.

Had to change lines in the tube but arrived back with no problems.  Can you believe the tube station came out at Wetherspoons, our favorite pub?  No point in going directly back to the hotel until we stopped for dinner an a pint.  Tonight the special was 8 oz steak and a beer for  $7.99.

Tomorrow we leave London and our first stop will be Oxford.

Turtle Safely......