(written by Devri on June 22)
Morning arrived earlier than everyone wanted, mostly because the sun is rising REALLY early here, but also because we’re all pretty tired. We were slow moving, and we ended up leaving the apartment 15 minutes past where we meant to leave, and we ended up missing our timed window to the Tower of London due to traffic. Thankfully, they didn’t care or seem to notice, and we got to explore the Tower of London. We started with the gift shop to pick up our guide books, and Rachel and Gabe found an interesting book of stories in the shop while we were waiting in line, so we got that as well.
After picking up the guidebooks and talking ourselves out of all the cool things in the shop, we found the restrooms, and then headed over to see the Crown Jewels. We hit the line just right since we didn’t really have to wait in line, and there was a massive queue to see them every time we passed it the rest of the day. Sometimes, it was a bit of a madhouse in there, due to the school group children, but overall, the place wasn’t crowded, especially not compared to places in Italy and Paris.
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| Entrance to the Crown Jewels Vault-no photos were allowed inside |
It was fun to see the Crown Jewels and learn more about some of the symbolism involved in the coronations of the royals. We enjoyed seeing the shiny gems and the golden trumpets, orbs, staffs, and even tableware associated with it all. It was interesting to note that the Crown Jewels only date back to the 1600s because the originals were destroyed following the overthrowing of the monarchy during the civil war. It was such a pity because the monarchy quickly got reinstated, and they had to make new ones. The displays also included little short films from King Charles’s coronation a couple of years ago.
After the Crown Jewels, we made our way counter-clockwise around the grounds and ending in the central White Tower. We saw the monument to all the people who lost their heads there, saw graffiti from prisoners kept there, visited the Bloody Tower, walked the walls, and pretended to enlist as archers to protect the Tower and everything inside.
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| View of the Tower Bridge from inside the Tower of London |
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| Tower Hill Execution Memorial, honoring all those who were executed near this spot on the Tower Green |
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| Graffiti inside Beauchamp Tower |
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| Beauchamp Tower |
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| The Bloody Tower |
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| The White Tower (top of photo) |
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| Guard post at the Tower of London |
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| Rachel might not be the best choice of guard |
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| Tower Rookery-home to the famous Tower Ravens |
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| Another view of the Tower Bridge |
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| Exploring the Tower walls |
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| More Grafitti in another tower |
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| Another Spiral Staircase |
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| Tower Bridge from the Tower of London outer wall |
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| Crossbow |
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| Helmet for the brave Tower guards of yore |
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| Invaders would have trembled seeing this lot |
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| Model of how the Tower of London was in its zenith |
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| Part of the old Roman wall |
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| All of us in front of the Tower Bridge |
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| Armor display inside the White Tower |
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| Dragon inside the White Tower |
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| Old measurements: pint, gallon, peck, and bushel |
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| Taking advantage of place to sit |
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| Medieval restraining devices |
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| A game to train to be a knight |
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| A peak at a very old well or foundation |
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| If these old walls could talk... |
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| White Tower gift shop |
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| Ravens, the mascot of the Tower of London, in plush form |
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| The White Tower |
After exploring everything we wanted to see (well, almost. I did want to see the palace quarters all furnished to be like it used to be), we headed to go get food from the food trucks just outside the gates (most of us opted for tacos while Gabe got a ham and cheese crepe), we took a taxi to London’s West End to see Hamilton.
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| Another taxi ride through London |
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| Victoria Palace Theater on the West End |
We had to get in a big line to get in, and after we finally got to our seats, we didn’t dare run to the bathroom since it was almost showtime. Hamilton is playing in the Victoria Palace Theater, and it was beautiful! Our seats were in the very front of the first tier (the Royal Circle), and we had a perfect view of everything that was happening onstage.
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| Inside the Victoria Palace Theater with the Hamilton set |
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| Panoramic of the Theater interior |
As for the show, it was INCREDIBLE! It was so good! I looked over at the kids periodically, and they were all engaged in what was going on, and I even saw lots of smiles on Michael’s face throughout. It was a little hard to let go of the things that the original cast did in their recording on Disney Plus, but once we got past some of those things, we absolutely loved it. For example, Aaron Burr was played by a white or Latino guy, and Hamilton was played by a black guy. That threw us off the most initially, and while the guy who played Washington did a great job, we all still loved Christopher Jackson from the original cast much better. The guy that played the King was so funny and added a few more things that we absolutely loved. We also noticed that when Hamilton gets the letter from Laurens’ father, informing him about Laurens’ death after the war was all over, above Hamilton and Eliza, it shows Lafayette and Mulligan also receiving the news, which added a whole new layer to that tragedy.
I felt bad about the swearing that we usually carefully edit out, as well as the whole scene with Mrs. Reynolds’s, but overall it was just a delight. It was fun celebrating our victory over Britain in Great Britain, and feeling pride and gratitude for our Founding Fathers.
After the show, we planned to go see a few things in the city, and our boys protested. I was still fighting the cold, so I just said, “I don’t care; if they don’t want to see anything else in London, they can go back to the apartment.” We walked over to the Victoria Underground Station and all headed to King’s Cross.
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| Inside the crowded Tube |
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| We didn't know Aunt Jenny was a famous artist! |
After unsuccessfully finding something Michael wanted to eat in the convenience shops at the station, I sent him with my credit card, the apartment keys, and Gabe, along with specific instructions, back to our apartment, and Brian, Rachel and I got back on the underground to go check out Hyde Park, Grosvenor Square, and Mayfair. We used all three of the credit cards I brought from home to tap on and tap off since there were only three of us.
I should note that Brian and I felt good about letting the boys walk home because we knew it was incredibly safe. Somehow, once past the train station, there was hardly any traffic or people. Nothing sketchy or shady. We knew that they would be just fine during the 10 minute walk from Kings Cross to our apartment, and even getting food at the Co-op by the apartment. Michael set alarms about when to give Gabe his sleep medicine and when to have Gabe go to bed. Things went smoothly, and Michael was great about communicating that they made it back safely.
Back to Brian, Rachel, and I. We took the Picadilly line to Hyde Park Corner station, got off, and walked to Grosvenor Square. It was a key part of many books that I read as it once was THE place to live. The absolute upper crust lived there, and I wanted to see it. So, we walked around the Square, which was under construction, and I wondered how many of the town homes surrounding the square were actually there in the regency area.
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| The Wellington Monument (statue of Achilles) in Hyde Park, 1822 |
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| Visitor V by David Breuer-Weil, Park Lane, London |
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| President Ronald Reagan Statue in Grosvenor Square |
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| Townhouse in Mayfair near Grosvenor Square |
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| We're so famous |
After my walk, we wandered a few blocks over to where an old church had been converted to a food court of sorts. We went to the upper level and ordered Thai Food, and then ventured up another level to an outdoor patio to eat it. Inside the old church, it was really hot and stuffy, but on the terrace, it was really pleasant.
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| Entrance to Mercato Mayfair (The Neoclassical Facade) |
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| Interior of Mercato Mayfair, formerly St. Mark's Church |
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| Eating on the Rooftop of Mercato Mayfair |
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| A funny card we found at the Mercato Mayfair |
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| Another Townhome in Mayfair |
After dinner, we wandered back towards Hyde Park, finding a shop with a roller luggage for us to buy (we wanted to have a little more wiggle room for getting our stuff home, now that we just had the final cruise portion remaining of our trip). Rachel rolled it all the way through Hyde Park and back home for us. We felt quite accomplished that we found luggage!
Speaking of Hyde Park, we went back to it after getting the luggage. We saw the Marble Arch, and Speaker’s Corner where so many have stood and preached, including the early missionaries from our Church to Great Britain. It was cool being there! We wandered over to the Serpentine and Rachel and I enjoyed seeing the ducks, geese, and swans that a man was illegally feeding.
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| A Boxing Match near the Marble Arch, Hyde Park |
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| Marble Arch, Hyde Park |
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| Speaker's Corner, Hyde Park |
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| For Chelsea |
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| Hyde Park |
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| Hyde Park |
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| Cavalry of the Empire Memorial, Hyde Park |
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| The Serpentine, Hyde Park |
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| The Serpentine, Hyde Park |
Finally, we wandered back to the underground station and took the Tube back to Kings Cross and walked back to our apartment.
It was after 10 by then, and so we all headed for bed. I started a load of laundry, and then Brian and I killed some time while we waited for it to go in the dryer. Our apartment was super hot. The AC only worked in our room, and we were on level4 (which we’d call floor 5 in the U.S.). We were really hot and sweaty, so we both ended up stepping into a cold shower for our knees and down before bed. We got the laundry switched and then went to bed.
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