Day 19: London, United Kingdom

June 22, 2013 (Happy Birthday, Tina!)

We were much more rested and ready to explore today! We started after breakfast by heading over to London Tower. Based on the name I expected it to be an old tower that you could climb to see the city. It wasn't. It was a historic castle complex. The White Tower which gives the whole castle its name was first built in the late 11th century. As different Kings and years passed it increased in size. Walls, towers, and even a moat was added through the years. In the past the Tower has served as the royal residence, a prison, a record hall, an armory, the location of the kingdom's exotic animals, and the Royal Mint. Currently it is basically a museum of historical artifacts. However, it does still hold something of great worth and use to the United Kingdom: the crown jewels!

A "Giant" set of armor and a "dwarf" set (actually for a 6'8" man and a child)

The White Tower

As part of our visit we got to see the crown jewels of the country including all the jewels used in the coronation ceremony: the Coronation Spoon, Sovereign's Sceptre, Sovereign's Orb, and the Imperial State Crown. (We were not allowed to take pictures, so click on the words to see an internet picture) The Sceptre has a huge diamond (530 carots) in it known as the First Star of Africa. That diamond is the largest flawless cut diamond in the world! It was cut from the Cullinan Diamond which was the largest diamond ever to be found (over 3,000 carots!). That diamond was given to King Edward VII by South Africa in 1907. The second largest piece of that diamond is on the Imperial Crown and honestly looks a little gaudy for my taste. The other 5 pieces of that original Cullinan Diamond (it was cut into 7 pieces) are now a necklace, ring, and 3 brooches for the Queen. The tour guide told us that one of the broaches cost 78 million pounds ($120 million)! The tour guide also said that one of the crowns (there were several) in the collection could wipe out half of India's poverty! The jewels were absolutely crazy to see! They had most of the jewels in a set of sequential cases and they had flat escalators that ran along the front and back of the cases for you to stand on as it moved you through to look at the jewels. We're not sure why they had escalators only there. My guess is that it decreased congestion and the chances of you getting a picture of them. Behind the escalator, there was a platform in which you could read about each object. Clayton and I circled back around and rode the escalators through about 4 times so we could look at the jewels. One time we went on separate sides so we could duck down and the other could see the reflection of the crown on our own head so that to the other person we looked as though we were being crowned.

After the crown jewels, we walked around the castle complex and saw the tower where they were known to torture people and we also saw some of the 16th and 17th century torture devices. We were able to walk around the tops of the castle walls and could see the famous Tower bridge of London.

Tower Bridge

With Tower Bridge from the Castle Wall

Once we finished exploring the Tower, we headed through the Tube (Subway) to St. Paul's Cathedral. However, it was closed to visitors due to come event. We are hoping to try to go back when we return from Bath on Wednesday. Although there are plenty of tourist traps and shops in London, the hours of operation aren't very convenient for seeing several things in a day. Basically everything only operates from 10-5 with the exception of the London Eye. So it isn't very feasible to try to do two things that take up a lot of time in the same day when you throw in eating and travel time. So we began to mosey back towards our hostel after we couldn't see the cathedral. We stopped in a shop to get some souvenirs and ate at Garfunkel's which had the most American feel yet. Clayton had Carbonara again, but I had BBQ chicken covered in cheese and bacon with mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. It was awesome! We really miss American food. It was good to have some sides other than fries (or as they say chips) with a meal. It seems like that is the only side they serve.

Dome on the back of St. Paul's Cathedral

Front of St. Paul's Cathedral

After our early dinner/late lunch we went back to the hostel and chilled for a little while. We went down to the lobby/bar and watched the Brazil vs. Italy soccer game and are now going to bed. We are excited to head to Bath tomorrow!