London - Day 4

Sunday night had been much quieter than the previous two nights, and I slept right through til 5am. We got up, oohed and aahed at our nice, soft, smooth hair, and headed the block over to our horrible but free breakfast.

By now, I'd become more accustomed to the coffee, Harold had switched to tea, and Cairo stuck to orange juice. I was surprised they were still eating the nasty, cooked food. I was quite happy with granola and toast.

Huge black & white photo of the Royal
 family along the Thames

Monday morning in Covent Gardens is an entirely different experience from the quiet weekend mornings. People are all over, rushing into shops to pick up coffee and tea on their mad dash into work.

We went over to the electronics store to buy another fuse, even though we no longer needed a converter. Our phones, tablets, and netbook all handle the conversion on their own, and the hair tools were now British, so we'd just need adaptors to change the prongs in France and Italy. No longer would we have to worry about converting the actual voltage.

On the Millenium bridge, looking back north to St Paul's

I was starting to feel a little stress at how much we still had to see, and how little time we had left in London. We were leaving early Wednesday morning, so we had two days left, and a ton of places to go. So today the pressure was on.

Bankside / Southwark

We took the tube up to Blackfriars station, where we could walk across the Millenium bridge. We were excited to come out of the station to see the huge black and white photo of the Royal family we had seen during the televised Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant. It was quite impressively large and in such a perfect spot that it was easily viewable from all around.

Looking east up the Thames to London and Tower bridges.

The Millenium bridge is a foot bridge that connects Bankside to the city. The bridge itself isn't all that exciting, but it is a beautiful vantage point to take photos of the surrounding landmarks. It also goes right over to the Tate Modern Art Gallery. 

I love modern art, and this is one of the best in the world, but we were pressed for time, Cairo hates modern art, and Harold was noncommittal on it. I figured we'd do this on our next trip to London, when I could spend hours browsing through it all, without a bored 17 year old tagging along.

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

Once on the south side of the Thames, we decided to stroll up along the Bankside Riverwalk. This was a great walk through and past many interesting and historical locations, with nice views of the City of London and St Paul's Cathedral on the opposite shore.

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre - The original theatre that housed Shakespeare's plays, was destroyed by fire in 1613, rebuilt in 1614, and then demolished in 1644. This theatre was rebuilt near the site of the original, using only those tools authentic to the period. It continues to put on the works of William Shakespeare.

Bear Gardens - the site of Bankside's bear-baiting arena. In 1613 the bear pit was replaced by the Hope Theatre after the nearby Globe Theatre had burned down. The owner, Philip Henslowe, was a business rival of the Globe owners. Even though it was the most successful of the Bankside theatres, it closed down three years later to resume the more profitable business of bear-baiting. The Hope was demolished in 1656, to be replaced by the Davies Amphitheatre, also used for bear baiting. It wasn't until 1835 that bear-baiting and bull-baiting were both banned.

Bishop of Winchester's medieval palace

Bishop of Winchester's medieval palace - 12th century palace and London house of the Bishops of Winchester from 1109 to 1626. Only the foundations, the west wall and 14th-century rose window still stand.  

Clink Debtors' Prison - Until sometime in the 1800's, debtors were jailed till their debts were paid. This is where the word 'clink', meaning prison, came from. It is believed, the clink may have been derived from the sound of the prison's doors being bolted, or the clinking chains the prisoners wore. The prison was burned down during the Gordon Riots in 1780.  

The Golden Hinde replica
at St Mary Overy Dock

The Clink Liberty - As the liberty lay outside the jurisdiction of the City of London, and that of the county of Surrey, activities such as prostitution, animal baiting, and theatres were allowed here.

St Mary Overy Dock - This dock is where the Golden Hinde, a replica, built in 1973 sits. It is still seaworthy, having travelled nearly 150,000 miles, including around the world in 1979. The original, launched in 1577, first named the Pelican, was the flagship of a fleet with 4 others, under Sir Francis Drake's control. On her first voyage, she was renamed 'The Golden Hinde'. The ship survived for 100 years. 

Southwark Cathedral, from the front

Southwark Cathedral, from the side

Southwark Cathedral - the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Southwark has been a Christian place of worship for over 1,000 years but a cathedral only since 1905.

The George Inn - a medieval pub, the only surviving galleried London coaching inn, was rebuilt in 1676 after a fire destroyed most of Southwark. William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens both visited the George, and Dickens referred to it in Little Dorrit. 

London Bridge - the first London Bridge was built by the Roman founders of London. A number of timber bridges replaced it, then came a 600 year old medieval structure, a 19th century stone-arched bridge, and finally, the current bridge, built in 1973, of concrete and steel. 

Walking under the bridge

In 1968, the previous bridge was sold to an American, from Missouri US $2.46 Million. He has since denied the rumour that he mistakenly thought he was buying the more impressive Tower Bridge. 

HMS Belfast

The bridge was reconstructed at Lake Havasu City, Arizona, over the Bridgewater Channel canal that leads from Lake Havasu to Thomson Bay, and is now part of an English style theme park.



HMS Belfast - a museum ship, originally a Royal Navy light cruiser, permanently moored in London on the Thames and operated by the Imperial War Museum.

Old operating theatre of St Thomas's Hospital - a museum of surgical history and one of the oldest surviving operating theatres. 


The Tabard - the place owned by Harry Bailey, the host in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.

The Tower of London

The Tower Bridge with the Olympic symbol

Tower Bridge - sometimes mistakenly referred to as London Bridge, is named for the Tower of London which sits on the banks beside it. It is made up of two towers tied together at the upper level by two walkways. For £8, you can climb up to the walkway where you get a birds-eye view of the river and surrounding area. Originally painted a mid greenish-blue, it was repainted red, white and blue for Queen Elizabeth II's silver jubilee in 1977. 

Tower of London, from outside

Tower of London - This was just as I had remembered it as a child. Yeoman Warders take you on spirited tours of the different sections, and actors involve you in the history of the tower, or you can now take an audio tour of the areas on your own. 

We stayed about 2 hours and managed to see everything, even the Crown Jewels, which I had not seen when I was here as a kid, due to huge summer line-ups. Visiting the tower was well worth the time, even though the hordes of tourists really started to get to me. Stopping so I wouldn't get in someone's picture, another woman rudely demanded I move on since I was holding up their picture. I wanted to push her over into the moat, but I resisted the urge.

One of the actors, playing a judge

Founded in 1066, as part of the Norman Conquest of England, the White Tower, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078. It is made up of several buildings set within two rings of defensive walls and a moat. There were several phases of expansion, mainly under Kings Richard the Lionheart, Henry III, and Edward I in the 12th and 13th centuries. The general layout has mostly stayed the same since then. 

Inside the Tower walls

Used as a prison since 1100, it's peak period was during the 16th and 17th centuries, when it was used to imprison high status prisoners in a manner they would have lived outside the tower. Before she became the Queen, Elizabeth I was held here by decree of her sister, Queen Mary I. Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey were both held and executed here.

We left the tower, and realized we had once again forgotten lunch. We found another sandwich place called Eat. that was very similar to Pret A Manger.  Harold had the Thai Chicken, Cairo had the Brie, Tomato & Basil, and I had the Smoked Chicken, Tomato & Pesto Bloomer. 

British Museum

After our lunch break, our feet were tired, but we still had to get to the British Museum. I'm not big on museums, I prefer art galleries, but Harold and Cairo enjoy them, and this is an important one, and did I mention that it is free?

The museum is huge, and we had limited time, so we decided to visit the most important exhibits, as outlined in my book:

The Reading Room - This is where the temporary exhibits are shown. The current exhibit was on the history of the horse in art, and showed pieces from the ancient to modern and included depictions of horses in stone reliefs, gold and clay models, horse tack, paintings by George Stubbs, and trophies and rosettes. We found it rather boring and rushed through it.

Elgin Marbles east pediment

The Elgin Marbles - These sculptures were taken from the Greek Parthenon by Lord Elgin in 1805, and the Greek government has been fighting to have them returned ever since.

The Rosetta Stone - This is an ancient text engraved on a tablet in hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek, that celebrates the virtues of the 13 year old pharaoh Ptolemy V, who lived in 196 BC. It was found in 1799 by Napoleon's troops and handed over to the British Army as part of the Alexandria Treaty of 1802, to be deciphered in 1822.

Nereid Monument

Statues of the Nereid Monument - 4th century BC Lykian Tomb from southwest Turkey, acquired by the museum in 1816 with the Elgin Marbles.

Treasures of Sutton Hoo - Unfortunately, this area was under renovation, so we were unable to see it. Sutton Hoo was a burial ground of the early Anglo-Saxons. Before excavation in 1939, it had been believed the arts & crafts of England's Dark Ages were simplistic and inferior, but they found well designed musical instruments, glassware, and armour.

Horse from Mausoleum at Halikarnassos 

Mausoleum of Halicarnassus - Remains of one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. Ionian Greek tomb built for King Maussollos, from whose name the word mausoleum is derived. The tomb went undisturbed from 351BC to medieval times, when it was damaged by earthquake, then in 1494 Crusaders users the stones to fortify a castle. In 1846, sections of the frieze were found at the castle and given to the British Museum. Excavations then found the horse sculpture and a series of lounging figures.

Asia Gallery - Meditating Buddhas and the Dancing Shiva (a bronze sculpture of Shiva), the Great Stupa (carved in India in the 3rd century BC) looks much like the Elgin Marbles.

Enlightenment Gallery - a neoclassical interior hall lined with mahogany bookshelves stocked with rare books and display cases showing over 5,000 items of an eclectic 18th century Enlightenment scholar.

Lindow Man, aka Bog Man, aka Pete Marsh

Lindow Man - Also called the "Bog Man" and "Pete Marsh"). Found in 1984, this leathery cadaver had been preserved in a peat bog in Cheshire for nearly 2,000 years. He had been struck on the head, garroted, and knifed, then put head first into the bog. It is believed he was killed as part of a sacrificial ritual.

Egyptian Rooms - Death and the afterlife, filled with coffins, sarcophagi, funerary objects, and mummies.

Now thoroughly exhausted, we walked back down to our hotel, to have a rest before dinner.



Later we took a trip downstairs to a 2 for 1 pizza and pasta place. It was cheap and not very good, but it was close.

Next to us sat a group of 2 men and 1 woman, who spent the entire time arguing over religion vs. science. I was quite proud of the Atheist's arguments and patience as his companion heaped on one insult after another. I wondered why he bothered to even continue the conversation, to be honest.