Day 3 – The Tower of London and Posh Places
Tower of London
Another glorious cold, rainy, day but this time with some impressive wind gusts. We started with a guided tour of the Tower of London. The guides are Yeoman Warders, aka Beefeaters. They are not in the military but form a real ceremonial guard and one must have 20 years or more military experience to join them. Our guide had a great sense of humor and he kept us entertained and educated. The rain, cold, and wind got to be too much so we skipped some of the sites at the Tower. Admission is a bit pricey but worth it.
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| Not the stiffs at Buckingham Palace. These guys were clowning around a bit. |
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| A dragon made from spare parts in the armory. Watch out, it's The Burninator! |
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| Marker at the spot where public executions took place for Tower prisoners. These people were famous in their day. Now they are just dead. |
Paul’s Sandwich Shop
A sudden downpour drove us to a small restaurant. Just like Bill and his Kitchen, Paul isn’t a local. He’s part of a chain and he’s French. Sandwiches are pre-made and look appetizing but they are served cold and without any dressings or condiments. In other words, overpriced and pretentious French food. I didn’t have any beer because there’s no such thing as a good commercial French beer and if they served English beer they’d manage to screw it up somehow, probably by adding stinky cheese or snails to it.
Kensington Palace
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| This shrubbery is a disgrace! Where is Roger the Shrubber? |
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| Prince William is waving to Emma from the top right window |
Our next stop was Kensington Palace, one of several that the pampered royalty can choose from. IIRC, Kate and William live at this one. Admission is expensive so we just looked around the gardens, which were very nice. And used their toilet (a real one, we didn't go in the gardens). Kensington is famous for its Orangery tea room and we planned to take tea there. Unfortunately, the tea room was under renovation. Pretty much everything is under renovation in England. Big Ben can’t be seen behind its scaffolds.
Tea at Candella
Trip Advisor suggested Candella in Kensington for afternoon tea. It was a tiny shop but the proprietors were very pleasant. Apparently not many Americans stumble in for their first real English tea experience because the owner and waiter were both shocked that we placed ourselves in their hands for recommendations. The tea and scones were good but for me the experience was somewhat marred by a young Arabic man who either fancies himself a mystic/philosopher/football pundit or he was simply stoned and babbling about stuff he’d picked up from the Internet. Emma thought he was funny, I wanted to smack him in the gob.
Never Turn Your Back On The Ripper
We ended back in Tower Hill, seeking a Jack the Ripper Tour. We fortified ourselves first at a pub. It appeared to be locally owned at first glance but was actually part of a large national chain. Beer snobs hate the chain but I thought the beer variety was good (although not local). My favorite was the Sharp’s Doom Bar. Ironically, what they touted as “craft” beer were imported American beers like Goose IPA.
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| Cathy and Emma drink liquid courage before the Ripper Walk. |
Our Ripper tour started at 6:40pm so we opted to wait for dinner. The tour we chose is led by a Yeoman Warder from the Tower of London (the guide varies, it’s not the same guy all the time). We got there a bit early so we chatted him up a bit and he regaled us with tales of military service and family dysfunctions. Very affable, entertaining guy. The tour, not so much. Unfortunately, almost all of the Ripper’s historic East End has been replaced by new buildings and the streets are clogged with BMW’s and scooters delivering takeaway food. It was quite difficult to properly host the theater of the mind. Our guide’s tales were detailed. Really, really detailed. To the tune of 2.5 hours. We more than got our 8 pounds worth but the tour could easily have been cut in half (no pun intended). It did get scary at one point, though. The East End that isn’t new buildings is not pleasant or pretty. The people aren’t friendly and the guide’s warnings to be careful around strangers seemed legit. One could properly picture Jack out on his business in that section of the tour. Then it started raining. Cold, hard rain.
Which is why we ran straight back to the pub for dinner and more Doom Bars. The menu may be corporate but the food was good and quickly prepared. Exactly what we needed on a cold, rainy night.
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