Another Day in London

June 9, 2013

It’s Sunday and finding an early rising restaurant for breakfast was a bit of a challenge.  Our goal was to grab an early meal, catch the underground and shoot out to the Tower of London and then be back in time for a river dinner cruise.  We finally got into a little place and we both had strawberry pancakes with strawberry syrup and vanilla ice cream on top!  Whoa!  It was great.  I will bring this recipe back to the States!

We wandered to a subway station and walked down and immediately onto a

Tower of London

waiting train, made one stop and arrived at the Tower in about 10 minutes.  This is a much better way to get around the city than the tour busses.  I am sure we could have figured out the city bus routes; however, it wouldn’t have been as fast and convenient as the “Tube.”

We assumed that the Tower opened at 9:00 but found out that they began letting folks in at 10:00.  We were able to purchase our tickets early and then enjoyed a cup of Starbucks and a cinnamon roll while we waited.  I needed  a bit more sugar to complete my ultimate sugar high!

Waterloo Block, home for the Crown Jewels

The Tower is magnificent.  We had time to tour the hall where the crown jewels are housed and, as you can imagine, they were over the top.  Pictures were not allowed so I can’t show them, and I am not sure I have the vocabulary to describe them.  How about really neat!  We next wandered through the White Castle, the oldest structure in the Tower.  It is the place where most of the infamous happenings like tortures, beheadings, and confinements occurred.  It also served as an armory for many years.  The displays of cannons, swords, body armor, and the like were excellent and most interesting.

White Tower

  The Tower of London is definitely a “must see” sight when visiting London.

We caught the tube back to Embankment station which is located right next to the Thames River and the dock where we joined our group for a wonderful dinner cruise on the river.  The cruise boat was huge and our meal was enhanced by a live jazz quartet.  We were served a smoked salmon hors d’oeuvres, specially prepared chicken breasts and vegetables, and a dark chocolate brownie (the name brownie doesn’t do it justice).  All of this was accompanied with wine.  It was a luxurious meal served as we passed stately building, bridges, and dwellings. 

A small portion of Paraliment from the River Thames

The Globe Theater from the River Thames

After lunch, we wandered back to our room where we both promptly fell asleep.  We had been running nonstop ever since we started this trip and a bit of down time was in order.  In the evening I discovered that the hotel provided a free washer and dryer so I took our dirty duds and refreshed them.  I finished that project at about 8:00 and since we hadn’t had evening nourishment, we wandered down to the Boyd’s to get something light to eat, only to find that they serve no food except bar food on Sunday evenings so I got a plate with a couple of pieces of cheese and some crackers along with a lemon tart and a martini.  Janine had a lemon tart and coffee.  The final bill was 35.00 pounds or about 50 bucks.  Ugh.  It was then back to the room and early to bed.