Tower of London and Tea

My last day in London involved a lot of walking. One thing I have come to realize about my visit is that my favorite experiences were not the tourist hot spots (I hate tourists, even though I am one of them, I guess I just don’t like inconsiderate ones, and there are a lot of those). Eric was able to take the day off. After eating breakfast while listening to last year’s spring choir concert, we rode the bus to Trafalgar square. We walked through St. James’ park to Buckingham Palace. Not that impressive. I mean it’s just a building. There were so many people, so many stupid people (ie a crowd walked across the crosswalk when an ambulance needed to get through). I snapped a picture of the palace, and we continued towards the Thames. There was a parade of guards on the way. I don’t know why people are so obsessed with the guards with the big fuzzy hats. They are not going to smile because they are being paid not to smile. We walked along the south shore of the River Thames. We were going to go to the Tate modern, but I wanted to have time to see the Tower of London, so we stopped in front of the Tate and ate our packed lunches.

We continued to walk (it was quite a ways) and right before the tower bridge there is a hotel called “The St. Olaf House” so of course we had to get a picture. The long walk was a really great way to just hang out with Eric, good conversations. The Tower Bridge is quite impressive, one of the signature landmarks. Once we crossed the bridge and went to the Tower, it was such a long line to wait in (about 10 min.). We were back in the land of the tourists. One lady was even snapping pictures of the Tower Gift Shop. So we started joking about how that is truly the reason to come to the Tower, the wonderful gift shop. The actual tower was somewhat interesting, but the stuff I was really interested (King Henry VIII and Co.) was rarely mentioned. I think that was because they didn’t keep solid records of what happened where in the Tower (prison cells, executions, bedchambers, etc.) Not once did they mention St. Thomas More. I was really hoping he would have shown up. I’m such a Tudors fan so I was a little disappointed when there wasn’t much info about them.

Both Eric and I were ready to go, we didn’t bother to wait in line to see the crown jewels. We already were late for tea time with one of his parishioners. Owen, Eric, and I went to Lucy’s house for tea. Francesca was another parishioner who was there. Unfortunately Lucy had three cats so both Owen and Eric’s allergies were flaring up. Lucy was very animated. She had a stroke the last year and was unconscious for a month. What an amazing recovery. The only signs of the stroke are that she has pain in her knee, one of the legs drags more, and she can’t recall certain words. She would get flustered when she couldn’t remember words, especially because she was an actress years ago. Her flat was very packed with books, pictures, and collectibles. It was a very lovely tea time, though she put milk in my tea. Doesn’t bother me, it’s just that the milk tastes gross in tea. She also had a bowl of figs she wanted us all to eat. Eric and I weren’t too crazy about the figs, but she kept on insisting that we eat them. So I ended up eating two, but then she insisted that we take them with us as we headed out the door. Owen will have to figure out what to do with them (he’s basically a culinary genius).

For dinner Eric and I went and got fish and chips take out. It was incredibly greasy, but it wasn’t bad. I think I still prefer halibut over cod though. They put vinegar and salt on them, but it wasn’t nearly as strong in flavor as I was afraid it would be. They also don’t use tartar sauce, but we still did the American thing and pulled the ketchup out of the refrigerator. After dinner we continued listening to choir music and had a good conversation. Then I packed up my stuff and watched the news for the weather. Owen came home and the three of us had some tea before heading up to bed.

I wasn't able to sleep at all because I was so worried my alarm wouldn't go off in time. So I only had an hour or two of sleep when I got up and left the house by 4:10 to walk to the Camden Road bus stop and then get off at Paddington Station to take the fast train to Heathrow.