Sunday was kind of not what we expected at all. We woke up late. Very late.We didn't set an alarm. We honestly didn't think that we would need one. In our defense, we did debate if we'd need one. Nope, we slept very late missing our half day tour that's included in the trip. Whoops. Luckily it's not one we paid for. We were mad we were up too late to try and make it to church somewhere, since we didn't have a tour anymore. So we just didn't do a lot that morning. We just didn't know what to do cause our plans were ruined. We had missed breakfast at the hotel as well. Missed everything. We decided that we had better get up and get moving.
The day before we had seen a tube stop that went right to King's Cross Train Station. They place were they have platform 9 3/4 set up. It's not actually in where the train platforms are, cause then you'd have to pay for a train ticket. So they just have it right there outside the ticket entrance. There is a store with all sorts of goodies too. They have a roped off line that you stand in to get a picture there. So yes, I made Adam stand in a 45 minute line to get a picture with me here. Lame they don't put an owl in the cage unless you order a print, but we took our own pics happily anyway. There are workers from the store there to help take pics, and to throw the scarf up in the air to make it look like you are running through the wall. Super fun. They let you choose whichever scarf you want. I debated between Gryffindor cause it's classic, and Ravenclaw cause that's where I'd choose for myself. Adam thought it was fun to choose Slytherin and Lord V's wand.
Some pics from the store. I thought it was so super cool. I had no idea how much cooler the Harry Potter sets would be, but for a store it was kinda amazing. I'd totally want to work there. ;)
Oh ya know, choosing a wand.
After we played a bit and bought me a hoodie, we headed back to our sight seeing. We headed next to St Paul's Cathedral. This building was amazing. They don't let you take pics inside, and we had taken some so we stopped after we knew. You could go downstairs and view some of the tombs under the building, but I passed on that one. Kinda creeps me out. Upon seeing the ones out and about upstairs, as fascinating as it was, we would have rather gone to see some other sites. Not something we wanted to spend money on. Maybe next time, but the building was so worth it.
Jumping on a double decker to find our way over to our next stop. Riding up top is fun. It just was trickier to make sure that we knew where we were going. We had to get a pick to show that we did ride them.
We went over next to the Tower of London. We kinda went here not really knowing a lot about it, just hearing that we needed to go there. We were so pleasantly surprised. It was one of our favorite places that we went to. I think this kind of history, historical sites, is so much more my thing than museums. I love to see where stuff actually happened and stand in places people went.
Our guide was so great! He was making everyone laugh so much. He is one of the Queen's Yeoman Wardens, or nicknamed the "Beef-eaters". They are in charge of guarding prisoners, though none are there now, and keeping an eye on the crown jewels. To become one you had to have served at least for 22 years in their military service and have earned some kind of medal award during service, and then picked by the queen to do this job. They then live at the Tower of London with like 40 others and their families and tour and guard. Their whole family lives there. So he joked that they always knew where their teenagers were cause come ten the doors (the gates of the castle) lock up and don't open for anything until morning. Adam says it's kinda sad that they just seem like glorified tour guides now. They kinda were, but proud of it. They took us into this little chapel that is actually in the picture being him. It was so amazing, and had so much history. A lot of English royalty were married, coordinated, and buried there. The Warden's families are the only ones married there now, besides royalty. The tower of London is still considered a royal palace and it was the palace where all royalty lived until others were built.
The original iron gates are still there.
We never got a chance to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham palace cause they only do it every other day, and we always had something going. We saw it at the tower of London. And we also saw the guards walk the password down to the Warden at the gates. The Warden then gives it to the other palaces to use throughout the day. It's a new one everyday. They also have some ceremony they still do at midnight where they change the prisoner keys, even though there are no prisoners kept there anymore. Just a tradition the guards still do. Super interesting, I loved it.
If you get in the way, they yell, "Make way for the Queen's guard!"
This is the most inner part of the castle where the royals lived on the forth level. Guests stayed on the third level, Servants on the second level, and the prisoners down in the dungeons. To get on the lupper levels there are super narrow staircases where the towers are.
narrow hallways
This is where the Wardens families live.
This story was so sad. About two princes that were killed young and found years later in a trunk under some stairs. The whole place was full or history and drama and murder, and beheading. I would have hated to live back then.
The London bridge is right by the Tower of London.
The guards very heavy helmets
This is a view of a model of the whole castle.
The crown jewels are held here. Well the crown that was Queen Elizabeth's when she had her coronation. It's got it's own room, with it's own guard. The other crowns of past royals are held in the center of the room in display cases. You get on a slowly moving floor (like the ones in airports) that takes you by them. Which makes sense that they'd show them to you, but would be hard to see of people gathered around them forever. There are all sorts of gold platters and dishes, vases, etc that you can see too. Those were harder cause so many people just gather to look at them.
Now the center building is a museum. This is the beheading block that so many royals died by. Mostly King Henry the 8th's wives. There is a hill nearby where they beheaded less than worthy people, and right in the castle square was considered an honor to be beheaded in. One wife said she didn't regret her adultery and admitted she loved so and so (can't remember his name). That man was beheaded right after her cause she announced his name to the world. There were displays of torture devices in the dungeons. There were weapons and storage rooms in the dungeons full of cannons and guns.
These are blurry but maybe you can see the narrow staircases.
Torture devices
When we were done we ate at a little shop outside the place that had Fish and Chips. They were good.
Later that night we went over to Buckingham Palace. We got lost on the way there, but found the theatre we were going to see Wicked at later in the week. So that was helpful to see. There were a lot of construction going on around the exit of the underground. But we found our way there, even in the dark.
We weren't happy it was dark, but it was so cool. We talked about coming back later in the week when it was light, but never got a chance. But when we later in the week went to Windsor castle, where the Queen actually lives, and that Buckingham is only her office where she goes twice a week for meetings, (Still at her old age of 96 which is impressive) we weren't too sad we didn't go back. We got to see tons of Windsor.
I took this random picture of the huge spikes that were on the top of all the fences. They looked ancient.
We ended up just walking back to our hotel from Buckingham that night. It's a few miles. We stopped at a park and saw a few war memorials. They have them in so many of their parks. We found a gas station along the way and got ice cream which Adam was craving all week. Our hotel has this restaurant called the Red Room where a lot of celebrities go. Supposedly some other EJ people saw Lady Edith (I don't know her real name) from Downtown Abbey leaving there. We came upon and seriously were right by Finn from the New Star Wars movie. We couldn't figure out who he was at first, and by the time we realized it I snapped a pic of him getting in his car. You can see the head of the black man in the middle. Too bad we didn't realize sooner. Ah well.
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