London Day 6

Thursday, April 11, 2019

Today was another jam-packed day. We started our day at the Tower of London. We got there right when it opened and went straight to see the Crown Jewels because the lines can get quite long during the day to see them. It's the largest collection of crown jewels in all of Europe and it was indeed a sight to behold! There was a scepter with a 512 karat diamond, and many other impressive crowns, coronation spoons, and special gold dishes. The room was pretty close to empty when we were there so we had plenty of space to ogle over the jewels. The White Tower, the oldest part of the Tower of London complex, was a definite highlight. The top floor had a kid-friendly room full of interactive exhibits which Claire really enjoyed. She got to try her hand at archery, design her own castle, design a rifle to do some target practice, and dress a king in his armor in the proper order. We opted against doing a Beefeater tour since we weren't sure how Claire would hold up and we're glad we skipped it. There seemed to be at least 100 people in the groups. Instead we followed the Rick Steves tour and read what he had to say about the different areas along the way. But the Tower of London was fabulous. It was well worth the cost and we would recommend it to anyone visiting London.

Proof we saw them.

Chapel inside White Tower

Dragon made out of armor and weapons

White Tower

Tower of London selfie

Better shot of the Tower of London

Tower Bridge (NOT London Bridge)

After the Tower of London we headed over to Westminster Pier to take a ferry on the Thames over to Greenwich. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but I was glad to learn that the boat was covered since it was a bit chilly outside. It was an enjoyable ride and as a bonus, the ferry line we chose accepted Oyster cards. In Greenwich we began by touring the Cutty Sark, a famous clipper which carried cargo (especially tea and wool) all over the world. It was a fun tour and again Claire enjoyed all of the interactive exhibits. Since it is currently Easter Holiday here, there are lots of extra activities/crafts for children going on at all of the museums. Claire got to make a daffodil, the national flower of Wales, in the bottom level of the Cutty Sark and then added it to their flower garden.

Sleeping in one of the crews' bunks

World's largest collection of figureheads. We forgot to get a photo of the entire collection but it was really impressive.

Claire posing with her daffodil

Our next stop was to see the Prime Meridian near the Royal Observatory. We had to walk up a giant hill to get there but there was an impressive view from the top. We didn't think Claire would enjoy a tour  of the Royal Observatory, so we opted for the free but less impressive Prime Meridian marker outside of the observatory. It actually had a much shorter queue than the queue for the marker inside the observatory so it ended up being a win-win for us. After a quick break we walked back down to the Greenwich Market which we were much less impressed with than we were with the Covent Garden Market and took a train back toward the center of London.

Apparently this is a thing.

Straddling the Prime Meridian!

View from the Royal Observatory

Royal Observatory

Hamley's toy store was our next stop - a giant 7-story building full of every toy you can imagine. They had employees stationed in different areas throughout the store to demo various toys. It was a busy store. Claire was transfixed. The basement level was almost entirely dedicated to Star Wars and Harry Potter paraphernalia. Claire couldn't take her eyes off of the flying golden snitch. It was hilarious to watch. There were also life-sized Lego displays throughout the store. We stayed in Hamley's for a pretty long time and miraculously managed to leave the store without any purchases.

Elizabeth and Queen Elizabeth

Life-sized Hagrid.

We found dinner at a nearby restaurant serving pies, sausages, mashed potatoes, and gravy. I chose a butternut squash and goat cheese pie with colcannon mash (it had some cabbage in it) and onion gravy. Mark had Prince of Wales sausages with Champ mash and farmer's gravy. Claire just had a plain sausage and mash. We tried a sticky toffee pudding for dessert served with some warm custard. Quite delicious!

Liz's dinner

Once Claire was in bed, I (Liz) headed over to check out the British Library. Their special collections area is beyond incredible. I got there about 13 minutes before closing so I had very limited time but I made the most of it. In those 13 minutes I saw one of the oldest complete Bibles from the 3rd century, the Magna Carta, drawings from a notebook of Leonardo daVinci, very old hand-drawn maps of the world, a Gutenberg Bible, among other things. Mark can detail a little more about this in tomorrow's entry. It was a FULL day.

Line at King's Cross Station for photos with Platform 9 3/4

Oh yeah. This happened today in London.