Morning Pictures: I have always been an early riser and usual take the opportunity while on vacation to research some of the places I had seen the day before, clearing up questions I may have thought of while viewing a particular site, or by getting some background information on the sites we plan to visit later in the day. However, on this day I decided to get some pre-dawn pictures of Buckingham Palace. I made the fifty minute walk there, arriving slightly later than I would have liked. But the area was still devoid of people when I arrived and I was able to get several pictures before heading back to the hotel to arrive in time for an early breakfast. Without me in the room, Peep overslept and still hadn't packed her clothes for the trip home later that day. Once packed and ready, we transferred our luggage to Paap's room, who had arranged for a late check-out, checked out of our room, ate breakfast at the hotel, and headed out on our last day of sightseeing.
St. Paul's Cathedral: The last of the three walking tours I had downloaded before the trip took us to the City of London, a 1.2 square mile borough of London, sometimes referred to as simply the City. It was a fair distance from the hotel, so we took the Underground to get there. We got off at the St. Paul's station and, after getting our bearings once we reached street level, headed up to the top of Ludgate Hill, the home of the cathedral. Just as he had at Westminster Abbey, Paap decided to wait outside the cathedral while Peep and I paid our admission and went in for an audio tour. The first church on this site was built in AD 604, but the current building was constructed in the mid-17th century following the Great Fire of London. St. Paul's serves as the seat of the Bishop of London and mother church of the Diocese of London.
Cathedral Floor: Upon entering the Cathedral Floor, we saw and heard about the nave, dome, altar and quire of this magnificent building, where Prince Charles was wed to Lady Diana in 1981. Behind the quire is the American Memorial Chapel, rebuilt after the Jesus Chapel, which stood in this place, was destroyed during the Blitz in WWII.
Cathedral Dome: The cathedral's most recognizable feature, its dome, is actually a dome within a dome, the inside dome optimized for viewing from inside the cathedral and the outer dome optimized for viewing from the outside. Peep and I got a firsthand look at this by first climbing 247 steps up to the Whispering Gallery, located inside at the base of the inner dome, where we verified that you can indeed hear a whisper, albeit a loud one, from one side of the gallery to the other. We then continued up an additional 119 steps to the Stone Gallery, located outside at the base of the outer dome. It was then a final 152 steps in between the two domes until we reached the Golden Gallery, at the apex of the outer dome.
The Crypt: After descending the full 528 steps back down to the cathedral floor, Peep exited the building to sit and chat with her brother. I, however, continued down to the crypt to complete my tour. There I saw St. Faith's Chapel, located near the foundation of the old Church of St. Faith's destroyed in the Great Fire of London. When the new St. Paul's was constructed, its expansion encroached onto the old church's land, so a chapel was included in St. Paul's to give the old parishioner's of St. Faith's a place to worship. Also located in the crypt are tombs of famous Britons, the major ones being that of the Duke of Wellington, Christopher Wren and Admiral Nelson.
Financial District: After passing the London Museum, not entering due to concerns about time but with the possibility of returning if our walking tour didn't take too long, we entered the financial district. We first passed by Guildhall, which has served as the town hall of the City for over 800 years. We next passed by the Bank of England Museum, located within the Bank of England, where money is designed and issued, and gold is stored; Mansion House, home of the Lord Mayor of the City and site of ceremonial banquets; and Royal Exchange, built in 1842 to be used for trading, but later converted for use as a luxury shopping center.
Continuing On: Paap and Peep were uninterested in continuing with this part of the tour, so I suggested they make their way to the nearest Underground station to ride to their next point of interest, where I would eventually meet up with them. We parted ways and I continued on to see Leadenhall Market, an 1881 Victorian Market which used to be a Roman basilica, but was destroyed in the Great Fire of London; the Gherkin, a recent London icon completed in 2004 for the second largest insurance company in the world, Swiss RE; and Lloyds Building, unique in that its services were constructed on the outside to maximize room on the inside of the building. Lloyd's of London is the greatest insurance market in the world. It was very easy to spot my fellow tourists while in this section of town, as we were the only ones not wearing business suits and ties.
Great Fire of London: My next stop was at Pudding Lane, a rather unremarkable little street noteworthy only because it once held the bakery of Thomas Farriner, the location of the starting point of the Great Fire of London. The fire started on 2 September 1666 and lasted for three days, destroying over 13,000 homes as well as many other buildings, leaving nearly 90% of the City's inhabitants at the time homeless. However, very few deaths were believed to have been caused by the fire.
In remembrance of this tragic event, The Monument was constructed nearby. It is simply a column with a flame on top up which visitors can climb 311 steps to get panoramic views of the City. I did not make the climb because they were unable to make change for my £20 note, but instead continued on with my tour.
Meeting Back Up: Crossing over into the borough of Tower Hamlets, I made my way to the Tower of London, where I took some time to photograph the exterior before entering to look for Paap and Peep. As I was headed to the ticket counter, I came across the two of them sitting in the shade of a nearby tree. It turned out that the Underground station they went to was not on the same line as the one near the Tower of London, so they ended up walking to a second station for the ride to the Tower, and I arrived before they did. At this point, Paap decided to return to the hotel while Peep and I started our tour of the Tower of London.
Tower of London: From the outside of the Tower, the area once used as a moat surrounding three sides of the fortification and now a large, grassy strip can be seen. Along the riverside face of the Tower is Traitors' Gate, which served as the Tower's water gate after its latest expansion by Edward I in 1279. It was here in the Outer Ward of the Tower where we began our tour after purchasing tickets and entering.
Outer Ward: Once inside the walls of the Tower, we ascended the steps that took us to the Wall Walk and Medieval Palace, located directly above Traitor's Gate. Here we learned about the Tower's use as a prison as well as a royal residence. Continuing our trek along the top of the outer wall, we learned about the defenses of the Tower before reaching the Royal Beasts exhibition, which detailed the exotic animals once kept at the Tower.
Inner Ward: From there, we made our way down a flight of stairs and over to the Fusilier Museum, located in their headquarters in the Inner Ward. This part of the Tower was largely constructed during the reigns of Richard the Lionheart and Henry III, in the 1190's and 1220's.
The Fusiliers are a regiment of soldiers in the British Army. In the museum, we learned about their exploits in the many wars fought by them, from the creation of the first regiment at the Tower in 1685, through the Boer Wars and WWI, where nine regiments of Fusiliers fought, up to modern day. Due to mergers and disbandments, only one regiment exists today.
Also within the Inner Ward is the Tower Green, where executions at the Tower took place, out of sight of common Londoners. Executions here were reserved only for those of high rank or with strong popular support. We saw the Tower Green later in our tour.
The Crown Jewels: After a short rest we entered the Crown Jewels exhibition, located in the Waterloo Barracks. Here we saw Queen Elizabeth's crowns, scepters and orb. Each time a new monarch ascends to the throne, the jewels from the crown of the previous monarch are removed and used to create a new crown, each one seemingly more opulent than the last. Although pictures were not allowed to be taken in the exhibition, we did see some of the previous crowns in a display during the Wall Walk in the Outer Ward.
Innermost Ward: Continuing on, we entered the White Tower, which sits within the Innermost Ward. This tower was constructed in the 1080's, shortly after the founding of the Tower of London in 1066 by William the Conqueror. Inside was the Royal Armouries collections, including a large display of arms and armory known as the Line of Kings, the longest-running public exhibition in the world. The display, like the imposing castle keep itself, was used as a show of power and strength to awe, subdue and terrify Londoners and to deter foreign invaders.
Bloody Tower: On our way out, we stopped at the Bloody Tower, located in the Inner Ward, which told the story of the Two Princes of the Tower. The princes were the sons of Edward IV, aged nine and twelve when their father died. They were taken to the Tower by their uncle, Richard, who had them declared illegitimate so he could take the throne for himself. The princes disappeared a short time later.
In 1674 a coffin with two small skeletons was discovered during renovation work on the White Tower. They were later examined and determined to be approximately the same ages as the princes when they disappeared. However, no direct evidence exists proving they are the princes (skeletons of other children have also been found at the Tower), or that the princes were even killed. If they had been killed, there are several suspects with strong motivation for doing so, with King Richard III at the top of the list.
Torture at the Tower: One final stop took us to a display of torture at the Tower, located in the Wakefield Tower. The prisoners kept at the Tower of London often underwent gruesome torture to extract information, and on display were three of the devices used in dispensing that torture: the scavenger’s daughter, the rack and the manacles.
Tower Bridge: From the Tower of London it was a very short walk to the Tower Bridge, whose construction was completed in 1894. Named after the Tower of London, this bridge is often confused for London Bridge, which is the next bridge upstream. The bridge was designed with walkways high above the roadway to allow pedestrians to cross the river when the drawbridge was up. However, due to the need to climb a staircase to reach them, they were infrequently used and became a seedy location known as a hangout for pickpockets and prostitutes. They were closed in 1910 only to reopen in 1982 as an exhibition on the bridge's construction.
We purchased tickets and took a short elevator ride up the north tower to see the exhibition, showcasing short films and displays of its planning and construction, as well as to get views of London both upriver and down. We then descended the stairs in the south tower, exiting once back down at street level.
Engine Rooms: At the far end of the bridge we found the Engine Rooms, which our admission ticket to the Tower Bridge Exhibition covered. Inside, we saw the old steam powered engine / hydraulic system that originally raised and lowered the bascules. The combination system was necessary because the steam engines were too big and too heavy to put in the bridge, so they had to instead be installed in this engine room on dry land. This system was replaced in 1974 with a more modern electrohydraulic system.
Southwark Riverbank: Now across the River Thames, we continued with our tour by walking upstream through the London borough of Southwark. Here, we came across City Hall, housing the offices of the Mayor of London (comprising all the boroughs, not just the single borough City of London) and the London Assembly. Docked near City Hall is the HMS Belfast, which saw extensive action in the Second World War and the Korean War before becoming a museum ship in 1971. Passing by London Bridge brought us to Southwark Cathedral.
Southwark Cathedral: While the site has been used as a place of Christian worship for over a thousand years, first starting as a convent in 606, the current Gothic building was largely constructed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when it was being used as an Augustine abbey. Following the dissolution of the monasteries it became a parish church and, in 1905, with the creation of the Anglican Diocese of Southwark, a Cathedral.
Upon entering the cathedral, we decided to pay a small fee to obtain a photo permit before beginning our tour. While there are many worthwhile aspects to see, perhaps the best known is the Shakespeare Memorial, commemorating the life of William Shakespeare in Southwark.
Golden Hind: Having completed our tour of Southwark Cathedral, we continued upriver until we encountered a replica of the Golden Hind, berthed in St. Mary Overie Dock at the eastern end of Clink Street. The original Golden Hind was the galleon Sir Francis Drake used to circumnavigate the globe between 1577 and 1580.
Palace of Winchester Ruins: The Bishop of Winchester had frequent business in London, so a palace was built to serve as his home there. In use from the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries, it was turned into tenements and warehouses before being destroyed by fire in 1814. Only a corner of the great hall still stands today.
Clink Prison: Several famous prisons owned by the Bishop of Winchester have been located on this street, the first of which existed in the basement of the Palace of Winchester in 1127, and others subsequently on land owned by the bishop. The last of the prisons was on nearby Park Street, closed in 1780 after being burned by Gordon rioters. The Clink, as it had become to be called, held heretics, debtors, prostitutes and victims of leprosy. A museum to these prisons can be found on Clink Street today.
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre: Our last stop along Clink Street was at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, a replica of the Globe Theatre built in 1997. The original Globe Theater was built in 1599, destroyed in a fire caused by a canon during a performance of Henry VIII in 1613, rebuilt in 1614 and eventually destroyed by the Puritans, under Cromwell's rule, in 1644. Shakespeare's Globe Theatre stages plays every summer, but we did not go to see if tours were available due to limited time, instead heading over a nearby British Pub for dinner.
Heading Home: After having traditional British fare, Fish & Chips and Bangers & Mash, for the second time on our trip, we walked past the Tate Modern and over the Millennium Bridge to get to the Underground station to take us back to our hotel. When we arrived at the Berjaya, Paap was waiting for us at the front desk with our luggage and we loaded into the van that was to transport us to Heathrow Airport. It was an overnight, eleven hour flight back to Bangkok, where it was another overnight stay before our respective return flights to Laos, Paap in the morning to Vientiane and Peep and me in the afternoon to Savannakhet.