2013 UK Day 5: London - The Tower and London Eye

Day 5 – Wednesday, June 12, 2013: London

We wanted to have the best chances of beating the crowds so got to the Tower of London by 9AM.  The plan was to do a tour, then grab a snack on the way over to the Tower Bridge Exhibition, after which we’d have a late lunch, and then end the afternoon at the London Eye, where we had tickets for a 3:15P entrance.  This was another case where all the advance research came into play that allowed us to call an audible and change our plan on the fly – but a bit more on that later.

The morning plan proceeded as originally designed.  We had another nice breakfast at the hotel then grabbed the Tube over to the Tower Hill station.  Eileen and I were both reminded that the Tower Hill station isn’t exactly “right there” at the Tower.  You’ve got to make a long (for London) walk through an underpass and kind of loop you way around to the front of the Tower.  Once there, we entered the line for tickets which was – as hoped – pretty short at 9AM and, pausing for a quick picture, entered the outer grounds.

We prepare to enter The Tower.

Every 30 minutes a new hour long, Yeoman-led guided tour starts outside the Byward Tower.  Since this is such a major attraction we wanted the boys to have the full experience, so we wandered around between the inner and outer walls for a bit until the next tour started and then joined up.  The Warders are all retired military guys who live on-site at the Tower.  Interestingly enough, they lock the Tower up each night and the Warders (and their families) are locked in – or out, as the case may be – until the next morning.  When our guide gathered our group – about 30-40 of us – he made a point to ensure that the young kids were up front where they could hear him and see things.  Very nice!  The tour is an excellent introduction to the history of the Tower, filled with lots of politics and a healthy dose of blood and guts.

Our Beefeater.  All the warders had to have spent at least 22 years in the Army and obtained a minimum rank of Chief Warrant Officer, along with an unblemished service record.

Once the tour was over we spent a few hours wandering around through the various museums and sights.  The only thing we didn’t do was go see the Crown Jewels.  It was during this portion of the day that we realized that we wanted to spend more time at the Tower than originally allotted, and therefore we decided to keep touring until we were hungry enough for lunch, at which point we exited the Tower and went and got Fish and Chips.  There were a couple of restaurants in the same place as the ticket booths – talk about having a lucrative concessions license!  Both the vendors were doing a huge volume of business.  We ended up sitting on the concrete benches surrounding some of the plantings in the courtyard.  This did mean that we skipped the Tower Bridge Exhibition.  As this had always been a “disposable” item in the plan, no one was overly disappointed that we’d nixed this one.

It wasn't the most picturesque lunch, but the fish and chips were....pretty "meh".  But we were hungry so it hit the spot.

There were tons of old artifacts in the various exhibits, but this dragon made up of recycled materials really caught my eye.  Most of the photos I took of the more typical artifacts didn't come out very well so no other items from the Tower are on this blog.

No one can quite remember how we got from The Tower over to London Eye, although I know we didn’t walk there.  Once there we had to go into the ticketing area and pick up our passes, which I’d purchased online.  We had a timed entrance at 3:15PM.  We had a pretty nice day outside in which to take some great pictures of the city.  Inside each pod they have a number of touchscreens that helped you orient yourself and identify various landmarks.

You could pick up these paper maps at the ticket both and use them to help you orient.  The touchscreen on Andrew's right could also help.  Each touchscreen showed you info about the geography that you were facing as you looked at the screen.

Hey, these guys are following us!

The Houses of Parliament as seen from the London Eye.

I wish I could recall what this building was - it was beautiful.

The happy visitors.

Once our ride was over we caught a bus that delivered us back to Marble Arch where we could go relax – we probably watched some more QI - for about an hour before heading out on a bus for dinner.  Once again we stayed in Bayswater, this time going to Nando’s, specializing in what they call Peri Peri chicken.  In American terms, it was kind of an upscale Pollo Loco.  After a long day, a no-fuss dinner was exactly what we wanted and we left quite satisfied.  A short bus ride delivered us back to the hotel and we called it a night.