I started off today, Wednesday in a bad mood. I guess I just got up on the wrong side of the bed or something, but I was in a icky mood. It didn't help when I checked online and realized that Westminster Abbey doesn't allow pictures inside. My dad gave me specific things to find and take a picture of for him – the graves of David Livingstone and William Wilberforce. Now, it's time for a little useless trivia here: David Livingstone's grave (which I did see) contains his body, minus his heart – that is buried in Africa. I never saw William Wilberforce's grave, it will take another trip for that I guess. William Wilberforce is supposedly responsible for slavery being outlawed in England and the movie "Amazing Grace" for which my favorite singer/songwriter in the whole wide world Chris Tomlin wrote an extra bit for the old classic hymn "Amazing Grace." The old hymn was written by John Newton, who had been a slave trader himself. Apparently, John and William were buddies. So, that's enough of the factual but basically useless knowledge, back to Westminster Abbey. We were on a tour and had a time limit I guess, so I feel like we ran through the Abbey like we were on fire. I can't remember hardly anything specific about what we saw, mostly just tourists listening to little headsets. I do remember the stained glass with the broken spot from World War II, which ironically enough, has a quote from Shakespeare, "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers" which serves at a memorial to those pilots of the Royal Air Force, who took part in the Battle of Britain. My dad would have liked to have seen that. We also saw the grave of George Frederic Handel, who is special to my family, as one of my mother's wishes, was that we play "The Hallelujah Chorus" at her funeral. The building itself is magnificent, and history just oozes out everywhere you look. I got scolded a bit by the Blue Badge guide, she thought I was going to sit and she wanted to show us something – I was really just trying to get out of the way. The scolding didn't help my grumpiness at all, let me tell you. I would love to go back again, and get a headset of my own, and get in other people's way and take my time. I think we raced through in about an hour and half – 1000 years of British history in 90 minutes or less. We left the Abbey, rushed through the subway stations and up the street to some boat dock. I can't tell you anything about it, because I needed to use the "necessary room" so badly, I was oblivious to where we were or what we were doing. We were just running in a pack. Finally, we had enough time to take a deep breath, and dear sweet Andrea found a restroom. Then, she bought me a Coke, so after that I was much happier, although I was still confused why we had to hurry so fast, just to wait for half an hour.
Anyway, we took a cruise along the Thames to the Tower of London. There are the most beautiful buildings along the Thames. I don't know what most of them are, or what they are for, but they sure are pretty. On both sides of the boat, just one gorgeous building after another. Most of our group went to the top of the boat, but Andrea and I sat on the bottom, where hardly anybody else was. We had practically the whole bottom deck to ourselves. We opened the windows, and I ran back and forth from side to side taking pictures like a mad woman. I think I took 145 pictures today, without any from Westminster Abbey.
We got to the Tower of London, had time for lunch, and then at 2, began our tour of the Tower of London. We began at the Traitor's Gate, and our guide told us a story of someone (sorry, can't remember who) who was brought in and refused to go in the Traitor's Gate, so she sat on a rock until the tide came in, and then, was probably dragged in. We went inside and saw the ravens. I always thought ravens were just crows, but these are the biggest blackest birds I've ever seen. The story is that as long as there are ravens in the Tower of London, the monarchy is safe, but if the ravens leave. . . Well, they clip their wings so they can't go far. We saw part of the old Roman walls that surrounded the city of London, and then a memorial for people executed inside the tower. Apparently some people where executed outside, in front of a crowd, but some inside. Our guide said that those executed inside were usually people that would cause trouble if the public saw them beheaded. They were mostly women, like Anne Boleyn, (who had 6 fingers on one hand) Catherine Howard, Lady Jane Gray, and others of course. There is a new memorial for those executed inside the Tower; it looks like a ring bearer's pillow. We saw some "Beefeaters" and our guide assured us it's OK to call them that. She explained that to be one of them, someone must have at least 22 years in the military, and 18 of that must be a clean record. There is actually the first female Beefeater, who is Scottish.
We finished our tour by viewing the Crown Jewels, which is nearly enough to knock one's socks off. The monstrous diamonds and all the other "bling" just blow my mind. I bought a book to read about them later. One of the most interesting things is the Coronation or Anointing Spoon, which our guide explained to us, but those poor people who didn't have a guide were making up some really strange stories about the spoon as we walked through. The Coronation Spoon is filled with oil, and the hands, head and chest of the new monarch are touched by the spoon, which symbolizes anointing with oil. The people behind me thought it was for breakfast or "royal oatmeal." They believe the spoon to be from the 12th century.
One thing that has really amazed me is how old everything is. For example, the Study Centre building is a 17th century building. We saw a tree in Oxford that was planted in 1801. In the US, our definition of old and the definition of old over here, are completely, totally different. I feel like I'm being steeped in history.
Today was Wednesday, so we had our American dinner prepared by Dr. E. Tonight's menu was meatloaf, with mashed potatoes, and green beans. It was delicious. We tried "Brown Sauce" which is kind of a combination of gravy, and barbeque sauce. The meatloaf made me feel better. By the time we got back from the Tower of London and had dinner, I was in a much better mood. Now, I'm going to bed, because tomorrow, we're going to the British Library, to Shepherd's Bush Market and then we're touring the BBC. Then, early Friday morning, we're off to Scotland!
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