Tower of London
It didn’t always go to plan
On our third day in London, we were due to do a Stonehenge and Bath tour. All five of us were (we thought) on the same tour. A cab was booked to pick us all up at 7 am and take us to the tour collection point. At 6.45 am we realised that our tickets show TWO different drop off points. Same destination – but different tours.
Cabbie decided to drop off the three at their pickup point for an 8.30 am departure – then took us to our drop off point for an 8 am departure. And naturally – we didn’t make it in time. While the others were still waiting for their bus to go, ours had gone. No refunds for missed buses, money done. Cue anger and frustration. We went for a very grumpy breakfast while we took stock of what to do with our day now.
Saved by the tour agent
After pulling up the big girl panties, we decided to start with the hop on hop off bus and take it from there. While we were on the bus back in Australia Benjamin Lord of Expert Class Travel had seen our post bemoaning our missed bus, and had pulled the iron out of the fire. Benjamin gave me a call and offered to rebook us onto a tour the next day, to which we readily agreed. He then booked us on the Bath/Stonehenge tour at no cost to, us which was extremely generous and him. So we decided we would change our ticket for the Tower of London from tomorrow, to today and visit the tower.
Riding around on the hop on/off bus, we rode around for a while and got off at Tower Bridge.
The Tower
We wandered around and over the bridge and down to the Tower of London on the opposite bank. By the time we arrived, it was already packed. It was term holidays in London. And considering it was a glorious sunny day, even the locals were out. The lovely lady at the ticket booth changed our ticket without a hassle, and we entered the tower.
The tower was founded towards the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest of England. The White Tower, which gives the entire castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078. It’s amazing (to me) that the building is so old… old buildings in Australia are around 200yrs yrs old. This one was over a thousand! Loved the building and the architecture – but I must say I was very unimpressed with everything else. I expected rooms set up like it was in the day.. and while there was a couple – there wasn’t many.
The queues for anything were miles long (or so it seemed). I wanted to see the torture room – but that had a queue extending back to harrods.. and the queue for the Crown Jewels went almost back to the airport.
Characters in costume
Adding to the historical tone of the tower were several costumed actors, strolling around. They reenacted various events regularly. Sir Walter Raleigh on his way to the scaffold. Queen Elizabeth I as young woman was kept there, a courtier, a Lady in Waiting etc., I loved the characters in costume 🙂
Hop on/of bus
Leaving the Tower we headed back to the Hop-On/Off bus stop. And then got promptly got lost. So we walked all over and eventually found the stop for the bus before changing routes at another stop to get on the red line hop on/off. Finally arriving at Harrods Department Store.
Harrods
The store was massive and expensive! Up on the Christmas floor 2 metres of tinsel was 25 pounds (around $50!) The deli floor was fabulous. I loved the way they all dressed like back in Mr Selfridges time LOL