6/21/08 Saturday

Day 2 of my London adventure. All night long the woman in my upper bunk kept tossing and turning, which caused the bed to groan, creak, and vibrate all night. I woke up each time she rolled over and this went on during the whole night! Needless to say, I didn't get a lot of good sleep. This problem was also coupled with the fact another traveller was preparing to leave at 5 am and his noise woke and kept me up. I must be a light sleeper. By 515 am, he had left, but it was useless for me to try to get back to sleep. I got up, got dressed, and packed as quietly as I could and then I laid down on my bunk and waited for Cynthia to wake up. By 730 am, we were up, dressed, packed, and out the door. The hostel stored or stuff for us until we were ready to leave later this afternoon.

We went to the Tower of London first because it was the farthest distance to travel. As I tried to navigate us to the correct platform, somehow each time I would get us on the platform, it would be the platform for the train going in the opposite direction that we needed to go. My navigation skills really suck...no, they don't exist! I don't know what it is about navigating in an underground subway system. It must be there are no visual clues for me to use to sense direction. I use sun position and time of day to figure out which direction I'm going. Also, being in a foreign country, I'm disoriented about which way is N, S, E, W (but that's not saying much...I get confused about N, S, E, W in Bellevue while standing in front of Grandma and Grandpa's house. What I think is N is really E). By 1230 pm, I was so frustrated with navigation that I just let Cynthia do it; she was better at it than I was and she also employeed the technique of asking people for directions if we were lost. We really did talk to a lot of the residents in London.

We got to the Tower of London about half an hour before it opened. So, to kill time, we walked around the facility taking pictures. The morning was gray and drizzely, and at times, rainy. I didn't bring a jacket or umbrella, so when it did rain, I had to borrow her umbrella. She was a little concerned about the style of it-very pink and very best friends forever and very girlie. I didn't care, it was an umbrella and it would keep me dry-I didn't care about design only its function (and it worked quite well)!

We wandered through the Tower of London for 3 hours. We learned about the reputation of the Tower, King Henry's excutions of his wives, and the public and private area for excutions. The Jewel House was the most impressive part. Cameras and recording devices were not allowed in the Jewel House. After walking in, visitors are greeted with a huge wall of video screens showing Queen Elizabeth's coronation. I would have liked to watch the whloe video (it was set on a loop), but Cynthia was antsy to keep moving, and not wanting to get separated, I kept going. In the next room were plaques on the walls and on each plaque was the name of all the kings or queens of England. Moving on, we walked into the jewel room. There were moving walkways that ran down the length of the room. The displays were in between the moving walkways. There were all sorts of crowns, the orb, sceptor, the spoon. Queen Victoria's miniature crown was probably no bigger than 2" in diameter-it was so tiny and covered in clear stone that it appeared white. Some of the crowns had regal reds and others had regal purples. If you visit London, I encourage you to see the Jewel House at the Tower.

The other part that I enjoyed was seeing the ravens. They wandered around the grass lawn and bumped into each other (2) from time to time. They must have had their wings clipped because they never tried to take off. Just watching them, I felt like I went back in time to my childhood. I remembered Mom reading Robbie and me Paddington Bear stories, and the story about Paddington losing his marmalade sandwiches and the ravens following him and eating them popped into my mind. It was peaceful standing there watching the ravens.

We walked inside different buildings, up and down battlements, and through the gift shop. We decided to get lunch and then headed back to the tube station on our way to Westminster station. Cynthia wanted to tour Westminster Abby but I didn't want to, so I suggested that we split up and she went to the Abby. I went to Downing St; I wanted to walk past #10. I walked up Parliment St (there are WWII monuments there of the soliders and political leaders), but when I got up to Trifalger Square, I realized I walked way beyond Downing St. So I crossed the street and walked down the opposite side. I noticed as I walked back, I was on Whitehall St. That was incorrect because Downing St comes off Parliment St. I eventually found Downing St; It was before the "Women in WWII" memorial. I realized I had seen Downing while walking up Parliment; the porblem was I couldn't see it was because the police had it blocked off by 2 sets of gates and some officers were patrolling the area. At the gates I looked down Downing and saw 2 or 3 official black cars about half way down; I assumed that where the cars were was where the front door was. I don't understand why the gates were closed; Prime Minister Brown had left the day before for the Middle East. Oh well, at least I can say I know where #10 Downing St is.

I met up with Cynthia by 230 pm. She told me she didn't go inside the Abby because it cost 9 pounds and she felt that cost too much (at least 18 USD). The Bath Abby is free, so she thought 9 quid was too much. As long as she wasn't disappointed...We left for Paddington station and got there at 430 pm. I bought myself a little Paddington Bear plush toy (I couln't resist), got on the train, and was back in Bath 8 pm. Navigating our way through Paddington station was easier than yesterday because we had already done it.