Yesterday was our jam-packed day, since it was our first official full day here. Hence we decided to get up early (hah) and do as much as we possibly could. So we got down to breakfast in our hotel close to 8:30 AM. They serve everything from plain cereal with toast to a complete English breakfast with fried eggs, bacon, and sausages. So I decided to try the whole English breakfast thing and got fried eggs with bacon and toast. It was delicious. I also had more glasses of milk and juice and water than I can count, since I was super thirsty and the glass was small.
But that's kinda boring. We decided to spend the day on The Original Tour London Sightseeing buses that are famous for the "Hop on, hop off" stops, so that you can check everything out for yourself after the guide tells you some cool information about it on the bus. They come around every couple of minutes, so it's extremely nifty. We took the Underground to Charing Cross (click to enlarge it, and it'll be easier to see):
We took the Underground to Trafalgar Square and when we climbed the steps out and into the city again, we were shocked. It was breath-taking; we didn't expect so much in one place. In front of us was a huge monument, complete with 4 lions called Nelson's Column, 2 fountains, various other statues of famous war heroes, and the National Gallery. It was insanely beautiful and cool. The picture below is mainly of the National Gallery.
This is Nelson's Column, complete with the 4 lions designed to protect it. I climbed up and got a picture with the lion later, which was fantastic.
We got lost trying to find where to buy our tickets. So we took the scenic route and basically went in a huge circle before finding it. We were successful in the end though, so that's all that matters. After we climbed aboard we learned about some of the buildings nearby until we got to the stop for Buckingham Palace. Then we got off and explored the grounds (which reminded me of Finding Neverland, when he’s walking Porthos and such…but I don’t think it was the same park, sadly) and reached the gate and then the actual Palace. We happened to come on a day there was no changing of the guard, so if we have time to come back, we’ll definitely check it out. We still got to see the guards, although they were behind the gates, marching back and forth every so often if you waited long enough. But here's Buckingham Palace anyways:
We explored the statue across from the palace called the Victoria Memorial and then retraced our steps back to the bus. Although this time we checked out the Canada Memorial, which was created to honor the one million Canadians that came to Britain to fight in the two World Wars. It was very peaceful and had a very cool design, so we spent a couple of minutes there. Then we loitered a little bit on the path (we posed with the street lamps; Gene Kelly would be proud of my attempts) and hopped back on the bus.
We saw a lot of stuff on the bus tour, which has all unfortunately become a bit of a blur now, but some of the highlights while we rode along the bus were the Ritz Hotel, Speaker’s Corner, Marble Arch, the large gates to Buckingham Palace (used to keep her privacy, complete with gothic-looking spikes and barbed wire), Westminster Abbey, Big Ben & Parliament (Big Ben is actually the name of the Bell, not the clock, not the building itself, just the bell), the London Eye, Fleet Street (I got random bits of Sweeney Todd in my head there), St. Paul’s Cathedral, Tower Bridge, and the Tower of London. That was when we decided to hop off again, this time to check out the River Thames Cruise that came with our bus ticket. That allowed us to see a lot of things along the water in a much better perspective, such as the Tower Bridge, the Globe Theater, London Bridge, and the London Eye. It was awesome!
After that, we went looking for a bathroom, which was kinda interesting; did you know they charge you to use the toilet, or the loo, in London? At least in some places they did, and those where the only places we could find. Don’t believe me, check it below!
Anyways, we went back to the Tower of London and got ready for the Jack the Ripper tour. I think that may have been my favorite thing of the day; it was so interesting, as creepy as it was. I didn’t know all the gory details of his crimes, so it was a bit disgusting too. Especially since it sounds like he was able to do the things he did in 15 minutes or less, because he killed one of his victims (all 5 being always alcoholic prostitutes) on a street block where a policemen had his beat, and he would come around every 15 minutes. And he came around to see a particularly nasty site. But it’s also interesting that Jack the Ripper got his name because of a fake letter from what was basically their sort of National Enquirer/typical gossip magazine back in the day. And that there was literally no evidence, because the evidence that they did have (his writing on a wall one night, with a disposed apron belonging to one of his victims covered in blood, that said something along the lines of: “The Jews have done nothing.”) was washed off the walls at the order of the one in charge at the police department. Crazy. But the reason is shrouded in all kinds of ideas and speculations, because of what the East End of London (where the killings took place) was like. It was a terrible place back then, and it was a bad time for the Jewish community there especially. To end this huge rant though, his last known murder (at least in London, since he was never caught and the list of suspects is super long) was of a pretty Irish girl in her own apartment. Her body was so disfigured, they could not be entirely positive that it was her and her room was covered in blood. Our tour guide said that anyone who went into that room never fully recovered. Today, the area her apartment was in is now a parking garage, which is the structure on the left:
I found the whole tour fascinating, but then again, I have a morbid fascination in murder and mystery. I think most people do though. But now I want to get an historical book about Jack the Ripper and all the speculation surrounding him. So, that is a goal for next summer, if not before.
The tour ended after 5:30 PM or so, which meant we couldn’t do some of the things we planned. So we went ahead and finished our bus tour, which took us around some of the things already mentioned above and other less known stuff. We jumped off where we started the whole thing, and looked for a place to eat dinner. We attempted to eat at Sherlock Holmes Pub, but it seemed understaffed in the actual restaurant while the pub downstairs was hopping, so we dismissed it and looked around, finally deciding on a pub called The Silver Cross.
It took a few minutes to figure out how it worked though; first you find a table and sit down. Then you decide what you want from the menu at your table and go to the bar to order and pay. They ask where your table is and they come find you. Maybe we’re just daft, but we didn’t know that when we went in. Now we do! I ordered the Chicken Tikka Masala. It was delicious.
We decided to head back to our room after dinner, since we were beat; long day of touring, as you can see by the length of this crazy entry. Oops. I’ll try to make the next one a bit shorter.
