How much stuff can you pack in to a day in London? More than you can imagine…
Out of the unit before sunrise at 8:00am… no time to waste! Having said that, we haven’t quiite got our head around the fact that most others don’t get out and about early, and that tourist sites don’t open early.
First stop was Tower Bridge – no visit to London would be complete without taking a walk across the bridge. It’s so very London, but we all remarked how familiar it feels to be in the UK, particularly in comparison to our Vietnam trip last year.
From Tower Bridge it was off to the Tower of London. Our bus guide had recommended the Yeoman tour and it didn’t disappoint. ‘Jimmy’ the Beefeater was a great guide – but it was hard to imagine that the seleection criteria for the job involved 22 years in the Army with an exemplary record, and a willingness to live on site at the Tower. He filled tthe girls with plenty of stories that nightmares are made of, and reinforced every part of ‘Horrible Histories’.
Of course, the Tower of London equals the Crown Jewels. This exhibittion has undergone a major renovation in recent years, and is stunning. The girls were pretty impressed with the size of some of the jewels, and fascinated by the royal history. Couldn’t resist a trip to see the torture chambers, providing the opportunity to reflect on whether it would be worse to be on the rack (stretched) or in the Scavenger’s Daughter (compressed). Delightful.
Next stop, boat ride to Greenwich. I remember going to the Royal Observatory as a child and posing for a photo very similar to the one below… but its only as an adult who has spent 3/4 of my life on the other side of the world that I was able to appreciate the significance of the site. It’s amazing to think that we’ve only had standard international timezones for 130 years, and that somehow, the whole world agreed that GMT should be the standard for time. Gave me new respect for Astronomers and Mathematicians, and the important role that shipping has played in our modern world.
Our next adventure made the most of the London rail network… trying to get from Greenwich to Watford via London Bridge, Waterloo and Euston. Each time, the train was sitting there waiting which is quire a novelty for those from Brisbane! Note to self though, should have got the express train to Watford… 51 minutes instead of 15 wasn’t what we needed!
Why go to Watford? Harry Potter Studio Tour. Booked before we left Australia, and possibly the greatest Christmas gift the girls could have asked for. It made us all appreciate how much work went into the movies – hours of makeup to create characters, real names on every single wand in Ollivanders, a huge scale model of Hogwarts and great special effects.
The great hall was amazing and included the costumes of the main characters from each of the 8 movies. Note Harry’s uniforms on the left below – a bit of a size difference between #1 and #8!
Again, we struggled to stay awake long enough to get to Earl’s Court, and definitely slept well… with dreams of Diagon Alley 🙂
Love M & theBunch xx
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