DAY 4: English Royalty Can Use Some New Names

Observation of the day: If you keep asking, you keep learning. We now have been given a reason why there are minimal trash receptacles in London and why taxi drivers resent Uber folks. According to our tour guide, Jess, London trash cans are kept to a minimum as they are an ideal spot to hide and/or place a bomb. She also explained how real, true-blue London black-cab drivers study for at least four years, learning the ins and outs of every London street, road, roundabout, etc. etc. before they apply for their license. Supposedly, the daunting test includes standing in front of an advisory board which throws out driving situations at them, e.g. get from Camden Market to Harrod’s when X & Y roads are closed, and they need to recite how to do it within seconds flat. Uber drivers just use Google Maps. Our thoughts: it’s good to support them both. We have met many Uber drivers during our few days here who are simply trying to get ahead & make a living --- just like taxi cab drivers. However, it is understandable taxi drivers resent many immigrant Uber drivers, who are potentially here without the proper permission. There are no easy answers.

We knew it was going to be a good day when the first
thing we saw upon reaching the Tower of London was two
VERY cute pups romping on the grounds. We believe they were the caretakers'.

Today, Tuesday, was another early day. Again, due to Christine Tillinghast’s most excellent recommendation, we met our Yellow Moon Tours (http://yellowmoontours.com) tour guide, Jess, at the front entrance of the Tower of London at 8:45am.

Part of the walls of the original castle with the Tower Bridge in the background.

If I had to describe Jess in one word it would be PASSIONATE. She is an incredible fountain of knowledge and we had a wonderful time with her as she guided us through the Tower of London. Among other things, the Tower of London houses the crown jewels that are absolutely dazzling. While no pictures are allowed, we were fascinated to learn some of the jewels & artifacts dated back to the 14^th century, more than 800 years old. There’s a ton of back story, but the shortcut version is that many of the crown jewels were destroyed/melted back in the day, but when the royalty was reestablished under Charles II, they did their best to preserve what was left.

Wonder if Prince Charles dreams
about this spoon. Source: Google

We saw a spoon still used today in the anointing of England’s monarchs, which was last used for the current Queen Elizabeth. I couldn’t help but wonder about how conflicted Prince Charles is about hoping he gets to check out that spoon and the royal crown, but not wanting his mum to die for it to happen.

The Tower of London includes an aviary with half a dozen well-fed, aggressive black ravens who can roam the castle grounds at will. Legend says theTower will fall if the ravens ever leave the fortress. According to stories, Charles II's
astronomer wanted to get rid of them because they wreaked havoc on his equipment, but instead, Charles made them more
comfortable as he believed the legend. Supposedly, some ravens have been sacked (fired) for
naughty behavior. They also have a mini-burial ground for the ravens at the Tower. 
Watch the video below to see them. They were truly HUGE. Video & photo creds: HM.

The crown jewels, used ceremonially, are spectacular.
Source: Google.

The crown has it's own ride. Source: Google. 

I was also struck by how incredibly ornate the royal crowns are. I know this sounds kind of silly, but the crowns have the most amazing stones I’ve ever seen, in size and in brightness. According to Jess, Queen Elizabeth’s crown is currently worn for state occasions and annually when she officially “opens” the Parliament after break. For this, the crown catches it’s own carriage to Parliament. Yes, you read right. The crown has it’s own ride. It meets the Queen at the Parliament dressing room. Some might find this ludicrous, but I like the respect for tradition. Remembering your history is sooooo important, and I’m afraid we, as Americans, don’t always have that same understanding or reverence for knowing & respecting our roots, and carrying on traditions. And when we do, it always seems there's someone bashing us for doing so.

Touring with Jess gave us the opportunity to really appreciate what we were seeing as she tried to put everything into context. Now, any of you who have studied English history know how difficult this is as it seems EVERYONE has the same name and/or is cousins, brothers, sisters, or just related somehow to each other. Favorite names included Charles, George, Henry, Mary, William, Victoria and Elizabeth with a few Richards mixed in. Needless to say, we tried to keep up with the dizzying amount of fascinating stories, but bottom line is this – it all boils down to education, power & money. Everyone wants power and money, but it’s much more difficult to maintain both once people have education & knowledge which leads to questioning things. And of course, this leads to the other bottom line – nothing changes!

McCarty clan & Jess: Selfie-stick Tower of London edition.

While I will never do justice here to Jess and her amazing knowledge she was kind enough to share with us, we were blessed with a fabulous morning with her. Again, HM, being a history aficionado was thrilled with it all and EM did her best to tolerate it all. Although it might sound gruesome, due to EM’s interest in forensics (thanks to NCIS & Bones!), she was peaked by stories of the executions that happened at the Tower. We were all amazed to hear the last one was just in 1941 when Josef Jacobs was shot by a firing squad for spying.

John and his girls: St. Paul's Cathedral edition. 

View of St. Pauls' Cathedral from across the Thames.
Photo creds: HM.

Learning about the Duke of Wellington gave us a new appreciation
for Abba's "Waterloo!" Photo creds: HM.

After a VERY full morning at the Tower, we headed with Jess to St. Paul’s Cathedral. Again, no pictures are allowed, but even in our abbreviated time, Jess did her best to share highlights about this beautiful cathedral built in the 17^th century. We learned many things here including facts about the Duke of Wellington and how he used amazing strategy to defeat Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo. We also learned about the incredible heroics of “firewatchers” during World War II who took up Winston Churchill’s request for the people to protect St. Paul’s at all costs during the incessant German bombing. At the risk of their own lives, firewatchers watched for bombs and in some cases, even detonated some to save the Cathedral.

An amazing tribute. Source: Google images.

And proving Brits are gentlemen to the end, at the front side of the Cathedral, they created a chapel to honor the American servicemen who died at Normandy on D-Day during WWII. At the heart of the chapel sits a huge, 500-page, leather book. In it, is listed 28,000 Americans who were stationed in the UK and who gave their lives during the war. It is preserved under a glass case and every day, a member of St. Paul’s puts on a white glove & turns a page of the book so the names are visible. This is to be done in perpetuity. The book was presented in 1958 to then vice-president Richard Nixon.

As a family who has a deep respect for our service men and women who help keep us safe and protect our freedoms every day, we thought this was a moving tribute.

While visiting St. Paul’s, we were blessed to be there on the top of the hour, thus having an opportunity to pray the Lord’s Prayer with people from all over the world. Really nice way to top off the tour.

As it was now close to 3pm, and we were all famished, we decided to try the U.K’s version of California Pizza Kitchen – Pizza Express because it was across the street from the Cathedral. We had tempered expectations for the restaurant as it is a ubiquitous chain, but in the end, we decided the name doesn’t do it justice. We had a delicious meal of thin-crust pizzas with veggies and grilled chicken that helped revive all of us.

Walking along the Thames, we happened upon an open air book
market. One of the vendors affirmed he had to display and
pack up the books daily. Incredibly tough way to make a living in my book, no pun intended.

HM & JM checking out the offerings.

As we were blessed with a brisk, but beautiful day, we decided to walk towards the Globe Theater located on the Thames River. We arrived too late for a tour, but had fun buying souvenirs at their gift shop and then strolling down the boardwalk by the river.

Walking along the Thames. Photo creds: HM.

View of the River Thames including Parliament & Big Ben in the background. Photo creds: HM. 

River watching. Photo creds: HM. 

You see folks "busking" throughout London. They are artists, performers, musicians -- essentially what we call street
performers. They are typically really good, adhere to a code and do their thing for tips. We really liked this older fellow
singing his heart out about "Peggy Sue." We might have a soft spot for these guys as we read the book and saw the movie, "A Street Cat Named Bob" which is a non-fiction story about a London busker who was befriended by a ginger cat who became part of his act. Today, his owner still credits Bob with saving his life as he was a recovering heroin addict. It's an amazing story & terrific movie. We recommend it.

Walking home, we had to detour into Whitehall Gardens. One look at these
flowers and you'll understand why!

Because we have an early day ahead of us tomorrow, we decided to head home early to relax and recharge. While the weather says we may have a soggy day, we are all excited to visit Downton Abbey.

EM: While many things went over my head, it was fun to learn what Jess told us. At the Tower of London, a toddler touched one of the guards and the guard yelled, “Step back from the Queen’s Guard.” It made the toddler run, guess he won’t be doing that again.

I thought it was crazy to see how they built the dome even after the foundation had cracks. [VM note: there was some innovative engineering that went into building St. Paul’s dome, including building a dome within a dome & fortifying the 850-ton cross at the top with a brick pyramid to uphold it].

While I didn’t make 20,000 steps today, I still hit more than 16,000 steps!

VM NOTE: HM fell asleep on the couch so she will have to record her thoughts later!

Walking off our pizza!

RANDOM PIC OF THE DAY BECAUSE I FORGOT TO POST IT YESTERDAY 

& IT MAKES ME LAUGH:

John has deep respect for Churchill.  Roosevelt - not so much.