London - Day Two

I was up early and on my way to Buckingham Palace before I had wiped the sleep from my eyes. Throngs of people were already crowding the courtyard fence for a front row view of the Changing of the Guard. I couldn't get anywhere near the fence so I found a spot on the street thinking that the guardsmen would be marching past on their way into the palace courtyard. I was right. Two groups of guards wearing black bearskin hats walked past, each preceded by a marching band, before the Horse Guard appeared and trotted down the length of Constitution Hill. I caught a few glimpses of the ceremony before deciding to move on. I walked across town to the Thames and hopped on a tour boat headed to the Tower of London. The vantage point from the river was an interesting way to see the city, really, how the city grew from a trading post to the sprawling metropolis it is today. The boat docked at the Tower Pier across the river from the HMS Belfast and I spent the next few hours touring the old fort, which is now the vault of the Crown Jewels. The Tower of London, started in 1078, was one of the original centers of royal power in London and saw use as an armory, warehouse, and most notably, an infamous prison. Traitors Gate led to an ignoble beheading for many noblemen and women (Lady Jane Grey and Anne Boleyn). The Crown Jewels are the highlight of the Tower. The wealth of the royal family is astonishing, the Imperial State Crown alone, inlaid with almost 3,000 diamonds, hundreds of pearls and other gems, is probably worth more than the GNP of some small countries. The White Tower, the oldest structure within the complex, holds a marvelous collection of armour and weaponry. My next stop was Tower Bridge. This tour took me up to the footbridge high above the roadway and then down into the steam engine room to see the inner workings of the first large scale hydraulic lifting mechanism. The bridge itself is still used by commuter traffic but hasn't been raised for decades. The sun was setting by this time and I started my trip back to Bayswater. I ate dinner at a local pub across the street from the hotel and had my first meat and potatoes and gravy English meal. About the only words I could understand eavesdropping on conversations around me were obscenities and obscenities there were aplenty, that and the forty-ish round-ish English woman extolling the virtues of her husband's bum. Pubs, as they have been for centuries, are still the local meeting places.

My last stop of the day was the hotel bar for a drink and a conversation.