Day 29: London Day 1 - previously called Day 30

 Sorry folks - I seem to have the days mixed up.  This is the first of the blogs that previously only had pictures.  I have now inserted the text to go with it.  It's been a long time coming I know,, but it has been 5 days since I have had internet long enough to fix these up - and now I only have it for one hour, so I'll get done as much as I can.

Day 29:    London Day 1      Saturday  January 8^th

Starting the morning with a much appreciated sleep-in until 9:15, we then breakfasted in the delightful conservatory of our little hotel, which seems more like a guesthouse than a hotel,  before heading out for the day.  We had been introduced to the London Underground last night when we went to the West End, so today we used it to get to Hyde Park and Marble Arch from where we picked up a hop on-hop off bus tour.  This has proved to be another good move as it will take us to all the places we want to see in our two short days in London and being winter, they have a two days for the price of one special.

Our first major stop was at Buckingham Palace, from where we went around to Tower Bridge.   We got off the bus before the bridge and walked over it to the notorious Tower of London.  Unfortunately our timing wasn’t great, as we arrived there only 45 minutes before it closed.  I had misunderstood their closing time, but we still elected to go in and to see what we could in the time available.  We saw the crown jewels and the model of the Cullinen diamond, the biggets diamond in the world which has been cut up for various pieces of obsenely valuable royal jewels.  It was interesting seeing all the various pieces of golden harware that are involved in the coronation, especially seeing that it won’t be too long before they are used again.

By 4:30, when we left the Tower, it was dark and very cold.   We made our way to St Paul’s Cathedral to check out the times for tomorrow’s services.  We had a tasty dinner and a nice red wine at an Irish pub, then made our way back to the Tower, this time for the Ceremony of the Keys, for which we had successfully applied for tickets.  This is the ceremony, that has been carried out every night without fail for the last 700 years, to lock up the gates to the Tower.  They only let about fifty view it each night, and you have to apply for tickets weeks in advance.   We felt very priveledged to have been given tickets.   By the time we had stood in the freezing wind for about an hour waiting for it to start though, we felt less priveledged!  There are strictly no photos allowed, so unfortunately I cannot post any of it on the blog.  Basically however,it is a ceremony of fifteen minutes or so  when four guards go by lamp light with the keys to lock first the outer gate then the inner gate.  On returning to the centre of the castle they are challenged by a Queen’s guard who asks, “Halt, who comes there?”   One guard replies that it is the Queen’s keys and the guard says, “Pass Queen’s keys, all is well.”   The four guards then march towards the White Tower (the first – William the Conqueror -  of the several towers which make up The Tower of London) .  The Last Post is played and then the keys are taken to the monarch (or in current days, the keeper of The Tower).