With that said it's on with the blog. I wasn't going to include a map of the route as you should all know where London is, but then I thought of puting Salisbury into context. It's 90 miles by car (OK so we think in miles when in the UK - backward I know, but they haven't yet embraced the 20th Century concept of common metric units - 90 miles = 144 km). It's about an hour and a half by train, which gets in to Waterloo station. The google map approximates the route.
Westminster Abbey
26th October 2012
Really, there is not a great deal to say about this day out.
I had to pop into the High Commission for a brief visit while Cal went shopping.
We then met up at Westminster to cross off some dead monarchs :-). It was a good
deal more interesting than that though :-). Along the way to the High
Commission I stopped to take a photo or two. There is a weird sculpture just
out of Waterloo station – but the other two pics are easily recognisable.
After paying our £16 to get in to the Abbey we wandered around the many
tombs in Westminster. Apparently, x-rays have shown that there’s stupid amount
of people buried under the flagstones – the number of runs into the thousands,
but I can’t remember exactly how many. We walked from the north entrance to the
main west door, where the tomb of the unknown soldier is, and then on through
the quire. On the outside of the quire were the tombs of many famous
scientists, including Sir Isaac Newton, and a memorial to Charles Darwin –
which we found quite bizarre given that Darwin was a self acknowledged
agnostic.
Of course the main reason we were there was to see the tombs
of lots of English monarchs. Again, without cameras it will simply be a case of
our word. After we went through the quire we asked a steward if it was possible
to see the tomb of Edward the Confessor – the answer was “yes” but only if you
participate in the afternoon prayer session at the shrine of Edward the
Confessor – let us think about that for a second . . . OK, we’ll participate in
prayer.
The prayers at the tomb were quite fascinating, and it was
very Roman Catholic in the approach – it was an intercession through Edward to
God, rather than Christ interceding on our part. Cal and I just made our
prayers personal, so we were OK with the focus of the prayers – we just did our
own thing in how we went about them and the saying out loud of them. After the
prayers we had an opportunity to kneel at Edward’s tomb (there are about 6
spots where you can get real close) – we passed on that, but did take the
opportunity to view the tombs of St Edward the Confessor (no kidding) and the
tombs of Henry III, Edward I (not the confessor), Edward III and Richard II.
After this, we viewed the tomb of Henry V, who died in 1422,
and whose chantey at the east end of Edward the Confessor’s shrine was
completed in 1431. We then went on to the Lady Chapel that held the tombs of
many of the monarchs:
Henry VII
Edward VI
Mary
Elizabeth I
James I
James VI
Charles II
Mary II
William III
Anne
George II
Some were highly ornate, whilst others were a simple
flagstone measuring no more than 30cm square laid in the floor (George II for
example). We both found the tomb of Elizabeth and Mary fascinating. Whilst both
had been part of a power struggle, with Elizabeth succeeding Mary on Mary’s
death in 1558, they share the same tomb (with an effigy of Elizabeth, not
Mary). The Latin inscription on their tomb: Regno consortes et urna, hic obdormimus
Elizabetha et Maria sorores, in spe resurrectionis (affixed there by James VI
of Scotland when he succeeded Elizabeth as King James I of England) translates
to "Consorts in realm and tomb, here we sleep, Elizabeth and Mary,
sisters, in hope of resurrection”.
Defence Autumn Reception
26th November 2012
Cal and I received an invitation to the Defence Autumn
reception, which was held on 26th November (closer to winter than autumn, but
there you are). We took the opportunity to visit the Christmas lights that are
on display along Oxford Street. As it
happened, we were there at about 4 pm, which was plenty dark to see the lights.
After a wander around we also did some shopping at Debenham's for Cal (hair
straightener) and TM Lewin and Savile Row for some shirts for Mark (sounds expensive, but it wasn't really: £20-25 per shirt, or about $30-40 for good quality business shirts is a good price).
It was then down to the High Commission for the reception in the highly decorated Bruce room. However, it's not all play, and there was work to be done in the form of networking and flying the flag.
When it was polite to do so (and quite well into the evening), Cal and I took our leave of the
High Commission, along with a colleague from Dstl and his wife and went to an
Indian restaurant for a very late dinner. It was quite an experience, as it was (in our
view) very authentic Indian, although I don't think it went down too well with
our UK friends who, whilst liking Indian, would have been more
comfortable with the more English kind!
The Tower of London
8th December 2012
Having exhausted the local supply of places to visit, it was
time to head off to old London town and visit the tower. So Cal and I headed
off to the station and caught the train to London. The train from Salisbury to
London takes about and hour and a half and costs anywhere from £73.60 each at peak periods
to £23.65 off-peak with a rail card . . . guess which option we chose.
When we got to the tower (after a couple of changes on the
tube) it was a case of lining up for 30 minutes. We wanted to buy a pass for
the Historic Royal Palaces, which gives us access to all the HRPs for a much
reduced price (in fact it’s about 1.5 times the cost of just the visit to the
tower to cover us for all the palaces). So anyway, after a 30 minute queue it
was a case of “oh, you could have gone to that window over there “ (no queue –
thanks for that ☺). So, we
got our tickets, just at the time that Cal decided to use some of her unspent
broadband and Skype Jess ☺.
It was a brilliant blue sky – cold day! Cal even got the sunnies on (with her portable blanket wrapped around her). Here are some of the
sights that were on the outside (whilst we were queuing) – there was even a
portable ice-rink in the moat.
With the HRP pass it was straight into the palace . . . only
to wait for the next tour that start-ed in about 30 minutes . . . no wonder the
Poms love their queues. Whilst waiting we spied some interesting sculptures
that were too good to pass up taking a photo or two – the one of Cal has a
trebuchet is in the background – cool.
Eventually “Steve” turned up and gave us a very interesting
tour. We both agree that Steve was far more entertaining that our tour guide of
11 years ago . . . “Derek” was a bit pompous. The tour was much the
same – which is hardly surprising given that the tow-er has been there since
the late 11th century – so why would it change in the last 11 years ☺.
Typical sights including the various towers, accommodations
and the water gate – with the same lame joke about England having a Water Gate
well before the Americans.
This time we had a quest – a chance to see the tomb of Lady
Jane Grey – the uncrowned queen of nine days in July of 1553. She is buried in
the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula ("St. Peter in chains") –
which is the parish church of the Tower of London. It is situated within the
Tower's Inner Ward and dates from 1520. We also saw the tombs of Anne Boleyn
and Catherine Howard, the second wife, and fifth wife of Henry VIII,
respectively. After all, having legally executed one wife, why not do it again?
It was quite something to stand near where the executions happened – there is
now a beautiful glass memorial at the site – as well as seeing the places where
they were buried.
The White Tower dominates the precinct, and the view of
tower bridge is quite something.
Opposite the White Tower is the Waterloo Block – in which
the Crowned Jewels are kept. We didn’t go in on this visit – we’ll need to do
it before the summer tourist hoards turn up (and may need to look at a weekday.
The queue on this cold (albeit sunny) winter day was still quite something.
Along the way we found a bear who couldn’t resist playing up
– not only in the cannon, but also sitting on an ancient privy in the White
tower. There was also another one of the sculptures, but with Cal’s knees the
way they are it was not possible for her to climb the stairs to get there.
We did, however, find a memorial of sorts to the place where
Edward V was reputedly found, along with Richard his brother – the Princes in
the tower. It’s a fascinating story of Royal intrigue and murder.
Following King Edward IV’s death, when Edward V was 12 year old, Richard (King Edward IV’s brother) was nominated as Protector during the minority of the Kings son. King Edward V and his brother Richard were taken to the Tower for their protection, but the coronation was repeatedly postponed.
Following King Edward IV’s death, when Edward V was 12 year old, Richard (King Edward IV’s brother) was nominated as Protector during the minority of the Kings son. King Edward V and his brother Richard were taken to the Tower for their protection, but the coronation was repeatedly postponed.
Shortly after taking up residence in the tower, “evidence”
was presented (in a sermon - so it must be true . . . right Jeff?) that Edward IV’s marriage was invalid, thus making
Edward V illegitimate – and, following an act of parliament, Richard was
declared to be the legitimate king and was crowned three days later. After
Richard III's accession, the princes were gradually seen less and less within
the Tower, and within a few months they had disappeared from public view
altogether. Their fate remains unknown, but it is generally believed that they
were murdered – and the principle suspect was King Richard III himself.
Of course, the visit to the White Tower would be incomplete
without a visit to the armoury, which includes the armour of Henry VIII,
ceremonial Japanese armour for James I, the armour of Charles I and James II.
The crowing glory was the pride of Henry VIII.
There was also the
ten 17th century carved and painted wooden horses on view in the White Tower.
They were commissioned by the Crown and on show during Victorian times when the
display was known as “The Line of Kings”. The Line of Kings exhibit was
re-established at the White Tower in 1997.
What armoury would be complete without an artistic display
of weapons – and here is one made into a sculpture of a dragon. The picture of
the “dwarf and the giant” is actually armour thought to be made for Prince
Charles (before he became Charles I) and that of a tall German man, given as a
diplomatic gift to the drown. The small armour is 95 cm tall, and the giant
armour is 205 cm tall – they breed them big in Brunswick Germany (so don’t
invade them).
This is supposedly the axe that killed Anne Boleyn – it was out of the glass cabinet when we visited in 2002.
Also on display was a pound. During the reign of Henry VII (1485-1509), a coin was issued with a value of one pound (also called a Sovereign). One gold Sovereign = one pound = 240 silver pennies.
The following pictures are of scenes in and around the Tower.
