Heading to the Tower

 Patient Reader,

I have had complaints about the lack of photos.  Thanks for the input. 

Today, which is sort of day 3, but sort of day 2 (and none of us know what day it REALLY is), the thing (to quote Peggy) was the Tower of London.  We made 1230 reservations, which seems late enough (we have begun to sleep in, which isn’t good given Sunday and Monday), but…

We took the Tube to Embankment and I said maybe there was a place to eat there and we got lucky and found a cafe in the park there.  We had eggs Benedict and breakfast food and fish and not chips (Peggy!). 

The tour guide was chastised (are you counting how many times?) for not knowing all the eating opportunities around the Tower. 

Into the Tower.  We went and grabbed the first tour with a Yeoman Warder (a person who works there — it used to be an actual soldier).  His name was Dan.  Or, if you didn’t like the tour, “John” 😂  There will be more of those.

Quick facts: the Tower was started by William, aka “The Conqueror”, in 1078, so it’s heading toward a grand years old.  It was built (in case you missed it) to guard London from his possible enemies.  It was much expanded in the 13th c.  Currently, the famous moat is now a flower garden.  We discussed how scary it would be as one.  Butch pointed out that they might not attack for fear of ticks in the flower beds.  LoL.

Dan pointed out the Yeoman Warders live in the Tower and pointed out his own residence just up the way; he said this wasn’t an invitation to visit.  :). There will be more of these. 

The big deal these days about the Tower is how people were beheaded who were imprisoned there.  Dan told about the big crowds that would view the executions on the hill outside the Tower.  (30k). He also told the story of James Scott, who was executed in 1685.  The guy muffed it.  He was allegedly very drunk.  It took FiVE wacks to get his head off and kill him.  He was alive after wack number 4.  

But, to add insult to injury, which is hard in this case, they realized they had no portrait of him (he was the king’s son) and grabbed the head, tried to sew it back on, put a scarf around his next and the painter whipped out a portrait.  It hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. 

Now Dan’s line: “And if you go there looking for it, just ask the warder for the painting of the guy with the detached look on his face.”  Groan.

“Now, we’ll be heading…ar ar…around the corner.”

This is the barracks that now houses the Crown Jewels (above).  There are no pictures allowed in this building. 

This is the White Tower — the original part from 1078. 

After Dan we went through the White Tower, now an armaments exhibition.  

Then we went through the Crown Jewels, which had a line that took like 45 minutes to get into the building.  There’s a lot of priceless stuff in there.  Including a wine “vat” that was gold-plated and held 128 bottles of wine.  Right.  Karen said it sounded good.  

Pictures were taken with Tower Bridge (Dan made fun of us thinking it was London Bridge) in the background.  

Then we jumped on a bus and got off at the base of the hill of Covent Garden. 

There we looked at shops, stood and listened to an excellent opera singer, then watched a street performer who underwhelmed us.  “Get on with it…” we still don’t know what his gig really was. 

We then had “drinks,” pregaming dinner. 

Dishoom, our restaurant, was across the street and as Butch and I tried to cross in the middle, Butch tried to die from a bicycler cutting through traffic.  He’s missing hair on one leg. 

Dishoom is a small plates Indian place.  Below are 4 of the 8 things we got.  The tour guide already has heart burn. ):

Their “bowl of greens”

Gunpowder potatoes

House favorite, Ruby Chicken (a sweet curry)

Another big fav, Black Daal.

After stuffing ourselves, we decided to nix the gelato place back across the street (and dying via biker on that street — we went and crossed at the corner) and took the Tube which went with no changes from Leicester Square back to our main stop, Camden Town.

There we found a gelato place, Amorino, a block from the station.  Butch got this, which is famously their gelato flower.

The gelato could also come the a macaron, which Peggy has already eaten by the time the picture was taken.

Back to the flat, where the good guys won both Euchre games (in fairness the one was 9-9). 

We sobbed a bit about it being the last day here tomorrow.  WE got to “the theatre” (you are saying it with the snotty accent,  right?) tomorrow night.  It is the first night of previews of a re-write of one of my favorites, Sheridan’s The Rivals.  At the National.  Fingers crossed.

Now, for the joke, which I have saved for today:  a trio of golfers die and come to heaven.  At St Peter’s gate they are told they are on 6 month probation, so be careful.  They ask to play golf and the ARchangel Michael says “go ahead, but beware of the ducks. YOu kill a duck and you’re punished for eternity.”  A week in and the one guy skulls a shot and kills a duck.  Here comes Michael with an ugly woman in tow in handcuffs.  “Here, you are locked to her for eternity.”   It’s a week later and number two is out playing and does the same thing.  Michael appears with ugly woman.  Handcuffs, eternity, etc.  The third guy is to the end of probation on the golf course, thinking all is good, when Michael appears out of nowhere with a beautiful woman in handcuffs.  He thinks “wow, I’ve hit the jackpot.”  Michael turns to the woman and says “you know what I told you about killing the ducks.” 

Rim shot.  Good night.