March 24: The most touristy day (and we forgot our camera, of course)
The Tower of London and London Bridge
As the title suggests, this was our epic tourist day. We started off with the Tower of London when they opened at 10am and immediately joined in on a tour led by an ex-military man in full Yeoman Warder garb. He was extremely animated, playfully racist, and told plenty of interesting stories. We were led into St Paul's chapel, where Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard are commemorated. He joked that we were suckers for paying for tickets into the Tower when you can get in for free if you come to mass on Sundays and they naively expect you to leave and not wander the Tower after visiting the church. He said there's a possibility to get in for free on Saturdays too, after visiting the chapel, but that's usually after a wedding. Apparently, almost every Saturday without fail, people join to proclaim their love on top of "two of the most famous adulterers in history" (his words). Idiots.
I didn't want to be someone to take pictures of him, but he advised that we could look at him on Twitter. His twitter is @billybeefeater. His name was William. I feel like every second person here is called William.
Before we entered the chapel, he warned us twice in a row of tripping over the step as you enter. Before we left the chapel, he warned us again of tripping over the step. As we exited, he stood at the door saying goodbye. Guess who tripped over the step? Pro-tip: it was me.
We continued to walk around and look at an exhibit that didn't actually advertise any of its merits, other than it was the longest running historical exhibit. I think it was of horses or something.
I'm the Ravenmaster. Look at my gloves. And my raven.
When we looked at the crowned jewels, my favourite was this staff that I obviously couldn't photograph. It's an extremely fancy Sailor Moon sceptre.
This lady looks incredibly unimpressed by the state of affairs.
We wandered along the Thames until we came to the Monument, which Nicholas and Craig climbed while I had a coffee downstairs because my arthritis was feeling really bad (pesky Ross River, coming along and punching me in the face right before my trip!!)
Afterwards we went down to the Globe, but my phone was out of battery by this point so we haven't got any pictures. It didn't stick in my head as much as some other parts of the day, except I was shocked that they still use men sometimes for female parts, true Elizabethan style. A few years ago they had a 37 languages in 37 plays, and even represented Maori and Bangladeshi. It was pretty cool. Also, you can still get standing tickets as a "groundling" for super cheap. In Shakespeare's day it was 1p, but now it's 5 pounds, which is still pretty good I reckon. The Globe season starts in about two weeks so we lucked out.
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