Day 2...Tower of London

Day 2

 Good Friday 

" Took the underground to collect our London Visitors Passes.

Then back on the tube to Tower of London. “

Well that was the plan. Sounds so simple really. We were running early for the advertised 10 am opening of the London Visitors Centre so decided to get off 1 tube stop earlier at Green Park and have a wander through the Park. We enjoyed the stroll and got to enjoy Buckingham Palace and her surrounds. The kids found the squirrels to be somewhat more exciting than the palace it seems , especially since , for the first time, they are each armed with cameras. Wow those squirrels can move.  We now have a great collection of around 400 blurry squirrel shots if anyone is interested in a viewing session LOL

We arrived at the visitors centre to find it had been open already for one hour and the queue to collect our passes  stretched from the top floor along the length of the building then down the stairs and almost to the street. Ouch!  In the end we got our passes and headed to the Tower only to be thwarted by the old and unreliable London Underground. We quite literally walked in circles. Got on at one stop , had to get off at the next stop due to line stoppages, followed the signs on foot and ended up right back where we started! In the end we cut our losses and jump in a cab.

The tower was very crowded and with our passes we managed to skip ahead of the ticket line. Woo Hoo…..The boys loved getting to watch an exhibition of medieval firepower  (a traction trebuchet) at work  (see as mother to 3 boys I know my medieval war machines by name!!)   before we joined a yeoman Warder for a tour of the grounds and an insight into its 900 year history. There was a special exhibit  in the White tower of Henry IIIV armour. A celebration of the fact that this year marks 500 years since Henry took the throne.  We visited the chapel (closed to the public by the way unless accompanied by a warder) and also finally late in the day the crown jewels. Light drizzling rain fell during the day on and off and the number of tourists was quite overwhelming. We caught a combination of overcrowded buses (lot of not so nice pushing and shoving) and tube train back to Earls Court where we got the kids subway before helping them into bed. Back to the guidebook to plan tomorrow. A less than perfect day! But hey, look for the good. Tomorrow is another day.