After having accidentally worn myself out from walking miles upon miles in the Westminster part of London yesterday, I decided to take the bus straight to the Tower of London today.
*A tip for traveling to London: upon arrival immediately buy an oyster card for metro and bus travel it makes all the difference, those cool double-decker buses cap out at 4.50 a day regardless of how much you travel on them and the metro isn’t too bad within zones.
The Tower’s is located near a wharf and the river Thames, there is the famous Tower Bridge right next door. It’s an incredibly old building and a strange sight to see against the modern business high rises surrounding it. Inside holds the White Tower, the original castle to the first French/English King, the Crown Jewels (go immediately, I waited 30 minutes but as I was leaving I saw a line tapering around the castle parameter. ), and the armory. It’s an impressive sight considering its historical impact but the most touristy place I’ve visited by far.
After the rain drenched Tower I hopped back on the bus to St. Paul’s Cathedral, notable for it’s dome.
The church has been built 5 times over the course the last fifteen hundred years. The version standing is not too terribly old, it was built at the end of the 1600’s. History is weird in England because something like this is relatively new compared to say the Tower whose foundations existed during the Roman Empire. I won’t belabor the history because those of you reading this probably know English history far better than I, so I’ll talk of my favorite feature — The Golden Gallery. The Gallery is really just the walk to the top of Cathedral with a view of through the oracle at the center and a round catwalk outside. Entering the Cathedral I didn’t expect to wander the catwalk that surrounds the dome at the top, this was a welcome surprise.
Because I’m a glutton for punishment I walked about 35 minutes to the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square, pictured in my previous post. The Gallery was my second favorite place to visit besides the British Museum. Though I enjoyed the Italian and Dutch Masterworks I found the more contemporary artwork by Degas and Cezanne to be the most exciting. I suppose you see more of them in my next post from France.
*I decided not to include pictures of the artwork because I figure they’ve been photographed before and far better than I would be able to. The ones I like I’ll try and buy as postcards for remembrance.
I’m travelling as I post this, so there won’t be much to say about today’s trip to Paris. The train is peaceful and I relish the time to stay put for a second. I learned that I tried too much in London. My Paris trip will be a quieter more culturally reflective time …I hope.
*A final postscript. I’d like to edit the language of these posts considerably but for the moment I don’t have the time, therefore bare with me as I try and find a good medium between posts, pictures, and editing. Thanks.
Going East 