3rd day / 16th. London wall, Tower of London, Westminster, Buckingham Palace

[all photos I took on 16th: http://picasaweb.google.com/110144623598348247797/20110116?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ2V_onhuqX7Cw# ]

Had big plans for today. I wanted to get to the Tower of London early enough to see lots of stuff. When I was there the day before, I saw that the old London city wall used to end at the tower of london and that they had a kind of walk plotted out which went along that route. I planned to walk along it to the tower of london. They didn't have any pamphlets with a map so I had to mark onto my map the rough position of where it was.

I walked from my hostel toward the river front so that I could walk along there and maybe see some things. Today the sun was out for the first time I think. I saw sky not filled with cloud!

The road along the river was filled with some pretty impressive mansions.

My dodgy map didn't really help me much. I couldn't find any reference to the wall, although I'm not sure much reference exists for most of it. Apparently they don't print the pamphlet anymore.

Some narrow alley-ways as I'm trying to find some reference to the wall.

The shell of a church. The signs didn't seem to think it was a big deal that the inside is missing. Either that, or I have forgotten what it said.

I found "G.F. Watt's Memorial to Heroic Sacrifice". It was a wall which had the names and descriptions of death of people who died sacrificing themself to save someone else. Interesting concept. As I was looking at this, I saw my first squirrel!

The squirrel in question.

Old grave stones with inscriptions now worn away.

Finally found some of the wall! It was quite a big chunk. Pretty cool to see this, considering how old it would be.

This chunk was right next to the Museum of London. I wasn't looking for it, but since it was there I decided to have a look. I only looked at the roman section, since I was asking the lady about that and so she took me there. They had lots of cool roman artifacts: a collection of 20 or so roman coins (from AD 70 I think), a ladder used for a well, grooming implements, lots of other stuff, and a head from the statue of some Roman Caesar that had been cut off, thrown into the Thames, and found centuries later! They also had some pretty cool displays, with models of the buildings and town layouts. I didn't stay very long though because I wanted to make sure I had enough time for the Tower. I headed out, on my way again.

The lady at the museum said there wasn't really any more wall. But I found this chunk. It's next to the road "London Wall Road".

I think the wall on the left of this chuch is part of the old wall as well. The church is "London Wall Church" or something like that.

Out the front of the Tower of London they have this big chunk.

Main entrance to the castle.

Some rooms above the Widow's Gate.

Cool looking houses. I don't think these ones are replicas. Hooray!

 Made it to the castle!

'White Tower' in the centre. Construction started in 1078.

Inside the White Tower they had a really good collection of armor.

Henry VIIth's armour. Made for when he was 17 or so.

Henry VIIth's armour for when he was a bit older.

Charles I armour.

Armour made for a small child, and another made for a huge man.

Each floor in the White Tower has a bunch of museum-y stuff in it.

Throughout the place there is lots of carved grafiti left by the prisoners who were kept there. Most were made by famous people, or had interesting stories behind it. This one is by someone who was accused of performing witchcraft on someone. He admitted to dabbling in it but said he had stopped it ages ago. This carving shows an astrological type thing.

The Tower of London kind has two enclosing outer walls, with lots of buildings and towers coming off from those walls, and then a few quite big buildings in the middle. I spent quite a few hours checking out all the buildings, reading stuff about what went on there.

It was getting quite cold and I'd seen most things. So I went and got an oyster card and caught the tube to Westminster. You add money to the card, and then you just swipe it whenever you want to enter the underground. It promises to do a pretty good job of charging you the cheapest rate. It's a great system.

Westminster abbey.

The front of Westminster Abbey.

 I came to Westminster Abbey. They were closed to visitors but open to other. They had an organ recital on in about an hour, so I discovered Mcdonald's role as the provider of toilets, walked down Parliament Street, saw Downing Street (it was barred off with police and so on), and then waited around for a bit. After waiting for quite a while, a lady came out and said that the whole thing was off. No organ recital. They were doing a special tribute to Haiti or something.

Random blurry nightshot of stuff I saw wandering deserted streets behind Parliament Street.

Then I walked up Birdcage Street (or avenue or something) toward Buckingham Palace. It was a bit darkened, so I wasn't sure if I'd get mugged. But it was only 6pm or so, and lots of others seemed to be walking aroundfreely, so I went strolling through King's Park. Didn't take any pictures since they wouldn't have come out.

The start of Birdcage Street. Looking down sort of to where Buckingham Palace is situated.

Me at Buckingham Palace.

Walked back down here, parallel to where I came, heading toward Trafalgar Square.

There were no tube stations around here (the ease of the oyster card means I'm a little lasier). So I headed toward Trafalgar Square. Hoping to see Picadilly Circus and all of that stuff.

I think I found it. There were lots of cool lights and stuff. I was quite hungry, so I found a place and got a meal of spaghetti bolognaise. The food here seems to be very cheap! The meal was GBP 7 or so. Which I think is something like $10.5 australian. I ended my day about there.