The Changing of the Guard and Tower of London

Buckingham Palace CotG

The double decker bus was our first activity of the day, and with limited time it was an excellent choice to see as much of the city as possible and get our bearings.

The day began sunny and crisp as we headed out with a backpack full of maps, water bottles and jackets for a day of exploring in this unpredictable English climate. Within minutes we were standing in front of Buckingham Palace with the throng of others waiting for the Changing of the Guard.

Beefeater with Randy

The shift change happens three times a day but only twice a week is the formal Changing of the Guard ceremony performed at 11:30 am, weather permitting. It is full of utterly British pomp and circumstance and a hush fell over the crowd as they approached and formally transitioned their posts.

Afterwards, we took a leisurely walk through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens to rest our feet and enjoyed the unexpected parade of off duty guards heading right through the park with a full military band escorting them from the Palace to the Guard House.

Included with the bus trip was a short ride up the Thames from the Palace to the Tower of London and a wonderful vantage point to enjoy the varied skyline with its old and new.

Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park

We floated past the Globe theatre that was painstakingly reconstructed after it was lost in the famous fire of 1666. It is said that the four day fire, which began in a bakery, consumed 85% of the 80,000 inhabitants' homes and destroyed nearly all of London's West Side.

We passed the Golden Hinde and under the London Bridge to the Tower Bridge with its bright blue steel girders, and disembarked.

The West Side and Globe theatre

The sky was darkening and the wind had picked up some but we pressed on to the sights within the walls. The Crown Jewels are here in the - aptly named - Jewel Tower with Queen's Elizabeth II's coronation footage playing in the background. It was thrilling to be here.

Small display of the crowned jewels

Visitors approach the Crown Jewels from two sides and slide gently along on a moving escalator. The precious stones each have a story and it was interesting to see where they were acquired and the variety of crowns and sceptres used through the centuries.

The Tower of London

The Bloody Tower got its name partly from the slaughter of Edward IV's two young sons the eldest of which was heir to the throne. It was widely believed that the boys' uncle, Richard III, had them killed in order to take the throne for himself, which he did in 1483. The boys' remains were eventually discovered in the 17th century during a remodel of the tower. In one of the upper rooms, a video clip from Shakespeare's Richard III continually plays.

The Bloody Tower

This is the room where Sir Walter Raleigh lived until his execution in 1618. 

The White Tower has beautiful displays of weapons and armor used through the centuries by its most famous kings and warriors.  There is even armor for children!

Part of an extensive display

We were invited behind the velvet ropes to peer down through a plexiglas floor to where the Rack stood centuries earlier, and saw cannons that had melted together from the heat of bombs dropped during World War II.

There was a wooden door still in use that dates to 1066 when Charlamagne began construction of the Tower as a keep and grand royal palace. It was centuries before it came to be known as a notorious prison and remains a fallback location for the Royal family in turbulent times.

Private residences

We stood in Anne Asher's cell and imagined her torture and death for being a devout Protestant.  Beefeaters still guard the Crown Jewels and outbuildings today.

We dined at Shakespeare's for world famous fish and chips and a pint before hopping on the bus to see the rest of the city and eventually settling down for the night. What a great day.