Its a long weekend here in the UK. A bank holiday on Monday. The plan was to go to Bath for the day, but there is so much to see and do there a day was not going to be enough. So we postponed Bath until we can stay for a weekend.
We (Pramod and I) decided to do another London Walk, this one starting at Tower Hill and ending at St Paul's Cathedral. The day was again quite nice. Sunny periods and temperatures around 20 degrees. I used my sunglasses here for the first time since I got here.
We caught the Number 15 bus on Edgware Rd which makes its way to Tower Hill via Oxford St. Oxford and Regent streets were packed with people here for the long weekend. There are a lot of tourists about with their fold out maps stopped in all sorts of places and filling up the London tour buses. I realised that I forgot to re-sych my ipod after I added the walking tour mp3 to iTunes, so we had to head back home to get it. We were walking about on Regent St trying to get a bus back home when we went right past Elle McPherson with her kids. She is so bloody tall. Anyway, we caught a bus back home, had some sandwiches from the M&S near our place and headed back to the start of the walk.
We began the walk outside Tower Hill tube station. The first thing we saw was the big sundial on the observation deck made from stone and bronze. The sundial is about 6m in diameter and on the outer edge there were very details carvings on the history of transport in London. To the left of the observation desk is the remains of the ancient Roman wall which used to surround London.
Across the road is the Tower of London. The Tower of London is a set of buildings and towers surrounded by defensive walls and a moat(now drained). The Tower of London was used as a royal palace, a fortress and a prison with some very high profile prisoners such as Queen Elizabeth I, Anne Boleyn and Catharine Howard. The White Tower was built by William the Conquerer to protect the City of London from outside invaders. Currently the Crown Jewels are held there.
We walked under the road on a walkway which emerged next to the Tower of London. We followed the path around the Tower of London to the Tower Bridge. The Tower Bridge is famous for the fact that it lifts to let tall ships and tankers through. There is a Tower Bridge exhibition that you can visit, but we didn't go in as there were two many people. The history of this bridge is interesting and I think its worth going to the exhibition if you're an engineering buff. We continued across the Tower Bridge with nice views of the Thames on either side. Then we followed the Thames path on the south bank past the snail like City Hall building and the permanently docked HMS Belfast (a WWII gunship converted to a museum). There were tonnes of people about eating ice cream and sitting around the lush green park area.
We left the Thames path momentarily to go through the Hayes Galleria (converted old wharf) with its beautiful ceiling and past the Clink prison to arrive near the London Dungeon and Britain At War exhibition. The area around here is close to several hospitals including the Guys Hospital. We rejoined the Thames path and followed it through to the Globe theatre. Here we stopped the podcast momentarily to sit by the theatre and take a look around. The Globe seems quite small from the outside. The entrance has a beautifully gothic iron gate with miniature figures of animals and symbols etc. While we were sitting by the water a performance of King Lear finished. The doors opened and we could see into the theatre stage where the actors were taking their bows. I can't wait for next month when we go to see A Midsummer Nights Dream :) at the Globe. Loads of people filed out of the Globe and followed the Thames path along the south bank to cross via the Millennium bridge.
We waited for a while people watching then continued on to across the Millennium bridge(aka wobbly bridge) which famously had to be closed a few days after it opened due to oscillations (unfortunately its quite stable now). The Millennium bridge starts on the side of Tate Modern which is an art gallery in a converted old power station, and quite hideous looking. The walk across the bridge gives great views of the Thames to either side. Looking straight on we are faced with the dome of the St Paul's cathedral getting bigger and clearer with each step.
St Paul's cathedral is a beautiful bit of architecture to say the least. The current version was built by Christopher Wren after the previous one was burnt down in the great London fire. St Paul's is the main Anglican cathedral in London which housed some very famous events such as the wedding of Charles and Diana, the funerals of Winston Churchill, Lord Nelson & Duke of Wellington. Its free to go inside the main section. A must see for everyone I think for its beauty, tranquility, amazing architecture and history. Its also possible to get great views of London from the various viewing galleries at different levels of the cathedral. I think you have to pay for that priviledge also there are some 500 steps to get there, another time maybe. The cathedral steps are a nice spot to stop and take a breather which is what we did.
The walk then lead us to the other side of the cathedral to the Temple Bar, a structure that marked the gateway to the City of London some 200 years ago. This structure was originally on Fleet st, but since had many homes before it was moved to its current location. The Temple Bar leads to the Paternoster Square with a tall decorative column and a statue of "Shepherd and Sheep".. hmmm. Of course there is a Starbucks in there too just like everywhere else in London.
So overall a very nice walk/tour of some London sights. Learned a lot of history and interesting facts. Its amazing how so many interesting things are in such a concentrated area. So it was back on the bus home before the now darkened sky opened up. Hmmmm what should we have for dinner?
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