Day 13

This was a very long, but awesome first day in London. The luggage and passport control system was very smooth. Due to our delay in leaving Johannesburg and a small delay on the ground in London we were slightly late to meet our driver, but it all worked out.

Since our previous 2 drives in London were just to and from the train station to the airport, I was excited to actually get to see the real city center today. It was about a 40 minute drive to our hotel, and we arrived at about 9:45. We are staying in the neighborhood of Mayfair, close to Hyde Park. Our room was obviously not ready at that time of the morning, so we checked in, dropped off our luggage, and then headed out to do a little exploring of the immediate area and maybe grab some coffee.

We did walk around a small part of the neighborhood and found a cafe in a small hidden square. Coffee and a cinnamon bun really hit the spot! After a bit more of a walk, we made our way back to the hotel to meet our tour guide, Roxy. I had planned this part of our trip with the help of a London concierge travel planner I had found on a London travel page on Facebook. This wonderful lady helped me schedule drivers, tours, and tour guides. We will have two separate guides while we are here….one that will be with us for London and Windsor, and one who will be with us in The Cotswolds.

Our London guide is a fabulous woman named Roxy, and we spent six amazing hours with her today touring St. Paul’s Cathedral and The Tower of London. Someone or something in the universe has decided to gift us with our London version of Ranger James. Her tours were so in depth and full of great historical facts that were presented in a super interesting, yet easy to understand format! On our wat to St. Paul’s she pointed out Trafalgar Square, which is one of the most popular tourist spots in London. When we got to St. Paul’s, she talked a lot about the history of the cathedral, which had been rebuilt several times since it’s first inception in 604! (Yes, 6-0-4!) It was destroyed and re-built several times due to fires and wars, the most famous of which was the Great Fire of 1666, which ended up destroying 80% of what was London at that time. The current cathedral was completed in 1710, and is known especially for it’s iconic dome.

This cathedral was made even more famous and popular in 1981 when Prince Charles and Lady Diana were married there. The front steps of the Cathedral were a crucial piece of her entrance that day, as her 25-foot train flowed behind her down the steps. The iconic dome is considered especially important, as it was one of the few structures that survived The Blitz during WWII.

Roxy led us inside and gave great information about some of the statues and artwork inside. This was after we picked our jaws up off the floor upon entering. Magnificent isn’t really a strong enough word for what you see when you walk inside. We then learned that for the bravest and fittest visitors, there was the option to climb FIVE HUNDRED STEPS up to the base of the dome and enjoy fantastic 360° views of the city. Roxy asked us if we’d like to do this, and Jeff of course said yes!

I won’t lie and say the climb was easy, but in the end the views from the top were indeed spectacular. The cathedral was built to very specific specifications, one being that the distance from the base of the dome to the floor of the cathedral had to be exactly 365 feet, to represent each day of the year. Once we made the trip back down the 500 steps, we visited the American chapel, built in honor of the Americans who died fighting alongside the British in WWII. We then headed down to the basement level, or crypt. This is were approximately 300 famous Londoners are buried. This level had magnificent artwork and sculptures as well.

We then left the cathedral and headed to a nearby pub for lunch. Jeff had a “full English Breakfast, ” that included Black Pudding. Black Pudding is a traditional English food made of pigs blood. Jeff said it was okay, and he was a trooper to try it! I had another common British food…a cheese sandwich with caramelized onion chutney. It was great!

After lunch we grabbed a taxi to The Tower of London. I didn’t really know a lot about it before going, other than it housed the Crown Jewels, some of which were seen and talked about a couple of years ago when Charles had his Coronation as King. The Tower is a historic citadel and castle on the north bank of the River Thames in London. It was founded toward the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest. A grand palace early in its history, it served as a royal residence. As a whole, the Tower is a complex of several buildings set within two concentric rings of defensive walls and a moat, which is no longer in existence.

It was on this tour that we got the truly fascinating history of all the Kings and Queens that had lived there ftom William I, also known as William the Conqueror to James I. Hearing the stories of these complicated monarchs and how they came to power and ruled was super fascinating. Many modern day shows depict these years, most notably Game of Thrones. I’ve never watched it, but after hearing the history I think I will! Of course we toured the famous exhibition of the Crown Jewels, which was stunning. The most interesting piece is a diamond that is 310 carats and sits in the crown of the current monarch. 310 carats might sound outrageous, but that diamond was cut from the largest diamond ever found, which was a whopping 3100 carats. Yes. 3100 carats. There is a picture in the exhibition of the man who discovered it in 1905 in South Africa, holding the entire stone, which is pretty wild!

The last place we toured in the castle was an exhibition of all the various armor worn by the monarchs over the years. This included armor for their horses as well! Since we got a later than planned start at the Tower, and took one coffee break in the middle, we ended up staying almost until the whole thing closed down at 5:30. We had been touring for 6 hours straight after an overnight international flight, and it was finally starting to hit me. Time to get back to our hotel, unpack a bit and crash, because were driving to Windsor tomorrow to go to a church service at St. George’s Chapel and then get a tour of the castle. So far, London has NOT disappointed!!