London, Tuesday

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Today we let ourselves sleep until around 9:30am, since our bodies still think it’s the middle of the night. We grabbed breakfast in the Concierge Lounge and headed out to Greenwich Pier to get on a Thames River cruise that was included in our London Pass.

An hour and a half later… We missed the cruise that we had planned to get on and the one after that, because we severely underestimated how long it would take to get from our hotel in Maida Vale to Greenwich.

We had planned to get on the 11:20 cruise, but it ended up taking us over an hour to get there and we had to wait for the 12:40 cruise. We had some time to kill so we walked over to see Cutty Sark, which is an old British clipper ship. It was one of the last tea clippers ever built and apparently one of the fastest. It was pretty cool because much of the original ship is still intact. One theme from London so far is how amazed I am at all of the incredible things that were built so long ago without the aid of modern technology.

The Royal Observatory is also in this neighborhood, which is the location of the Prime Meridian. Basically it’s where longitude is 0 degrees, or the border of the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. We also walked around Greenwich Park, which was right up the street from Greenwich Pier.

We finally got onto our cruise and headed east down the Thames, where we got off at Millennium Pier to see the Tower of London. The name is a little misleading because it’s a bunch of different towers, but that’s beside the point. Most everything that we’ve decided to do so far has been included on the London Pass we bought, that we’ve found to be really useful. We walked around to several of the towers and exhibits and went to the see some of the Crown Jewels on display here.

I decided to take a quick Go-Pro video of some of the crowns, even though I’d seen the signs that said no photography. BIG MISTAKE. One of the ladies working there saw me and pressed a button that dropped a cage over me, and subsequently the SWAT team (or Royal equivalent) showed up to haul me away. At least that’s how it went in my mind. In reality, she was just awfully rude and demanded that I delete my video. I didn’t have any legal obligation to do so and I definitely was not persuaded by her snooty condescension, but I politely obliged much to Michelle’s relief. I think in those kinds of situations, I only behave because I’m married to a lovely woman who deserves much better than for me to embarrass her in public with my prideful ways. Thank you Lord!

Anyway, we left the Tower of London, took a few pictures of the Tower Bridge and headed towards Westminster Abbey. We were going to get back onto the river cruise boat, because we had a full day ticket, but we missed the one leaving from Millennium Pier by about 30 seconds. Back to the subway for us!

We walked around Westminster Abbey for about an hour, and I just could not get over how incredible this church was. It was hard to wrap my mind around how detailed and intricate the church was. From the ceilings, altars, chapels, and monuments, it was just incredible. It was also cool to hear about how Westminster Abbey is used in the Royal Family. The Coronation Chair that they still use today has been used in every coronation since the 1300’s!

It had started to rain by the time we were leaving, and Chelle and Blake were tired (me too…), so we headed back get a late lunch and then to the hotel for a quiet evening. We haven’t cared to be out past 5 or so because 1) it’s always raining, 2) we’re tired, 3) we’re an old married couple who does not have time or patience of late night shenanigans.

Love and miss you all!

Taylor and Michelle