The apartment accommodation was a 20 minute walk to Tower Bridge and Tower of London. Each morning included a stop at a local Starbucks at Saint Katharine Docks Marina for breakfast with a chat about the day ahead before heading off to the attractions.
I had put together an itinerary on Sygic Travel’s site, but I knew that I needed to be flexible if I was going to get to see the things I really wanted to. The great thing about traveling is you tend to shift things around, and this day proved that.
We decided to go to Tower Bridge and Tower of London since they were right next door to each other. I knew that I wanted to know more about the famous bridge that people often mistake as ‘London Bridge’, so we started there first.
Tower Bridge
You start in the North Tower on the bottom floor by the Thames river, taking an elevator up to the East/West walkways. For our ride up, there was a nice attendant who was job is to make sure the elevator isn’t overcrowded and no shenanigans were happening. In true British fashion, she had a wicked sense of humor and traded a few fun quips with Ben and I while we rode up.
When you get up to the to the main viewing walkway, you’re greeted with a glass enclosure that shows the bridge from it’s best interior angle, while allowing you to view the Thames and city from high above. You can watch people walk across the bridge, while cars whizz by.
The history of the bridge is fascinating. The original bridge, built in the early 1800’s, became congested and impassable by the late 1800’s. A contest was held in 1876 to have a new bridge designed and built. Two years later, Horace Jones, the city’s Architect and Surveyor, proposed a bridge design. It would take another 7 years for an engineer to be appointed (John Wolfe Barry), and together they presented a new design proposal, the bridge you see today, which was accepted by Parliament. Construction began the following year in 1886, and eight years later in 1894, the bridge officially opened to traffic.
An interesting historical fact: while rumors swirled that the Germans bombed the Tower, the bridge was never attacked during World War II. Rather, it was used as a landmark for enemy planes to navigate.
Throughout the day, many ships pass underneath. There is a digital display that can tell you every ship scheduled to come through, and if you time it right, you may even be able to witness the bridge being lifted to allow through any ship too tall to pass underneath the Tower.
After spending some time perusing the info about the Tower and taking in the surroundings, the path then took us to the South Tower where you can go down to what they call the ‘Walk of Fame’, the sidewalk under the bridge that you can see people walking on. As we headed down, we stopped on the level where you can watch a quick movie and see the inside architecture of steel beams. High up are statues depicting the steel workers who worked so high up in the structure to complete their tasks.
Next we went down to walk across the Walk of Fame to the Engine Rooms. Furnaces awaited as we perused the log entry books and the inner workings of the Tower. I was enthralled with all the shapes, gears juxtaposed with tools and other equipment hanging on the walls. Compositions jumped out to me, and I snapped pictures trying to capture the essence of what I was seeing.
Passing through, we ended in the rooms where the employees of the Tower from opening to 1976 are showcased, the days when maintaining the tower were difficult and required 80 people to keep the bridge functional. The bridge was switched to electric power from coal, requiring less people to man it from then on. Seeing the stories of the employees from their memoirs showed just how challenging, interesting, and often dangerous their jobs were, but fulfilling for them.
After a quick stop in the shop to purchase souvenirs, it was on to Tower of London.
Tower of London
As we entered the yard, it started raining lightly. We waited for the Yeoman in the covered entryway to show up to direct the tour group. He arrived with flare, ushering us into the courtyard with jests and military precision. While stern and proper, he was quite funny, showing the typical British humor while playing with the crowd.
After introductions of himself and telling us what it takes to become a Yeoman (many many years of military service) and talking about the history of the Tower, he led us into the Church of St. Peter and Vincula, the onsite chapel, and talked about the history of it all. It is known as the burial location of several famous people, including Anne Boleyn. You aren’t allowed to take pictures inside, but it is amazing to see it and hear the history. The Yeoman ended his part of the tour, thanked us for coming, and asked us to exit the chapel to allow other tour groups to come in.
We then headed off to see the crowned jewels, The White Tower, Royal Beasts, and the Ravens. We took a couple hours just wandering around, marveling at the pieces on exhibit, the history, and the architecture.
We hadn’t had lunch, so we stopped for a snack at the onsite cafeteria. By this time, we were pretty touristed out, so we headed out. I could feel myself getting a bit of a hunger headache, but it wasn’t quite time for us to head to dinner, so we stopped in the gift shop for a bit to see what was being peddled, and how much they were over charging, as is the case with most touristy spots.
We had hoped to try to get a spot at Coppa Club for dinner, hoping we could sit in one of the outdoor igloos that had been built. Unfortunately, they were totally booked, so I just took some pics and we moved on. Ben commented how the way the receptionist acted was typical of more posh restaurants, and if he had been dressed a tad bit nicer, we probably would have gotten a table. Knowing that Ben was always dressed way more upscale than I ever do, I was baffled at his comment, but he assured me it was so. I had put on a dress with tights and a pair of flats, and I wasn’t feeling very dressed up at all. I shrugged and we moved on.
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Quick Jaunt Around The Financial District
We decided to do a walk around the financial district, since The Gherkin (30 Mary Axe) was within a short walk from the restaurant.
It was quitting time, and boy was it evident. As we passed packed and overflowing pubs, I marveled at the city life, drawing correlations to Boston. At one pub, a guy was ordering pints for coworkers, then passing them out the door to their waiting hands. It seemed a bit strange; I’m used to large venues with plenty of indoor/outdoor space to accommodate crowds of 30 people like I was seeing. Ben commented that this too wasn’t unusual, and I again felt what I missed out on not having traveled before.
Walking up to The Gherkin, I began taking pictures, noting just how difficult it is to get it all in one shot. But modern architecture amazes me, so I started taking pictures of the glass and the way the designer weaved them to form a spiral, replicated over and over in the design. After a few minutes we continued on. I struggled a bit to get Google Maps to find the next stop, since I hadn’t downloaded maps in the area ahead of time. I got just a glimmer of WiFi to get us back on the path to 110 Bishopgate, or as most know it these days, Salesforce Tower.
I had wanted to check it out to see what was considered the world’s largest privately owned indoor aquarium. Loving the ocean the way I do, I’m always excited to see what types of fish occupy various tanks, and this was no different.
Formerly Heron Tower, it is the tallest building in London’s financial district and the third tallest in Greater London and the United Kingdom, after the Shard in Southwark and One Canada Square at Canary Wharf. the aquarium was installed in 2010, though the building didn’t officially open until 2011.
The aquarium holds 18,490 gallons of water and holds over 1,200 species of fish from Heron Island, which is located near the Great Barrier Reef. Just seeing the the fish swimming back and forth in their environment relieved some of the headache.
Unfortunately, since we didn’t have business with any of the tenants in the building and weren’t heading up to one of the 2 restaurants that sit at the top, we were abruptly turned away by security. I kindly asked if I could take some pictures of the tank, but the security guard, who eyed me as if I was the world’s worst criminal who had just asked to be given special compensation, gruffly told me to leave. As I turned away and walked back out the revolving door, I was starting to feel like we were gonna strike out all evening!
Ben did his best to console me, asking if I thought I could get pictures through the glass. Unfortunately the tank was too far across the lobby and my phone camera just couldn’t pick up the detail I wanted. At the same time, the security guard was still glaring at us. I told Ben it was ok, we could move on and figure out dinner. I joked that I should have gotten my Salesforce account manager to put us on the list. He asked a bit seriously, “Could he if you called?” I shook my head and said that I would never be that presumptuous and reminding him that neither of us had signal on our phones any way.
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Dinner
And just like that, the day was coming to an end. We headed back towards the apartment, tired but happy. The headache I had been nursing was becoming more persistent. We couldn’t decide what we wanted to eat, so when we started passing restaurants, we stopped a moment to look at the menus. Nothing was sounding appealing, but as we continued down Leman Street we spied the blue exterior of The Brown Bear pub. I hadn’t yet had fish and chips, and so we decided it would be a pub food night.
Once inside, we chose a table and sat down. Unlike American pubs, there are no wait staff that come to your table. You decide what you want, then order directly from the bar and pay. I would later learn this was also standard for pubs in Ireland as well.
We glanced at the menu the bartender had provided. Already knowing what I wanted, I just confirmed it was on their list, and Ben went and ordered for us, grabbing me a pint of Guinness and a beer for himself as well.
Shortly after, our food arrived. Ben had ordered Sheperd’s Pie for himself and offered me some. I resisted the urge to gag and politely declined with an, “all yours”. I don’t like Sheperd’s Pie, never have. Something about the idea of all that stuff mixed with potato just never sat well with me. Tried it as a kid and hated it, vowed never to touch it again.
My headache abated as I ate. I slowed down when I started feeling more tired, knowing I was sated. Ben had already finished and was just waiting for me. I finished off the Guinness, feeling sleepy.
With our bellies full of food and beer, we headed back to the apartment to rest and get ready for the next day.
