Day 3 - London

Day 3 – London

Day 3 was crammed full of exploration.  Functioning on 3.5 hours of sleep, we got up early to visit Buckingham Palace to view the classic Changing of the Guards. This gave me ample opportunity to take much better photos of the grand Palace, and I even saw the balcony that Her Majesty the Queen stood on during the Royal Wedding.

Unfortunately, we then learned that the Changing of the Guard was not happening that day.  Oops.  I still don’t regret going to see the Palace.  I was amazed by the splendour of the gates and the central monument.

Our next stop was to the Canada Shop!  We were slightly disappointed to see that it was, in fact, the Australia Shop that just happened to have a Canada section.  It was further disappointing that the shop clerk was a Londoner local.  Regardless!  Canada seems to be represented by lots of maple syrup, maple sugar, Mott’s Clamato, Mr. Noodles (a Vancouver special!), Lays potato chips, Cheerios, caramilk bars, reeces pieces and Molson Canadian.

We then went to visit the University College of London, a very pretentious school after Cainbridge and Oxford, so Matthew could go see some dead guy and some other dead guy’s house.  I do respect Jeremy Bentham as a philosopher and person, but I seriously don’t care about seeing the case containing his skeleton.  I cared even less about seeing some dead economist’s old apartment, when I’d much rather have been at Holland and Holland.  I wanted to separate from Matthew for this part of the day, but it wouldn’t have worked for us to separate then reconnect at the Tower of London.

King's Cross!  Yay!

So, we bought passes to the Tower of London that day, and were very impressed by the amount of history contained within its walls.  We were toured around by one of the Beefeaters.  I would like to comment that the position of Warden, or “Beefeater,” is a very prestigious career that requires 22 years of military service to qualify.  I personal appreciate the amount of national pride and respect that goes with reciting their nation’s history.

We saw a balcony leading to the room in which Guy Fawkes was held for his Gun Powder Treason.  We saw many rooms in which prisoners were held, the chapel where bodies were buried.  The fortress was quite depressing for these reasons. 

We viewed the Royal Jewels which were on display.  Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photographs in this room, so I cannot show you the wonders I saw.  A magnificent sceptre held a diamond weighing over 500 carats, or 100 grams.  The crowns and swords were covered with set diamonds, rubies, emeralds, iolites, garnets and pearls, giving off a rainbow of sparkles as one moves past.  Naturally I went down this hall more than once.

We concluded with a building that contained royal weaponry.  These were mostly practical items, with some armour being gilded for dashing display.  Donald would have liked to see the broad range of swords through historical firearms, representing centuries of warfare tactics.


This concludes day three.  I finish writing this post on Day 5, from the comfortable lounge of Dumbleton Hall Hotel in the Coltswolds.  This building is wonderful, and it is almost a disappointment that we are heading to Oxford so soon tomorrow.

Love from England,
- Elise