Greenwich & The Tower

Greenwich is the centre of time. It is where you will find the international date line where you can stand across two days and where the atomic clock lives. Don't look at the blog photos though; both places were shut in preparation for the Olympics!

Not to be deterred though we still enjoyed a lovely boat ride along the Thames from Tower Pier, very close to our new hotel. The tour guide was very informative and explained the history behind the many, many pubs lining the water. He also explained the best way to tell if the buildings are old or new, the new ones have to leave a space of 3m from the water's edge to the building line to allow for people to walk and cycle along the Thames!

He also explained the inspiration behind some landmark designs including the French soldiers from WW1 that inspired three skyscrapers complete with helmet, rifle and backpack. See if you can pick which ones they are - we were not convinced!! There is a tradition on English tourist boats called the Captains bucket. At the end of the tour, they hold a champagne bucket for tips. They claim it all gets put back into gathering cruise information from the many and varied pubs along the water!!

After a short walk around Greenwich, we hopped back on the boat for the return journey. Ah, young love or so I thought listening to the couple behind us who were smooching their way along the Thames in between exchanging baby talk. Imagine my surprise (and slight nausea) to see a couple of a 'lady' of about 40 and her boyfriend of about 30. Oh well, I guess they're happy!

The next day saw us visit the iconic Tower of London. We made our way from the hotel and were about to enter the gates when we saw a contingent of Beefeaters approaching the gates, Police everywhere and security staff. The crowd was held back and a group of sailors approached from the Tower docks carrying an ornamental barrel. They approached the locked gates and asked for permission to enter which was of course granted.

It turns out that they were a delegation from the warship moored on the Thames at Greenwich that is there to protect London during the games, they had come for the Ceremony of the Constables Dues where every large naval ship that docks on the Thames must pay dues to the Tower of London of a barrel of rum. Whilst they re-enact this ceremony it only happens for real once a year, so it was an absolute unexpected treat.

Once they re-opened the gates, we followed the group inside to see the hand-off of the rum and the invitation to sample it which is also a traditional part of the ceremony. Sadly we weren't invited so we set about visiting the Tower. It was hard to miss the Tower Ravens, they're absolutely huge and a little intimidating! We headed for the Crown Jewels though which was what we were really there to see. We were not disappointed. Some of the jewels were massive, all were ornate and covered with precious stones. The thing I wasn't expecting though was the huge display of gold including what I thought was a christening bath but turned out to be a punchbowl! The other piece of note was a salt cellar or cruet set (for those that know them) in the shape of a castle! It probably stood about 75cm tall with each side being about 30cm long and displayed the most amazing detail. No pictures of this unfortunately as we decided to abide by the rules and not take pictures, we did get a souvenir book though.

Overall a very satisfying two days in London - and we didn't get lost once!