London, Sept. 12 and 13
The 12th started with a visit to the Tower of London. We explored the grounds, skipping much of it except for the armory and the crown jewels. There are four or five rooms of buildup before jewels, where they show footage of the Queen’s coronation or descriptions of each of the pieces on these big screens. When we finally got to the actual jewels, there were moving walkways on both sides of them; no lingering, just view them as you’re carried past.
After that we tried to get into Westminster Abbey, but it turns out our London Passes only give us acces to the cloisters and some other building, not the main Abbey. So we took a picture of the outside and headed on. We finally caught a Catamaran Cruise on the Thames, something we’d tried to do on several other occasions but had missed out on. The cruise included a recorded tour guide describing what we were seeing, along with cheesey music. It started to rain for the first time since our arrival in London during this cruise.
We left the boat and made our way in the slowly worsening rainfall to the National Gallery. Wandering through the Baroque section I spotted a painting I had included in my Memento Mori comic! It was Zurbaran’s “St. Francis Kneeling.” I bought a postcard of it in the gift shop.
Mornings have always been sunny, tricking us into thinking that the weather will stay relatively nice through the day. Yesterday we started with a visit to Buckingham Palace. We sort of saw the changing of the guard; through the huge crowds and fences we could sometimes glimpse the band. We heard them play the American national anthem… We decided to skip the rest of the ceremony and make our way inside. The tour of Buckingham Palace was nice, following a very specific path. They have a thing for clocks..there is at least one, usually several in just about every room. Chandeliers also abound, with as many as five in one room. I needed to use the bathroom through most of this trip, but they don’t give visitors bathroom access in the palace..
Finally, we went to Hampton Court, another palace, former home of Henry VIII. We toured his rooms, the queen’s rooms, and some amazing gardens. We entered the maze of bushes outside, and shortly thereafter it began to rain again. Theresa and I made our way through the maze before we got soaking wet, and left.
This morning, one of our hosts stopped me on my way to the shower, and handed me a package. It was addressed to “Matisse” care of the residents here. This confused me somewhat because I hadn’t given anyone the address here… It turns out that the package was from some other guests in this house we met earlier in the trip. I gave a little juggling show for everyone, and they were impressed. I only had room in my bags for balls, so these people found and sent me juggling clubs.
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