Day 1 - London

Ever climb almost 600 steps up the shoulder-tight, winding staircase of a 400-year-old church only to spend the few crucial moments atop its dome debating the merits of rooftop sod placement?

After more than one year of saving, Snoopy and I finally stepped onto an airplane destined for an eight-day stay in London and Paris, two of the world's greatest cities.

Colorful flowers draped over window balconies

Like the hours-long excursion to the dome of London's famed Saint Paul's Cathedral, the European vacation did not go off as planned. We got lost in the maze of London's busy streets while attempting to reach our hotel. I tried to make the best of the situation by snapping pictures. I was struck by the plethora of greenery in the city. I thought the pictures would also help Bobbies piece together our final moments in case Snoops was unable to find the hotel, leading to certain death of thirst and starvation.

Buckingham Palace, the 830,000-square-foot home to Britain's sovereigns, was majestic. The palace has served as the administrative center of the British monarch since 1837, and it is the focal point of Britons during times of joy and crisis. Buckingham Palace was originally built in 1705 for the Duke of Buckingham. King George III purchased it in 1761 for Queen Charlotte and it was temporarily named "The Queen's House". Buckingham Palace became an official palace of the British monarch in 1837 by Queen Victoria.

Despite the somewhat overcast sky, the stone courtyard in front of the palace was bustling with tourist taking pictures of the golden and iron gates that protect her majesty. Unfortunately, we were unable to visit the inside of the palace since it is the winter home of her majesty and family during the winter. This did not stop us from taking pictures of the palace from the outside and exploring the courtyard in front.

Buckingham Palace

Lion outside Buckingham Palace gates

 As with most places with an association with the royal family, statues of lions adorned the entrances to the palace. The lions here made Snoopy laugh since they had their giant paw on the shield with Queen Elizabeth's crest and were wearing crowns. Lions are a symbol of royalty, power and bravery. We learned later that most of the monarchs had a lion somewhere in their crest. Queen Elizabeth II has a lion and a unicorn.

Buckingham Palace

Gates at Buckingham Palace

The gates to the palace were ornately decorated with gold at the tips of the iron and in the crest of the queen. You can see in the picture the lions used in the queen's family crest. It is hard to tell from the picture, but these gates were probably about 15 feet tall.

Buckingham Palace

 We were happy to come across the palace since this only meant that we did not have to come back to it later. Our list of activities was so great and finding the hotel was taking so long that we were happy to have knocked one activity off of a later list so we could do everything we wanted later. It was sad leaving the palace behind because I loved looking at it. Understanding the history that we were standing on really made me feel humble. It is hard to imagine that the palace had seen so much sorrow, loss, rejoicing and celebration.

Westminster Cathedral

 We didn't realize it right away,  but when we found the Westminster Cathedral we were only a few blocks away from our hotel. Westminster Cathedral did not allow us to take photos inside but we did step inside to check it out. Surprisingly, it is the mother church of the Catholic community in England and Wales. It is the largest Catholic church in England and Wales and it is not to be confused with Westminster Abbey which is the head of the Church of England. This cathedral was opened in 1903 and is the home of the Archbishop of Westminster. As a custom, each Archbishop of Westminster has been created a cardinal.

We finally made our way around and found the hotel to drop off our luggage until check-in time. We then made a beeline for the British Museum. The British Museum contains more than 7 million objects of human history and culture and is considered the largest and most-comprehensive natural science museum in the world. It houses artifacts from all seven continents.

Rosetta Stone

One of the first artifacts that we came across was the famed Rosetta Stone encased in glass and surrounded by many curious onlookers. The stone was not quite as big as I had expected, but if you look at the detailed work, it is hard to imagine that someone chiseled this into the stone of granite.

The Rosetta Stone is important since it was used to decipher ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics. The text is the same decree given by King Ptolemy in 196 BC in three different languages: Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Demotic and Ancient Greek. It took 20 years for Jean-Francois Champollion to finally announce in 1822 that the text had been deciphered.

Rosetta Stone

The stone has survived a long and tumultuous history since its re-discovery in 1799. The British defeated the French in Egypt in 1801 and the stone was transported to London where it has been on display since 1802. It is the most visited artifact in the British Museum. In 2003, Egypt requested its return. However, in 2009 Egypt offered to drop the request if the British Museum offered to loan it to Egypt in 2013 for it's opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza.

Surprisingly, the Rosetta Stone is not unique and many nations are declaring its use in many other museums across the world to be accessible by all people.

side of a sarcophagus 

The British Museum was so big that we could not have gone through the whole thing in the time that we had allotted for it. It was also chaos since it has no admission fees. It was filled with some of the most magnificent items from ancient Greece and ancient Egypt including the beard from the great Sphinx. There are more pictures that Snoopy took that I did not include here.


After we picked up some lunch, we went to explore the Tower of London. The Tower of London  was founded in 1066 and has plead a very prominent role in England's history. It has served as an armory, treasury, menagerie, home of the Royal Mint, public records office and housed the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.

Tower of London

I have to admit that I was not well versed in this part of history and did not realize that the Tower of London is a very small and functioning town. The Tower of London was originally built by William the Conquerer and started only as the single White Tower and it was a resented symbol of oppression inflicted by the new elite. In 1100 it was used as a prison although its initial purpose was not to be a prison. Many expansions were made in the 12th and 13th centuries but the general layout from the 13th century is what is there today.

The White Tower

 The Tower of London has a bloody history. Many people have been executed to the delight of crowds of people and families who enjoyed a day from work to watch the festivities. We took a guided tour from a Yeoman Warder of the tower where we learned more about some of the history that is not always easily found. It is hard to believe that people such as Queen Anne Boleyn was executed by sword at this place. It was said that Queen Anne had a terrible fear of the axe so an expert swordsman was brought in from France to perform her beheading. The sword was so efficient that when Queen Anne knelt down to say her prayers and the executioner performed his duties, he grabbed her head to hold for the crowd and her eyes were still looking around and her mouth was still moving as if still in prayer. Queen Anne Boleyn is also said to haunt the chapel in which she is buried. Some have witnessed the ghost of the queen wandering around the White Tower with her head under her arm.

Tower of London with Tower Bridge in the background

The Yeoman Warders also told us of the execution of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, which was particularly terrible and it gave me the chills. James Scott was the illegitimate son of King Charles II and his mistress Lucy Walter. After the execution of his Father, he attempted to have his uncle executed so he could ascend to the throne. However, his plot was foiled and he was sent to Tower Hill to await execution. 

When it came James Scott's time to march up to Tower Green in front of the crowds of family awaiting their entertainment, James Scott handed his executioner a bag of gold. Each prisoner was required to pay for their execution, probably in hopes that the executioner do a clean job. This did not work for James Scott. His executioner was drunk. The Yeoman Warders claim that it took 5 blows of the axe to finally land on the neck of James Scott and even then, it wasn't severed. The executioner finally removed his butchers carving knife and sawed the remainder of his head from his body.

Outer wall of Tower of London

  As custom, his head was lifted and shown to the crowd, put atop a spike and marched to the London Bridge as a warning to the others. However, within 24 hours, his head was returned to its body and was sewn back on and they were buried together.

Why would they sew his head back on? Since he might have been a son of the king, they realized that he didn't have a portrait of him. So they had a painter come in do paint a portrait of him. A private collector currently owns this painting and it is said that it is not very "life-like".

Bloody Tower

The Bloody Tower (shown to the right) has a very sad meaning to its name. It was the site of the murder of two very young Princes: Prince Edward V of England (possible age 11) and his brother Prince Richard, 1st Duke of York (possible age 9). The young princes were imprisoned at the time of the death of their father, Prince Edward IV of England, at the time of his death. Their uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, imprisoned them to keep the elder Prince from ascending to the throne. They mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the night. There is no hard evidence against the Duke of Gloucester in their disappearance and there are many likely suspects.

In 1674, the bodies were found buried in the Tower grounds and King Charles II ordered them to be buried at Westminster Abbey, where they hold are in the same chapel as Queen Elizabeth I in what is referred to as "Innocent's Corner".

Soldiers marching through the Tower of London

 The Tower of London is still working today and you will see soldiers marching through (shown right) through their various tasks of the day. We saw similar soldiers during the Ceremony of the Keys event later in the evening. They are all highly trained military personnel hand picked by the Queen. The Yeoman Warders have to go through a rigorous selection process including, at minimum, 22 years military experience, senior non-commissioned officers, and winner of a specific award, Long Service and Good Conduct medal. Yeoman Warders are not permitted to leave the grounds and are appointed for life.

The White Tower

 The White Tower was the original structure inside the Tower of London and served primarily as a place of residence. It was also a very strong military point sitting at the top of the hill overlooking the Thames River. It was a place of residence until the 1320s when it was used a place to store documents. During the Tudor reign, it served as an armory. We did visit the Royal Armoury where we saw the suits of armor for various kings. King Henry VIII was huge! 

The White Tower

 This courtyard was amazing because of the amount of Ravens that live there. King Charles II ordered that six Ravens be kept on the premises at all times to prevent disaster. One of the Yeoman Warders is designated as the Ravenmaster who takes care of the Ravens on site. It is interesting that the Ravens are under such good care that they typically live double the lifespan of a Raven in the wild. When a Raven passes, a full autopsy is performed to ensure proper care has been taken and then the Raven is buried in the courtyard.


We ended our first day by witnessing the tower's famed "Ceremony of the Keys." This ceremony has been happening at the Tower of London each night since the 14th Century. The only known time that it did not happen was during the London bombing during World War II. The tradition roots are unknown, but it started when one of the kings was able to enter the Tower of London gates without being questioned or without trouble.

The ceremony involves the Chief Yeoman Warder in Tudor Watchcoat meeting the military escorts made from members of the Tower of London Guard. He is then forced to halt by an armed sentry asking about his presence and purpose. They march through and then the Chief Yeoman Warder locks the gate and actually locks everyone inside the tower! Of course, there was a small door we could escape from with the assistance of the Chief Yeoman Warder, but it was pretty neat to be locked in such a place of history.

While the ceremony itself was short and some might consider it silly and theater-like, it was amazing to be a part of a ceremony that has been continuing for hundreds of years.

The White Tower