2023-08-05: Towers, Bridges, and Warships

It was a little earlier morning this morning. We woke up at 7:00am and got ourselves ready for the day. We had a bit of excitement overnight. The hotel’s fire alarm decided to go off at just past midnight. It only blasted for less than a minute we think. We were a little groggy at the time. But it was enough to wake us up and get us out of bed.

After some breakfast in the hotel restaurant we headed to the underground. After a couple of short train rides, we arrived at Tower Hill Station. We stepped outside the Underground station and were met by the rain. We got ourselves bundled up in our rain jackets and continued on. We could see the Tower of London in front of us. It was only about 9:30am and we had a 10:00am entry time so we wandered around the side of the site and read some of the informational signs around the moat for about 15 minutes. We started heading towards the entrance and found the line to enter. We thought we were a little early still but they were calling all ticket holders with 9:30am or 10:00am tickets to enter the line so we joined the queue. Within a few minutes we were entering the site.

We wandered around the Tower of London. Construction started on the tower in the 1070s. It has expanded since then but it’s been in use for almost 1000 years now. It has been the home of the monarchy’s crown jewels since 1661. Unfortunately, they don’t allow any pictures in the crown jewels exhibit. In addition to seeing the crown jewels, we wandered through the torture chamber, prisoner areas, battlements, yeoman’s wards, and the royal beasts exhibits. The crown jewels are extravagant. The wealth that exists in those crowns and other items is staggering. It was interesting to see how the tower changed in function and purpose over hundreds of years.

After grabbing a bite to eat at the café in the tower, we left the tower and headed to Tower Bridge which was right next door. We had tickets to climb the tower and see how it was built and how it works. They showed us how the tower was constructed from 1886 to 1894. We climbed up one of the towers and walked along the upper walkways to the second tower and back again. The views were impressive but would have been better without the rain. We walked down from the towers and were directed across the bridge to another building that contains the old machinery that ran the bridge until 1976. It used coal boilers to run the hydraulics via steam. Now it’s been converted to electricity. The bridge can be raised within 60 seconds which is impressive for a 140 year old bridge. When it was built, the bridge was opened 20 to 30 times per day to let ships pass. Now it opens 20 to 30 times per week. You now have to provide 24 hours notice via email if you need the bridge raised.

The bridge tour didn’t take as long as we expected so we had a little time to kill. It was still raining so we found a local cafe where we could stay dry and have a bit of a snack. Just before 3:00pm we continued on our way to the HMS Belfast which is a battleship that has been turned into a museum. It was located just down the block. We boarded the ship and wandered through it for a couple of hours. They have a lot of the ship available to walk through. We saw the outer decks, bridges (captain’s bridge and admiral’s bridge), engine room, boiler room, shell room, among others. A lot of the areas were very tight spaces. The ship was in service from 1938 through 1962 so it saw service in World War 2, the Korean war, and the cold war. It was hit by a German mine in 1939 and it took 3 years to repair the ship.

Once were done exploring the ship, we headed back to the hotel. It was the pre-theatre dinner rush in the area so we relaxed in the room for a bit to let the crowds die down. At around 6:30pm we headed out to find some dinner. We found a burger and pancake place called Stack & Still. Michael saw it the night before and was interested in checking it out. He ordered some pancakes of course while the rest of us ordered burgers. We enjoyed the meals. We walked around Leicester Square for a few minutes before returning to the hotel and hunkering in for the night.