Tues 10 March 2009: Honeymoon Day 4

Today is our last day in London for tomorrow we'll start our road trip to the English countryside: Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and finally Cambridge.

The day started pretty much the same ie waking up at 4.30am, having our English breakfast at about 7.30am this time around Tower Hill.

After our breakfast we made our way to the Tower of London which used to be a residential castle, dungeon, place for trials, execution and today it serves as the treasury to keep the royal jewels including the Queen's crown, orb, sword and coronation spoon.

Again, as we arrived there it was still early (before 9am) so we were able to take some photos using our trusted timer!
The toilets out here are really nice - large cubicles, nice tiles, clean, royal ambiance and best of all unlike in other parts of the world: free. They're located behind the ticket booth by the way.

It was still not 9am after our toilet break so we took a stroll near the ticket counter and found a sight, a preview to our English countryside roadtrip:

As we made our way in to the Tower of London, we were greeted by a lady outside the Information counter/ gift shop who informed us that we could hire the Audio guides for 4 pounds. Hmmmm, have to pay - quite disappointing. At other places of interest the audio guides are normally included in the entrance fee/ticket. Since we liked to move according to our pace, we decided to rent 1 audio guide. 4 pounds, that's around RM23.

There are so many of these narrow staircases to climb when exploring the tower. Will be quite a challege for "bigger people' or claustophobics.

My husband trying out the copper protection for his head. Heavy stuff.

Fred having a bit of fun with the bow and arrow.

This courtyard was once filled with people witnessing the execution of Queen Anne Boleyn, one of Henry VIII's wives.

The exact location of where Queen Anne Boleyn was beheaded.

The Queen's guard: Guarding the Jewel House where the crown jewels are kept.

No photography allowed inside the Jewel House so we'll have to make do with this internet picture of the Queen's coronation gear which are on display at the Tower of London. There was also a short film shown in the exhibit of the coronation event - very regal. The crowns of other queens (Queen Victoria, Mary, the Queen Mother) and Kings were also on display in the Tower of London. The jewels made my eyes and heart go "bling bling bling bling......" Haaaa.... diamonds....

Fred checking out the gizmos inside the torture chamber. Hmmm, very spooky and I didn't want to stay here too long.

Yoeman Warder: Guides at the Tower of London.

It started to drizzle again and it was quite cold outside. So, in the cafe we went for some coffee.

Standard stuff, at the exit there's a souvenir/gift shop. Here we had a close up of an armour suit. Look, there's even a protective gear for the lo-loi! I don't understand why they have to make it so big.

After our visit to the Tower of London, we went to Oxford Road to do a bit of lunch @ Selfriges. We bought a road map here for our trip tomorrow and ate Square pies.

Internet image (again) as I forgot to take pictures of our own pies. They really look like this, but we ate out of the box and used plastic fork and knife - no plates!

Then it was back to the hotel to get ready for dinner and .... Grease, the Musical at Piccadilly Theatre. Going to Piccadilly that evening was a nightmare on the underground as we were packed like sardines. I think it has something to do with Julia Roberts being in town for the world premiere of her latest movie "Duplicity"at the next stop ie Leicester Square tonight.

Initially we wanted to watch Mamma Mia but the tickets were not available for the day we wanted to watch the musical. So we settled for Grease. We were not disappointed however as the show was superb. The actors were all professionals and could really sing and dance well. Again, no photography inside so that one above is an Internet photo!