Afternoon in the Tower

After our negative experience with a group tour at Westminster yesterday, we decided to give the students the money to purchase individual tickets to the Tower. That would allow them to tour at their own pace, and they wouldn't have to listen to "stay together" until they wanted to throw up. I'm afraid that if we hadn't been in Westminster Abbey and was being watched by a number of my students, I would have said something I would now regret (something requiring a least a candle or two). As it was, I just smiled and didn't react.

Anyway, we all saw the Tower on our own. We had a great Yeoman Warder guide that really made it a great tour, even if we had an extremely large group. We also saw the first woman Yeoman Warder. She was walking out of the Tower as we went in or we would have gotten her picture. We ended up spending four or five hours there and still didn't see it all. In the many times that we have been to the Tower, we still haven't seen it all. Ian wants to go back but there is probably not time as we try to squeeze it all in. If we do go back, we will go as soon as they open and see the Tower Opening Ceremony, and then can stay as long as there is something else to see. Who knows, we might make it back.

After we left, we walked along the Thames in front of the Tower. It was misty, with some fog and the lights were coming on. It was a great time to be out. I got a couple of good pictures. Unfortunately, the best has two raindrops on the lens. If it had been only one I could have pretended that it was the moon, but this looks like Saturn. Oh well, I kept it (as I keep all of my photos that should be discarded).

While walking home, we discovered a fish and chips place right near the Tower. They don't use the paper cones any more. Instead they use styrofoam like any place in the States. However, it was very good and cheap (relatively). For £3.99 we received a huge piece of fish and a large amount of chips and a canned drink. That's a lot better than the £13 we paid several days ago. Of course I don't want to think about converting that into $.