A couple of nights staying near the Tower of London
Well this was a London city break with a difference. We travelled by drumroll please public transport! We wanted to visit London and the Tower and I usually drive but I just couldn’t be arsed with driving into the centre and the silly overnight parking charges. This was a trip with friends too, which added a different element to it.
We hadn’t had a proper London city break for a couple of years as it is usually just too much hassle to get to. Our last visit was to see the Churchill War Rooms so we were looking forward to this trip.
Public Transport
Initially I looked at the train but that was around £200 for two return tickets which was about double what it would cost to fly to somewhere warm so we opted for the coach! That was £38 return for reserved seats upstairs, we were apprehensive but decided to give it a go. Both train and coach options can be booked through Trainline so it is pretty easy to choose a time slot and budget that meets your needs.
Rich picked us up at the delightful time of 7AM on a Saturday and we drove back to his so the 4 of us could get a taxi to the bus station. We arrived down there and, being newbies, didn’t realise National Express had its own area so we initially wandered around like imbeciles looking for the right bay.
Eventually we saw the signs and went to the correct area and then got confused as there were 2 coaches to London with the same number but eventually we resolved that too and boarded our coach, went upstairs and sat down. We were pleasantly surprised – the seats were big, we had a table and plenty of space.
The coach left on time and it was nice looking around from high up but the novelty wore after two minutes and we all dozed on and off pretty much the whole way. Once in London we paid a bit more attention to looking around and the coach got us to the station on time.
It was a couple of minutes walk to the tube and maybe 15 minutes later we exited Tower Hill station and walked to the hotel. Pretty easy and, it pains me to say, a lot quicker than driving and cheaper too.
Our Accomodation
We were staying at the DoubleTree Tower of London and Tate managed to check us all in despite me doing it as 3 separate bookings! Our rooms were small but quiet, with good wifi and a nice view of the Shard, mostly obscured by low cloud.
The Tower of London
We dumped our stuff and had a coffee before meeting Rich and Debs to head off for our intrepid 5 minute walk to the Tower. We looked at the Trinity House memorial first before doing a circuit of the walls first which was a nice way to re-aquaint ourselves with London landmarks.
We went into the Tower and were told that our guided tour was just about to leave so we headed to the meet point with a few other couples and waited. And waited. Eventually a Beefeater came by and told us that the tour had left and we could catch it up but we decided not to bother and just did our own thing.
We started with an exhibition of prisoners in the tower – this covered most of the famous names and showed lots of graffiti (actually, incredibly ornate carvings rather than our modern idea of graffiti) and details of who was executed when. I didn’t realise that less people were executed in medieval times at the Tower than in the first and second world wars!
We carried on exploring the tower and looking at the views and the ridiculously long queue to see the Crown Jewels before a pause for coffee in the cafe. Once refreshed we headed to the White Tower, the original Norman keep, to see the arms and armour display.
This had changed hugely since our last visit many years ago and we spent well over an hour working our way through each floor. The exhibitions were excellent with a good mix of display and interactive areas and everything was well explained and labelled.
By the time we left it was getting dark so we walked along the banks of the river, enjoying Tower Bridge being illuminated and the huge crowds of people just enjoying the sights before making our way back to the hotel.
We had a 30 minute freshen up break before meeting in the Exec Lounge and taking advantage of the free drinks (some more than others!!) and desserts (again, some more than others!) before going for dinner in the restaurant. The food there was delicious and there were actually plenty of healthy choices on the menu although service was a little casual.
Once suitably stuffed we retired to the cafe area and had coffees and yet more Doubletree cookies. By the time we got to our room I looked distinctly like Tweedledum. or even Tweedledee.
Due to my obesity I didn’t sleep well so I was up at 5. The plus side of that meant I finished the last cookie and sorted my photos before we all met up for breakfast at 9.30 (I know, lunchtime!). The breakfast was, as expected, bloody excellent and I ate far too much. Rich and Debs headed off back to Bristol and Deb and I started the to work through the route I’d planned while she was asleep.
St Dunstan in the East
First stop was an intrepid 6 minutes away – St Dunstan in the East. This is an old church that was destroyed in the Great Fire, rebuilt and then badly damaged in the Blitz. It was tidied up and opened in the 70’s as a community garden so it’s a lovely gothic ruin, almost like a folly in the middle of the city. Bit like Parliament I guess. We had a brief pause here to look around before heading to the Great Fire of London Monument.
Great Fire of London Monument
This has 311 steps on a narrow spiral staircase so Deb stayed below and I headed up, excited at the prospect of getting an Achievement Certificate, my first since my Bronze Survival for swimming, 43 years ago! It was fascinating for two reasons. Firstly, it proved that I was stupid. Secondly, it gave me a new category of people to be annoyed at.
I’ll call them Indulgent Parents. It was demonstrated twice in my short visit by parents who bought their 2/3/4 year old kids to the Monument, expected them to climb it and when they were tired, bored, irritated then spoke to them in a very reasoned manner about the Great Fire and what there was to see at the top, while 26 people wait behind for your child to deign to climb another 6 steps before starting again.
Full marks for being involved as parents but maybe you’re a few years early. Don’t be surprised when he grows up into an entitled twat. Anyway, luckily I am very calm and English and just seethed on the inside.
Once we got to the top this proved point 1 above. There was a mesh barrier surrounding a precarious 350 year old, 60 metre tall stone column that has been eroded and bombed and I was at the top of it. I’m amazed any of the photos actually came out at all as I didn’t want to look anywhere and certainly not downwards.
Deb could have been on the ground waving her tshirt at me and I wouldn’t have noticed a thing. I did a quick circuit and then repeated the same antics as climbing up but eventually got to safe ground at the bottom and left the indulgent parents to make a rod for their own backs.
London Mithraeum
We carried on our tour of the City, next stop the London Mithraeum. This is a Roman temple to the god Mithras that was discovered in the 50’s and has now been rebuilt under Bloomberg’s European headquarters, at the original Roman street level. When we arrived we were told the next group had just left and we could catch them up so we walked through the exhibition and down to the basement level.
We went into the temple space and it was almost completely dark and then some weird Latin chanting started. I did wonder what the hell I had got us into but it was actually excellent, it gave you a very real sense of what it would have been like to be in the temple 2000 years ago. After a while the audio ended and the lights were brightened so we could look around the temple.
To be fair there isn’t really much left of it and all that is there is just a stone floor and lower wall level but the mental impression of the temple still remained after the display. There was a very good interactive exhibition about the history of the temple and the artifacts that have been discovered and what we know about Mithras as a religion (not much). There was also some very strange modern ‘art’.
Leadenhall Market
Natalya had recommended Leadenhall Market to us so we made our way there, another short walk. It was a beautiful Victorian structure, although a lot smaller than expected. It was also pretty much devoid of people, mostly because all the shops in it were closed on a Sunday. So that speeded up the visit!
Tower Bridge
Deb was getting a bit footsore so we walked across London Bridge and along the river bank before stopping for a coffee by Tower Bridge. It was actually a welcome pause and I had a quick look at Shad Thames – a series of industrial buildings with joining corridors like the Bridge of Sighs but a bit more steampunky.
We decided that we’d had a long enough day and the light was pretty dismal by then even though it was only about 3 o’clock so we made our way back to the hotel, walking along the line of the Tower walls again.
I could have actually done with a doze but we needed to get the safe in the room sorted which took a while. I sorted the photos out, not that many as the light was so flat and dull and we then had a light and very leisurely (because we were both brain dead) dinner.
As it was now completely dark we headed up to the 12th floor roof terrace and looked at the views which were pretty damned impressive! 4 photos and 2 drinks later we were back in our room, all the day’s tasks completed. Although because I had, what a surprise, not bought my tripod, the photos weren’t as good as I’d have liked.
I slept pretty well that night and actually woke after 7 so we didn’t get to breakfast until 8.30. I exceeded my usual gluttony by adding waffles to my breakfast diet! Deb went back to the room to chill and I headed off to meet Natalya near Regents Street.
We’d arranged to meet at Ethos Foods, a vegan cafe nearby and once I’d gone entirely the wrong way we eventually met up. She ordered herself crepes for breakfast and it would have been rude to make her eat alone so I had buckwheat pancakes. These were delicious and I am such a glutton it was a great effort to restrain from having some of the delicious looking brownies they had too. Service here was lovely too, a very happy and helpful girl and it was an enjoyable experience.
Borough Market
Natalya then wanted to go to Borough Market so we took the tube and walked the rest of the way. This was actually a really nice place, loads of different food stalls and Deb would have loved it – cheeses, chocolates, desserts, fish, meat whatever really.
Natalya did her best to eat every free sample going before we headed off for a coffee and carried on yakking. She then left to go to the gym and I met Deb back at the hotel before we checked out and tube/coach/bus’d it home. Yes, bus! That was certainly an experience at rush hour in Bristol!
A lovely London city break and it was nice to have the Sunday free to wander without having to visit anywhere. It was obviously lovely to see Natalya and the coach was a bit of an eye opener, thank you National Express, you have made London more accessible!
2019