Maxfield Adventures - Living life to the Max: London - War Museum, Tower of London, and some wandering

Imperial War Museum * Tower of London *

22.460 Steps

We've decided to sprint these last few days of our Sabbatical and there's not a better place in the world than London. There is so much to do and see and experience. The great thing is that there will be plenty we don't do and we can have a good excuse to return. That will be made easier now that SLC has a direct flight to London.

Eric had to pick up our soccer tickets today from a friend of a friend at an office in London about an hour away. We agreed to meet at the Imperial War Museum at 10:30. However, we had to get off the tube prematurely because our stop was closed for construction. Stewart and Maren took over navigation for me and got us to the Imperial War museum with no problem. They are becoming very comfortable in big cities and with public transportation.

We enjoyed the exhibits of WWI, WWII, and the Holocaust in this Museum. Sometimes the exhibits provide too much information for the kids so we challenged them to find one new or interesting thing and then we make everyone share at the end. It makes the museum a bit of a treasure hunt and helps them look for the most unique fun fact or exhibit. For example today Charlie found a mini motorcycle that was parachuted into France on D-day. Afterwards we picnicked outside the museum and played some cards before heading to the Tower of London.

We spent 3 hours at the Tower of London, first we took a tour from a Beefeater - the honorary guard of the tower. The beefeaters and their families live IN the tower. That would be a crazy address. We saw the Crown Jewels and speculated quietly about the health of Queen Elizabeth II (it is treason to talk about the death of a sitting queen) - she has 2 more years to reign and then she will beat Queen Victoria who reigned for 65 years and was the longest reigning monarch in England. We also visited the cell area where prisoners were kept and inscribed their names into the stone.

The beefeater gave us a very entertaining tour full of gory details of prisoners and their executions. The story that stuck with me the most was about Simon Fraser, the last man executed at the Tower of London. At one point Simon Fraser was on my family pedigree - he's missing now, so I'm not sure if he was there by mistake. The interesting fact about Simon's execution was that before he was executed the platform collapsed killing several Englishmen. Simon, being a Scot, laughed at the accident on the way to his own death and according to the beefeater that is where we get the phrase "laugh your head off". I'm still trying to decide if I want to be related to Simon Fraser or not.

We had tickets to the key ceremony at the tower at 9:30 so we had to wander the city a bit and kill time before returning to the tower. We visited Leadenhall Market for dinner and to spot a Harry Potter film site (the leaky cauldron entrance). We walked through the banking district of London and saw the place of the old Stock Exchange. We visited Saint Paul's Cathedral where the bag lady sat and sold bird feed to Michael Banks from Mary Poppins and we saw the Royal Justice Court and the Inns of Court on the opposite side of the street. Eric particularly liked the last 2 stops.

Our final activity of the day was participating in the key ceremony at the Tower of London that has taken place daily for the last 700 years, even during the great fires of London in 1666 and WWII when London was being bombed. It's a 7 minute ceremony to lock up the Tower. It was a small group (about 30 people - we got reservations a long time ago for this) and apparently now our names are on the records of the tower stating we were present on this date for the ceremony. I feel like I've participated in history today.