We woke up on a boat! The houseboat is moored very tightly, so it seems like there is no motion, but there obviously is some. I think it made me sleep well. It was chilly in the morning (47℉ outside) but we couldn’t get the little gas stove to light. We had instant coffee and passionfruit yogurt (new favorite!) as well as some pastry.
We decided to go to the Tower of London today. It is nice being so close to Kings Cross station – we can get to anywhere easily. We took the Northern line to the Bank station (the Circle line would have gotten us there, but they were announcing service delays). We got Oyster Cards, which we preloaded with £20. They are easy to use.
Ed was taken aback by the cost to get into the tower of London (£30.30) but I knew he would like it. We really spent most of the day there.
All of the exhibits seemed spiffed up quite a bit since I was there last (1976). I seem to remember more of a focus on torture back then. Now they stress how little torture actually happened in England at all! Seeing the Crown Jewels really highlighted how obscene the monarchy is. Not just the ridiculous jeweled cross but the enormous salt cellars for each monarch, the solid gold punch bowl that holds 144 bottles of wine, and all the swords and maces.
We had bleu cheese and broccoli quiches at the Tower Cafe – it was quite good.
One thing I didn’t remember that much from 1976 was the Line of Kings, a display of armor of various kings and other royalty. They had Henry VIII’s armor. Some of the armor was displayed on horses carved by Grinling Gibbons, an English-Dutch woodcarver I have been reading about.
After the Tower, we walked over the Tower Bridge and took the tube to Westminster. Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament were covered in scaffolding so not even picture-worthy. We walked around Whitehall a bit. Ed was not interested in seeing Westminster Abbey but we might come back and see the Churchill War Rooms tomorrow.
We finished our walk at Trafalgar Square, now pigeon free! Apparently (according to Greg) they have just stopped encouraging pigeon-feeding there. We took the tube back to Kings Cross from Piccadilly Circus to get ready for dinner. The boat shower just uses a fine mist, but it does get hot!
Our dinner reservation was at Frenchie in Covent Garden. We were given a table downstairs next to the kitchen. The young waitress was a little snooty, pretending to be French I guess. We had martinis and some Cornish oysters to start. I had Pumpkin & Ricotta Tortellini with Sage, Parmesan & Smoked Egg. Ed had Welsh Lamb with Green Harissa, Pearl Barley, Feta, Heritage Carrot and Cumin. All delicious. The chef, Greg Marchand, was working right near me.
After we got back to the boat, I went for a little walk along the canal. There were so many people out.
