Davin woke me up at 9:40am today. We were really lazy about getting up. Finally we had breakfast, and I took a quick shower. We left the apartment around 11am. We jumped on the bus going the opposite way as usual on a whim, but then I realized that if we went too far west we would leave zone 2, so we jumped right back off again. As luck would have it, going one stop the opposite way as usual brought us right to the door of a large grocery store. We were able to find cinnamon and nutmeg there for making French Toast for breakfast. We decided to come back later today to buy the supplies we needed.
Today we took a different route into the city. We took bus 266 south to Ravencourt St. and then took the District Line metro to Westminster. Then we changed to the Jubilee line and rode to London Bridge station. Then we walked north across London Bridge. This gave us a nice view of the famous Tower Bridge to the east, as well as the HMS Belfast.
When we reached the north shore we turned right and headed toward Tower Bridge. We passed the Tower of London, and continued to the Tower Bridge Experience. We paid 7 Pounds (2 for 1) to ride the elevators to the top of the Tower Bridge. The view wasn’t very impressive but we learned some interesting facts about the bridge and it’s history. The most interesting thing to me was that the horizontal connections between the two towers were original pedestrian walkways for when the bridge was raised. It’s actually kind of obvious, but I never thought about it before.
After reading the exhibit information along the walkways we took the stairs down the south tower. Then it was a short walk to the bridge engine rooms. This was the most interesting part of the Tower Bridge Experience. Inside the engine rooms it explained how the bridge lifting mechanism originally functioned using coal power.
When we finished visiting the Tower Bridge, we went in search of lunch. We tried to go to a Doener place we saw near the train station but it wasn’t open. Instead, Davin had a bratwurst from a café that they sold as a ‘Hot Dog’. I wasn’t that hungry so I just waited to eat until later. Then we walked back to the HMS Belfast so we could tour the ship.
We paid 12.95 Pounds (2 for 1 again!) for entry to the HMS Belfast. It was a really interesting museum, and the best historical ship tour I’ve been on. You were able to explore a lot of the ship including cramped hard to reach places like the boiler room, and shell rooms. There were lots of narrow, steep ladders to climb up and down. It was hard to maneuver at times. I wouldn’t have wanted to work in such an environment. The worst thing about it was that the insulation on the ship has tested positive for asbestos, and it was difficult to walk the narrow walkways when asbestos insulated pipes were on the left, right, and above your head! It was the ‘don’t touch the asbestos game’. I’m pretty sure I managed to get through without touching any of it, but I also didn’t want to spend much time in the rooms where the asbestos caution signs were everywhere.
Anyway, I had a lot of fun on the tour. The ship was fun to explore, and the audio tour was an interesting mix of facts and personal accounts. Unfortunately we weren’t able to visit the upper deck because it was closed for mast reconstruction. Still, it took us two hours to see everything we did!
We finished touring the HMS Belfast around 5pm. Since there wasn’t time to see anything else today we headed back to the apartment. We returned home the way we came, except that we got off the District line in Hammersmith instead of Ravenscourt. Then we took the Hammersmith and City line north to Shepherd’s Bush Market. From there we walked down the street until we found a Kebab restaurant. There we bought two Doeners for dinner. Then we caught the 207 bus back to our apartment. We ate dinner while watching Aljazeera news. I LOVE Aljazeera. It’s always so interesting!
After dinner, we went back to the Tesco’s we found this morning by chance. We bought supplies for French Toast and picked up some Dr. Pepper. Davin is happy to have Dr. Pepper to drink again. Then we returned to the apartment. I then worked on the blog, and Davin used his computer. I also chatted with Scott. Then I went to bed around midnight.
Your hair is getting long, it looks pretty. I dont remember what the HMS Belfast was for.
ReplyDeleteThe HMS Belfast was part of the British fleet during WW2. It was important because it had an admiral onboard who commanded the fleet from there.
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