London: July 19-21: Tower of London

I spent several weeks in London in July, August, and September 2009. I'll save my general impressions of London for a post after I've been here longer.

I arrived in London at 10am on Sunday, July 20, after an unremarkable overnight flight. Meeting Di Yin, we left for the hotel where I'd be staying for two days. It allowed us to check in at 11am. We dropped off our luggage, noticed that the room was impeccably clean, and headed into the city.

Di Yin took some pictures this day after meeting me. The link goes to the first of the sequence of relevant pictures from the album. If you're in slideshow mode and begin seeing pictures of Heathrow and Oxford, you've cycled to the beginning of the album. Those pictures aren't connected to this day's adventures, and I wasn't there when they were taken.

On the other hand, I only began taking pictures this day after lunch.

It was a blustery, pleasant day, and we enjoyed seeing the greenery on the outskirts of London on the train ride into the city. We took the train (tube) through London, all the way to the East End. Walking down Brick Lane, one of London's Indian neighborhoods, we chose a restaurant and had a decent buffet for lunch. From this stroll, I decided Brick Lane was nothing special (so much so, I didn't take any pictures), though visits weeks later to other parts of Brick Lane and areas nearby altered this impression somewhat.

After lunch, we walked to the Tower of London. On the way, we walked through an underground tunnel (from the tube-station side of a road to the tower side) filled with impressionist prints of armor, tower scenes, etc. that I liked.

Don't think of the Tower of London as a tower; it's more a castle/palace. We took a history-filled tour with an entertaining guide (yeoman warder). After the tour, we stopped by one building to see numerous crown jewels, spotting some impressive crowns (and others not-so-much), many sceptres, a brilliant sheath, and a huge, ornate punch bowl that could hold wine from 144 bottles. We also browsed a special exhibit on Henry VIII that displayed lots of his armor and weapons. Finally, we walked atop some of the Tower's walls. Along the way, we discovered cute modern-art statues of guards (e.g., one, two).

We then took the tube back to our hotel. On the walk from the tube station in Hounslow back to our hotel, we stopped by convenience stores/small markets (the grocery store was closed). One had Polish, Russian, and Romanian foods; another had Indian.

For dinner, I bought "pierogi rushkie" (potato and cottage (?) cheese pirogi) from a nearby take-out joint. I enjoyed them, especially when topped with the deep-fried, minced onions: greasy goodness. The accompanying cabbage salad went well with the yogurt we purchased separately.

On Monday, I went to work. Because I was there early enough for breakfast, I tried the black pudding and thought it tasted like a moist, nice, somewhat-sweet bread, nothing like I imagined when I read the description and ingredient lists online. As I explored the office, I noticed it has great (small-company-type) perks. Other than making a long trip with two large suitcases, I didn't do anything besides work this day. (I had to drop the suitcases off at the apartment where I'd be staying for most my time in London and pick up the keys.)

I also worked most of Tuesday.