Europe, day 44: An Abbey, a Tower, and a Ship

On a (relatively) fine Sunday in London, what better place to go to than to Communion at Westminster Abbey? To accommodate our hotel's checkout time, we had to go for the early service, which turned out to be a prayer service with communion at the end. I now know from experience that Anglican communion wine is strong, antiseptic even, and that the wafers are rather devoid of taste.

After checking out of the hotel, we moved on to a tour of London Tower. Our guide, a resident of the tower and a guard, or Beefeater, wore an interesting uniform. (Not a costume, as he points out.)


He spoke in a loud and commanding tone, which is fitting of a man with as much military leadership experience as he. He made for a very good tour guide, of course.


This curious monument stands to those who were executed inside the tower walls, as opposed to the public executions held on the nearby hill. It's in a courtyard that one finds at the end of the tours. The long line is to see the crown jewels. The jewels themselves are big and illustrious, and probably one of the best symbols of excess ever created.

Illusion of a Sword

There was a museum of armaments and armor that had been used during the life of the tower. The collection contains the world's largest and smallest complete suits of armor. Of course, there is a lot of armor, some exotic, some mundane; a whole hall's worth of guns; and plenty of educational games about the early creation of coins, usages of different weapons, and modern defenses.

The London Tower Bridge

Right across the river (literally) from the tower, one can find the London Tower Bridge. The London Bridge is much less ornate and was famously sold to "those gullible Americans who thought they were getting the other one." By this point, we were rather hungry after our five or so hours inside the tower grounds, so we sought a place to eat before catching a train to Harwich, from which our ship was to depart. We were rather hurried, as we had to leave from the Liverpool station, and we had little to no idea as to how to catch the train. (We didn't have tickets, and the EuRail pass is not valid in England.) As it happens, we arrived in Liverpool in time to see the train leave, but not in time to learn how to get on it. We consulted those knowledgeable and found that we could catch a later train without missing our ship. Also, we could justify our travel to be free, and we were never checked to prove otherwise.

Our quarters

Ships may not be the most spacious of vessels, but the accommodations were very good, anyway. It seemed to be in very good repair, and was absolutely facinating besides. We slept well, in preparation for a long day of travel the following day.