Yes, this was a very special day in London with my little girl (who is not so small anymore).
There is a little known secret about the Big Ben tower. Actually, there are several secrets, one of which is that the tower is actually called the Queen Elizabeth Tower, and Big Ben is just the name of the biggest bell inside. But the secret I am talking about is that residents of the UK can get free tours of the tower!! And that goes for military personnel who are stationed here because we reside in the UK and have a UK address. So naturally, Lyana finds out about this. Somehow she is always privy to cool stuff like that. And she went to the parliament.co.uk website, and requested a free tour for two people. We would have taken the whole family, but you have to be 11 or older to go. :(
Our tour was for 10:30 which as I will mention later was the perfect time to go. Sadly, cameras and phones were not permitted, so you'll just have to imagine based on my description. We started off climbing I-forget-how-many stairs to a landing where the oldish but very fit tour guide in her fantastically posh but not intimidating British accent explained the history of the tower which was fascinating in and of itself, but even cooler because we were actually sitting INSIDE the tower while she told it. She talked about how the bell was named Big Ben, but they don't really know why. And how the bell was made E-flat but the guy in charge wanted it E-natural so he kept hitting it with larger and larger hammers until ... he broke it and so they had to smash it to bits, melt it down and make a new bell which was also E-flat. So the same guy tried to make it sound E-natural again by trying different size hammers until . . . he cracked it. So they fired him before he could do more damage to the bell, they found a novel way to halt the crack so the bell could be salvaged and they installed it. Which was no easy feat, mind you, because the bell didn't fit in the shaft standing up so it was raised to the top of the tower (over the course of several days and with the use of clever pulley) sideways and then uprighted once it got there.
We moved up the tower further and found ourselves literally on the backsides of the clockfaces! We walked around the entire tower in a narrow corridor that took us behind each of the four massive clocks and we could see the minute hand moving (every two seconds) from the backside. So cool!
Then she took us to the gigantic clock gears which are the same ones from when the clock was first installed. And no, the clock is not run on electricity. They still have a guy come in every couple of days to wind it! Though it's a bit more intense than your average grandfather clock, but essentially the same idea. What do you think is inside the middle of the tower under the clock? Yup, long chains with weights just like that little cuckoo clock from Germany on the wall. And to control the pendulum (inside the tower) to make sure it's within 1 or 2 seconds every 24 hours, they still use the old-fashioned system of adding or removing pennies (yes, pennies) stacked at the top of it.
And then if that wasn't enough coolness (as we listened to her stories) we finished the tour in the belfry which is situated just above the clocks. And the tour was timed perfectly so we arrived a few minutes before noon, got situated, put in our earplugs and waited for the chimes. First the song played on the little bells and then . . .DONG!!!!! TWELVE TIMES!! Even with earplugs it was incredible! We were just feet away and as Big Ben rang we placed our hands on the metal beams so we could feel the sound waves reverberate through the building. And then we were done. 340-odd stairs later we were at the bottom (and slightly dizzy).
And here we are 25 minutes after standing at the top of the tower.
We couldn't just end our day in London just then though. We decided to walk (a long walk) to Harrods for some SHOPPING! On the way we found Buckingham Palace, which is not actually in the picture. This is one of the gate leading into the plaza in front of the Palace. There's Queen Victoria's statue in the back. And I think that's Prince Harry's white van pulling out.
Oh, yeah. Here's the Palace. Just the right size for a short weekend stay.
We finally made it to Harrod's, though we made a quick food stop on the way at none other than . . Pret A Manger (it's actually French, and I can't spell or pronounce the name right, but they have really yummy grab-and-go sandwiches and soup).
I didn't realize until I got to Harrod's that it's really just a a huge shopping mall where you can buy anything you could ever dream of. We found LegoLand in there of course. That's the Lego model of Harrod's itself. I almost bought it.
Here's the 25,000 pound (that's british money) traveling trunk I was tempted to buy.
Yes, it's a book shaped like a 'W'. As in I Wanted to buy it.
Harrod's (the real one) from the outside. Now I wish I had taken more photos so you could see the amazing Macarons we bought, or the fun Disney Store we spent too much time in, or the watch we found that cost more than both my cars combined, or the delicious smelling food court, or the Baklava we bought (and ate), or the miles and miles of amazing impractical stuff for sale in there. If you haven't been to a Harrod's, find your nearest one and just go window-shopping. It will blow your mind, and maybe like it did for me, make you appreciate what you've already got. Yeah that HUGE flatscreen TV was incredible, but no thanks. I like my 32" Sony just fine.
Happy to be outside again. What a circus in there!
I've realized now that we have such a short time left here in England that I need to start taking more pictures of normal life. Like King's Cross Station. I can't believe this has become normal for us, and never would have thought that 5 years ago, but here we are just another day in King's Cross. Appreciate the normal folks, even if your normal is someone else's exotic.
Cheers,
Robert
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