London Trip, Saturday 10/1 -- History and Royal Culture Palooza

In order to experience the historic traditions of London, we signed up for a day tour, visiting the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, and Westminster Abbey. We finished the day with a cruise on the River Thames and a ride in a glass capsule on the London Eye, the highest observation wheel in the world, apparently.

• Pay phones? Try pay toilets. It was our first experience with paying to use the public toilets. I'm still not sure if it's to make money, to keep out undesirables or to keep the toilets nice-n-pretty. Not unlike a pedestrian tollway...
• Niles Crane is actually a tour guide for Premium Tours. An older, British version that is. I swear, the proper, TV character from Frasier was modeled after our tour guide, James. He even has the same head to body proportion. Weird.
• Give me rhinestones any day. I love anything shiny and glittery...basically, I like bling. Except for crown jewel bling, apparently. Crown jewels and ornate, solid gold punch bowls in the context of royal posessions to be revered made me a little sick. In fact, I was not impressed or awed, but identifed more closely with the people who revolted against monarchy. The rooms of clunky, showy armor didn't help. Nor did the stories of beheading and physical torture.
• "The Star" would have had a field day. Everyone likes a good celebrity female cat fight, right? The women of the royal families did not disappoint. ReeeOW. Sending your cousin (who came to you for refuge because she got kicked out of her country of which she was queen) to prison so that you will be the only queen around... that's harsh. And that's just one example.
• I don't remember ordering the Long John Silver special of the day. The tour pamphlet (leaflet) promised a river cruise with the "best" fish and chips in London. I love salt and vinegar and couldn't wait to try the real deal. I'm quite certain that the real thing is not foil-wrapped fish and chips, transported in boxes from Chinatown. And I know the real deal doesn't include tartar sauce and ketchup. Not a drop of vinegar in sight.
• A change in perspective... London really does look different from above. I loved the London Eye. It' s like a big ferris wheel on the River Thames, but the seats are giant, glass capsules and you can see from every angle as the wheel rotates.
• "Women's Bridge" I have to say that along with the London Eye, the highlight of the day for me was learning about the Waterloo Bridge, known as the "Women's Bridge." It was built entirely by women during war time. Girl Power is all over the world!
• British Terminology:

Leaflet = brochure