We had a little trouble getting up in the morning, the bed in our hotel was probably the most comfortable we had been in since we gave up our new mattress in the move to Aberdeen. The hotel was kind enough to help us out, though, with a fire alarm at 6:42 am. Apparently some knucklehead had been smoking in a non-smoking room. The alarm would go off, scaring the bejeesus out of us, and just as you got around to going out the door it would stop. 30 seconds later it would go again. They eventually got it sorted.
We had a pretty nice start to the day weather-wise. Blue sky with a few clouds on the horizon. We crossed the street from our hotel and were at the Tower of London, which we found to be one of the most fascinating historical places we have been to on our recent travels. The place was huge, and under different circumstances I think we could have spent the entire day wandering around. We latched onto a tour given by one of the Yeoman Warders that actually live in the Tower. These are the "Beefeaters" that everyone is most likely familiar with from the gin bottle. The tour was fun and interesting - a reflection of the genial guide (ours was Colin and he liked to complain about his wife). We saw the many different sections of the Tower, drank in the history full of intrigue, conspiracy, politics and murder. My favorite place was the Beauchamp Tower (pronounced Beachem for some reason) where old prisoners had left elaborate graffiti on the walls. Fiona particularly enjoyed the Tudor apartments and the memorial on Tower Green. The Crown Jewels made an impression as well, although perhaps not as much as certain aspects of Henry VIII's armour!
We managed to avoid the worst of the rain while we were inside the White Tower, and made it back to our hotel in good order. We changed into our theatre clothes and hopped a tube for the West End. We made a quick stop in Trafalgar Square to see Canada House (the Canadian Embassy in London) and the various goings on. One of the cooler things is the "4th Plinth". It turns out that they have four large plinths in the square, three of which have statues of various generals and monarchs and the fourth of which is, and has been, empty. They've decided to give up the fourth plinth to ordinary people for 1 hour at a time, 24 hours a day. So you can sign up, and if chosen, stand up on the plinth and do whatever it is you want to do. When we were passing through a beekeeper had taken up residence and was showing the crowd how to handle an unwanted hive of bees. Pretty cool idea.
After a quick dinner we made our way to the Dominion Theatre, where we had tickets for "We Will Rock You" - a musical based on the music from Queen. We had a great time, keeping it classy with a couple of plastic cups of champagne, waving our glowstick and doing our best to encourage those around us to sing along as loud as we did. It was really the only disappointing part of the evening - that the crowd didn't really get into it until the very end when "We Will Rock You" and "Bohemian Rhapsody" were played. We had a great time, though, and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone that enjoys Queen.
Saw the Queen on day 1, saw a Queen musical on day 2, what does day 3 have in store ...
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