A last hurrah, then home again

red poppies
Red ceramic poppies at the Tower of London

We spent one last day in London after our return from Inverness. It was really nice to have a break between all day travel, plus we got some bonus touring in. We went to the Tower of London first, to see the crown jewels and as an added treat, were able to see the amazing art installation Blood Swept Lands and Sea of Red. 888,246 red ceramic poppies have filled the moat around the Tower, representing the British and colonial dead of World War I. Reading the dreadful statistics of World War I doesn’t begin to give you a grasp of the numbers of people killed in that war. Seeing that ocean of poppies was one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen. There were just SO MANY of them! I was in London years ago around Armistice Day (aka Remembrance Day), and remember seeing the poppies at Westminster Abbey. That, too, was sobering and heartbreaking. These ceramic poppies at the Tower are just overwhelming in their sheer volume.

The crown jewels are very impressive, and the entire tour of the Tower has changed since the last time either Chuck or I had been there. They have an all new (to us) visitor center, and a much better organized tour of the buildings. The last time I was there (30+ years ago!!) you had to pay separately to see the crown jewels and as a starving student I opted to not see the jewels and just tour the castle. So this was my first time seeing them and wow, they are pretty impressive! Seeing the Scottish crown jewels first was a good idea – while very sincere they pale in comparison to the sheer volume of England’s! I mean, we’re talking about a LOT of gold plate!

After the Tower, we stopped at a pub for lunch (fish and chips!) then it was on to the British Museum. Chuck had never been, so we tried to hit the highlights – and that took us almost four hours! That place is enormous. i was struck again by the acquisitiveness of the British Empire: the Elgin Marbles, the mummies, the temples, the sculptures, the you-name-it-from-everywhere they collected from all over the world. I don’t know what it is about museums, but by the time we left I felt like I had run a marathon!

We’re back home and getting reacclimated. We’d love to go back to Scotland and spend some quality time in the north, exploring more of the coast (north and west), and visiting the Isle of Skye. It’s a beautiful, wild place. The people are lovely, the food was yummy, the Scotch tasting was educational and the wifi was fabulous. Who can ask for anything more?!

Pics here.

Obligatory travel tips: before we left home I bought us Oyster cards (it was an add-on to the Britrail passes, also a fab deal) for the London Underground. They were SO useful, and we accidentally had exactly enough money on each pass – we came home with 80 pence left on each card (we started out with £20). made riding the Underground a breeze! if only LA had public transportation as slick as that! If only Amtrak were half as good as the British rail system. *sigh* Best app for the London Underground, IMHO (best app for ALL metro systems): Zuti! We have used them in London, NYC, Chicago, Washington DC, and Paris and had nothing but great experiences. Easy to use, inexpensive and super accurate.