Hi, > I was stood on the riverbank > next to the Tower landing and could *see* the exhibition directly across > the river. With certain almighty powers and maybe some floating shoes, I > could have walked it in 5 minutes. Without, it was simply not an option.
what a shame - you would have enjoyed it. > Points from the day: > 1. I hate being herded around like an animal for slaughter. Ditto. > 2. The Crown Jewels were over-rated. * See below. > 3. I love the river. Ditto > 4. Never have a pint of ice cold lager when taken with a raging thirst > and a headache. Alright then. > It was a long day, home at 11pm. I had a long day too, but it ended with a Spanish restaurant, theatre, then a drink down by the river in Richmond, so very pleasant. Didn't get home until nearly 2am though because of the traffic at Tower Bridge. I heard the midnight bongs while driving through Parliament Sq. I heard the 1am bongs over the radio while stuck in traffic on the Minories. (For non-Londoners that's about a 2 mile drive in one hour). > * Interestingly, with modern crowd control techniques, I was curious as > to the methods used to keep lingering hordes moving past the Crown Jewels > at the pace required to avoid a blockage. I imagined Beefeaters with > cattle prods politely issuing 'move along' requests, but thought this > unlikely. It became perfectly clear when I saw the twin conveyor belts > either side of the encased royal booty. Unbelievable. I was pretty gobsmacked too when I first saw this, which was one New Year's Day. That was a great day to see the Tower because there were very few people there. Even so, they had the silly little conveyor belt going so even if you were the only person on it you had to do the weird little crab-like sideways-walking act to stay in front of the showcase. You can see paste versions of all the world's crown jewels at a rather grotty little exhibition at the Old Royal Naval College here in Greenwich. -- Cheers, Bob
