**** Not much food in this one. So unless you'd like to see photos of His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, you can turn back now and return tomorrow!
Looking back, it did seem like we were making up for lost time in London. Trying to get in all the places we should have visited long ago. One of those places is the Tower of London, originally started in 1066 by William the Conquerer as a symbol of power, to instill fear and awe in the Londoners he had conquered. Talk about a "royal flex". Being the center of power and having many roles; prison being one of the foremost of them.
We really didn't want to do the very popular Ceremony of the Keys….by 9pm we'd want to be settling in. We would be flying to Milan the next morning and while it wasn't a very early flight, I just wanted to be well rested. Instead, after doing a bit of research, I found an Early Access to Tower of London Tour and decided on that.
So, we took the Tube from Piccadilly to Tower Hill. Arriving early, we grabbed our caffeine fix, before finding the meeting spot. The group consisted of about 15 people on this morning.
The view of the Tower Bridge from here is quite outstanding.
We entered and the first stop was watching the Opening of the Tower Gates. The Tower is still considered a palace, so of course there's a process and ceremony. Handled by the Beefeaters, the official guards of the Tower.
The Yeoman in charge this morning was really funny as he explained the process that has been in place since the 15th Century. He cracked a lot of jokes at the expense of the officer walking over the keys.
They keys were exchanged….various funny comments made and the guards moved about to open up the Tower.
One of the benefits to having this tour is that we are the first folks to see the Crown Jewels.
No photos allowed; but let me say, it's quite impressive. It was great getting early entry as we could take our time; our guide waited outside until everyone was finished. As we moved on to our next stop there was a huge line, like of over a hundred people it seemed!
The tour was fun, along with going over the history of "The Bloody Tower", there was a lot of other info provided. Like about the The Royal Menagerie. For over 600 years the Tower housed a collection of animals "gifted" to the Royal Family. Thus, you'll find sculptures that commemorate those animals that were created in 2010.
Those Baboons looked quite lifelike from a distance. If interested, you can read more about that here.
The views from the walls are also quite nice.
This is the Tower Green. A site that supposedly marked where scaffolds were located. The location is much disputed.
I had recently read Ravenmaster by Christopher Skaife, so of course I had questions about the Ravens at the Tower.
The Ravens of the Tower are believed to be the protectors of the Tower and the Royalty. The legend states: "If the ravens leave the Tower, the kingdom will fall.
We really weren't aware that other country's celebrated Halloween and really enjoyed seeing how they did!
And of course, the last place was the actual White Tower.
Which was an interesting place to visit as you're introduced to life at different statuses medieval London and then the bloody history of the Tower is exposed.
The Royal Armory has displays of arms over the centuries……
And then you'll find something that seems out of place; like this chair.
It turns out that this chair was used in the last execution at the Tower of London. Of an German spy named Josef Jakobs on August 15th, 1941.
All in all, having access to the Tower before opening and the Crown Jewels before the Masses made this a worthwhile tour.
The tour had taken about 3 hours. We decided to walk back to our hotel in Piccadilly. As for lunch; well, remember I mentioned the lower level food hall at Fortnum & Mason? We decided to stop by and just got some freshly made pasta.
As well as some broccolini.
The pasta was a nice al dente, but the Carbonara like sauce was bland and too thick. The broccolini was overcooked and under seasoned. Still, not terrible.
We took a break and had a nice nap. Upon awakening the Missus, who loves Her tea wanted to visit the flagship Twinings shop in the Strand, so we decided to walk on over. The Strand looked like a major theatre district with some interesting structures.
The location of Twinings in the strand dates back to 1706! It's a nicely lit small shop. The Missus enjoyed shopping here and just had to get the special King's Coronation Blend.
The Missus did enjoy the Darjeeling Blend and the young lady working was very nice.
At this point we headed back to the hotel. We had put in a decent amount of steps on this day and a nice nap sounded perfect!
Thanks for stopping by!
The crust of the pie was decent; crisp and flaky, the "steak" was quite chewy, though the sauce and gravy helped even things out. Overall, a bit on the bland side. I actually had to request some salt; something I almost never do in a restaurant. The peas, green beans and cabbage were pretty much tasteless. Though the mashed potatoes were very creamy it was also on the bland side as well.
This was indeed larger than what I'd had on my last visit. I went and cut it in half and there was a good amount of chicken this time and I could actually capture whisps of "parfum d'ail" (the fragrance of garlic). The wrap was still warm, there was indeed a good amount of garlic sauce, along with the very important pickles which help to counteract the dry chicken and balance out the pungency of the garlic sauce. The lettuce was used in a more restrained manner this time.
Ok, the beef in the meat jun was nicely marinated, if a bit on the chewier side; sweet-salty-hint of garlic, very bulgogi-ish, the batter was a bit thicker and gritty than I prefer and it had been over-fried a bit. But, the Missus enjoyed the mild eggy-ness and the combination of flavors. She liked the meat jun dipping sauce which also had a hint of vinegar, some spice, balanced sweetness.
Wasn't sure what to expect with the hash browns….there were three to an order, more than I could consume. This was typical Sysco quality, fast-foodish hash browns dusted with a truffle-Parmesan powder. It had a sweet tinge to it, I later found out that it is also dusted with black garlic. Not sure what hash browns are going for these days at your local fast-food joint, but I'm guessing that it's pretty reasonable for $4.50. Not that I would order it again though.
Just having the mix of cheddar-mozzarella which made things nice and gooey and the under-seasoned egg was not enough to overcome the brioche toast. There was a lack of savory flavors to me. I'm sure that some folks might really take to this, but it was just not my kind of thing.
This was a pretty messy sandwich. The bacon, which almost reminded me of "Canadian Bacon" hadn't been crisped up enough and was quite rubbery. Still, the savory-saltiness…it didn't seem smoky to me, really added balance to the sandwich.
It's still quite hefty, though wrapped a bit tighter. There seems to be a bit less Tzatziki, but the pita is still nice and pillowy.
I enjoyed the mashed avocado which added a nice creaminess to the toast. The Balsamic seemed to take it a bit over the edge with regards to sweetness; though I'm thinking some folks would love that. Not enough micro greens to make a difference. The Mozzarella added some milky-sour tones, but I rearranged them to try to get one in every bite.
Think of this as Daikon no Nimono crowned with a sizeable piece of seared foie gras and caramelized onions. As 
