—Kayl—

Off to explore more of London.

I walked through Chinatown before anything was open, and enjoyed the mix of uniquely British and Chinese elements.

Cool architecture at Charing Cross Road.

St Martin’s in the Fields – a church in Trafalgar Square.

A crypt, which has been converted into a café.

I took a train across the Thames to Borough Market. It was quite busy and sprawling. Half of the market was under a bridge so it almost felt like it was underground.

I looked at the area’s architecture, with many Gothic buildings mixed with modern ones.

I saw London Bridge, which was a bit underwhelming.

Then went over to the Tower of London, where I spent hours exploring with audio tours.

This is the oldest part of the tower, the White Tower. It houses the Royal Armouries, which is a collection of weapons and armour.

Inside, it was interesting to see one of Henry VIII’s early suits of armour. It was inscribed with “H&K”, for Henry and Katherine of Aragon. Later in our trip, we went to see Six, a musical about Henry’s wives. Katherine was his first wife, and this armour was made for him before there were concerns about an heir and changes with the church.

There were also examples of the imperial volume measures, which include a bushel and a peck. :)

The crown jewels are also kept here, though no photos are allowed. It was fun to learn that they are “working jewels” and are removed from the tower when they need to be used in ceremonies.

The tower also has many ravens, which are kept there as a superstition. The legend is that if the ravens leave the tower, the kingdom will fall. They have clipped wings but are free to roam the grounds. I saw some of these ravens looking contemplative outside the White Tower.

It was amusing to see a lawn roomba keeping the lawns clean outside the White Tower.

Around this time, the sun was setting and Tower Bridge was lit up. I also realized I had yet to take a picture of myself in London.

Across the river, a grouping of modern buildings was also starting to light up.

I wanted to make it over to St Paul’s Cathedral, and by chance got to use one of the older style buses. The route names were prepended with a “T”, and there was both a driver and a conductor on board to collect fare. It was, of course, still a double-decker.

I made it in time to listen to evensong at St Paul’s, which sounded angelic.

After this, I met up with Shane and we tried a nice gluten-free restaurant.

—Shane—

Not much interesting happened at the pharmacy. We looked at label printing and discussed implementation timelines and requirements.