The Buchans 2015: London

Week 2 didn’t start too well. We noticed that the lights in the caravan were getting dimmer and the pumps for the water were making noises.
The following day we decided that if it couldn’t fixed the problem that day then we would be in the dark that night.
As a stop gap we went to Wilko and bought a cheap reading lamp and and 2 torches. We had mains power so managed for 2 nights with the reading lamp.
We phoned a mobile caravan repairer who diagnosed that the battery charger needed replacing (I’d guessed it was the battery charger or the battery or both that needed fixing).
After a mad dash to Maidstone and back (60 miles) with a new charger in hand all was fixed and we were back to normality.

We met up with Maggie for our tour of the Tower of London.
for those thinking of visiting the entrance fee is expensive, but well worth it providing you spend most of the day there.
You cannot do it in a couple of hours.

We had heard that there can be long queues to see the Crown Jewels so we headed there first.
There was no queue so we went around twice!
Photography of the Crown Jewels was not allowed hence no photos.

The armour is spectacular and the craftsmanship superb,
I doubt if many people have these skills today.

Bronze Mortar 1695 – I should think this went off with a load BANG!

Taking a break in the grounds watching the ravens.

Warder with a raven. He said ‘They are quite friendly until they peck you!’

A little bit of history of who was incarcerated in the Tower, recently.

Some of the prisoner graffiti in the Beauchamp Tower – a talented lot.

No. 78 John Prince 1568
No. 81 Sir Richard Page

Dudley Brothers 1553

The Shard – from the North side of the Thames

A wobbly shard reflected in an office building

Greenwich Market

Greenwich Market – Children’s Face Painting

Another day we travelled to the Banqueting Hall, Whitehall by Thames Clipper.
It’s a little bit more expensive than the train, but it the best way to get into
Central London

The ceiling of the Banqueting House is the only surviving in-situ ceiling painting by
Sir Peter Paul Rubens.
It is composed of two canvasses measure 28x20ft and two others 40x10ft.

Unfortunately the outside is being renovated so all you see is scaffolding and plastic.
Next it will be the inside so the hall will not be accessible, so get there soon.

To see the ceiling you lie on bean bags and listen to commentary – very restful!

A projected image of a sketch of the exterior.

The Rubens ceiling

On our last Sunday we travelled to the Imperial War Museum by train from
Abbey Wood alighting at London Bridge station.
We hadn’t realised that the Shard sprouts out of the ground at London Bridge.
We weren’t tempted to go up it at about £35 each!

The Imperial War Museum

British 15-inch naval guns – these were the newest, largest and most powerful guns in the Royal Navy in 1912

A bullet proof press vehicle which has seen better days

I wish!

We have a friend with the surname Fryatt and he had told us about his relative in the past. I sent him these photos recently and it is his Great Uncle.
Extract from the Southampton Cenotaph
‘Charles A Fryatt was a British mariner who was executed by the Germans for attempting to ram a U-Boat (U33) in an incident on the 2nd March 1915. On 25th June 1916 the following year, while in command of the SS Brussels, the ship was captured off the Netherlands and although a ‘non-combatant’ he was court-martialed and sentenced to death! International outrage followed his execution near Bruges in Belgium and in 1919 his body was reburied with full honours in England.’

One of the watches presented to CA Fryatt

Interesting French

One of the preprinted cards sent to the soldiers

We had a quick visit to Bluewater shopping centre which was not too far from
our caravan site. It was light and airy with interesting architecture.
It used to be the largest shopping centre in UK, but now it is the third largest.
Sue came away with a few items I came away empty handed.