Day 3: Peeking at Crown Jewels and sneaking into Westminster Abbey

Today we had two big sites to tackle: the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey. We took off early and grabbed a cheese twist pastry and chocolate-filled croissant to eat along the way (no pictures of the whole noms... couldn't not start eating).

We walked from the hostel to Tower of London (~2.5 mi) and enjoyed our pastries along the way, catching a sight of St. Paul's Cathedral along the way.

Fortunately, we arrived at Tower of London about 30 min before they opened, so we were well prepped to "get the worm." After purchasing tickets from a little-known ticket shop next to the Tube exit, we walked toward the Tower entrance and past hordes of tourists waiting in line for tickets. We tried our best to minimize the smugness of our smiles.

Okay, so we weren't the first in line, but only about 20 people were ahead of us. That meant that we got a selfie with a Tower guard without any other tourists in view!

Also, there was no line to the Crown Jewels! No, this picture is not photoshopped! We didn't have to wait. I would have taken a picture later in the day of the huge line snaking around the courtyard, but I'm not that cruel.

Waiting in the drained moat for our Beefeater tour.

On our Beefeater tour, with the White Tower in the near background, a caged crow in the mid-background (something about how there always has to be a crow at the Tower or else it'll crumble), and a drawn Tower Bridge.

I don't know why, but the day before we'd taken a photo of us eating the Tower Bridge. I didn't know how to work it in to the previous post, so I'll just set it here.

After wrapping up at the Tower of London, we crossed the still-standing Tower Bridge and walked a few miles across the South Bank to the Westminster Bridge and traversed it for a great view of the Parliament building and the tower housing Big Ben.

ta-da!

I visited Westminster Abbey last year, but missed going through the (free) Cloisters and Abbey Museum. So while Whitney toured the main part of the Abbey, I pestered a really nice old British lady in the museum ("Why wasn't Henry VI canonized?" "Where was Edward the Confessor buried before being placed in the Abbey?" "Why is the Bayeux Tapestry in Bayeux, and not England?"). The Abbey has Evensong every evening for free, and the general public can line up outside for seats. However, I wanted to sit next to Whitney during the service and so.... wait, a guy I saw... yes, totally not me. I saw this guy walk through the crowd to the exit like a fish swimming upstream. He then saw the official exit where guards were collecting the audio tour headsets, and figured, "Well, what's the worst that could happen if they stopped me?" So he just looked like he was supposed to be there and confidently walked past the sentinels. Conveniently, his wife happened to be just on the other side so he totally pulled the move off and felt simultaneously naughty and victorious.

So back to me. Whitney and I lined up to get into Evensong about 45 min before the gates open because we'd learned that the first 30 people or so get to sit in the choir seats! The rest of the congregation sits in the pews. Go big or go home, baby! While we waited in line, the family in front of us turned around and asked about my Emory sweater - they are from Georgia and go to UGA! Actually, we'd also seen a guy at Harry Potter with an Emory sweater on too, and he'd just graduated! small world.

As it turned out, we were far enough ahead in line to get to enjoy the choir seats! Here's a totally illegal selfie:

For reference, here's the brochure for Westminster Abbey, featuring the Royal Wedding. We sat in the seats directly to Prince William's right.

Here's proof:

The service was pinch-me-I-must-be-dreaming beautiful both in message and music, and included a piece by Ralph Vaughan Williams:

After exiting the service, we turned around to admire the structure, and were excited to see our very own Atlanta native among the stone dignitaries above the door!