The trip part 5

This day was to be one of my personal highlights of the trip; taking grandma to high tea at the Brighton Grand. We travelled by car and stopped in via Sevenoaks on the way. Now, as I have mentioned previously, I had the best of times and some might say, some of the worst of times in this town. I left in 2003, but the town had left an indelible mark on my life, so it would not be right if I didn't see how the town was faring. A little bit had changed, the McDonalds was gone, the two pubs down near the station were gone, but otherwise things were pretty much as I left it. It was still a ghost town on a Mid Sunday morning too. So onto Brighton and the trip to the Grand. I wanted to take Grandma there 4 years ago, but her health was a little on the down side, so it was not to be, so consider this a wish fulfilled. Now, I must say, I have never had high tea before, I've only read about it or else seen it on one of those ever perky travel TV shows. But man oh man, how good was it?? I give the whole experience 5 stars, truly exceptional. The staff were lovely, the service impeccable, and the food, my god the food. The three tiered silver platter with sandwiches on top (with crusts cut off too!), and cakes etc on the lower two tiers. Who would have thought that picking at little cakes and things would fill you up, but I don't think anyone managed to get through everything, we literally rolled out of there quite contented. The next day, Miss R and I did a big tourist day around London. Well, a bit of a tourist day anyway. We caught a river ferry from Waterloo down to The Tower of London. I love the Tower...the history of the place is quite staggering. This was my third visit, but quite frankly, it wouldn't have bothered me if it was my 10th. We managed to tag along on a Beefeater tour who had a voice that could wake the dead. No microphone and loudspeaker for this chap, lord no. After watching the two Elizabeth movies and "The Other Bolyn Girl", Miss R was intrigued by the fact that this was the place where it all happened. Here was the place where Anne Bolyn was beheaded and buried, here was where Elizabeth I took the crown and here was where King Henry VIII ate his way into a diabetic coma. Awesome. Also housed in the Tower are the Crown Jewels. The Beefeater explained at length that the jewels on display are the real deal, and not replicas as some urban legends would have you believe. Why would they house replicas in a 2 foot thick vault? Doesn't make sense. So, yes, these are the real deal, and stunning is a word that can not begin to describe them. The 500 odd carat Cullinan diamond is a whopping piece of stone if ever you've seen one. To give you some idea of its size, I would think a clenched fist is about right. Bloody huge. Leaving the Tower, we thought we'd head via docklands light rail to Greenwich. Easy you might say, but alas, track works scuppered that idea and instead of a quick 15 minute trip, it took a 40 minute tube ride changing at three stations to get there. Greenwich really is lovely, we walked from the station up into the park and the Observatory. Miss R and I did the obligatory standing on the 0 degree longitude thing, which we all must do I suppose. THere is a great view of the London skyline from there as well, although I really didn't think Greenwich was that far from the city, but it jolly well was. Anyway, we caught the ferry back to Waterloo along the river. The weather was starting to get a bit chilly by this point and we weren't exactly dressed for the cold weather. As a side note, I should say, that travelling on the river ferry seemed to a nice, relaxing mode of transport, and yet, pulling into Canary Wharf at 5.30pm on a weekday, you'd think more people would use this wouldn't you? Not many suits got on, I mean, it wasn't exactly fast, but I can think of far more taxing ways to get around London that's for sure.