Kaleb’s Travels The life and times of Kaleb Guard

On our second day in London we woke up and got ready to go out. We went on a bus tour. On the bus tour, we went to St Paul’s Cathedral which has the Whispering Gallery in the dome. It is 163 steps high! I raced up them but Nana got puffed out and had to stop half way. We went through a tall narrow door. I looked over the balcony and I got so scared that I had to step back. The wall was curved so, when you whispered from one end, the whisper would go around the wall to the other side. Nana and I went to opposite sides of the dome and we whispered to each other. It was really faint, but we could hear each other and when we did we both smiled.

When we went down again, we came to the main part of the cathedral but we went down even further... to the crypt. I was very interested in the crypt and I liked Lord Nelson’s tomb, because it was the biggest one there and it had a big metal crown on the top and it was all cushioned on the outside. I even bought a replica of his ship “The Victory” because I wanted to remember him. We saw where Christopher Wren was buried too. Christopher Wren is the man that designed and built St Paul’s Cathedral. His tomb wasn’t very big and it was very low on the ground.

Then we had lunch at the restaurant at the Cathedral, it was underground! I had a brownie and a sandwich and an elder-flower drink. It was all very nice and I drank the drink very slow because it was so good that I wanted to save some for later.

After lunch we went to the gift shop. There were some really nice things in there. There were model boats and Easter things. I got the model of “The Victory” that I mentioned earlier and two chicks for my brother and sister. When you put them on your hand they go “cheep”. Then we left and went to Marks and Spencers and got some sandwiches and some sushi for later and went to catch the bus.

We caught sight of the bus and stood up to catch it; it stopped and we got on. Then we went across the London Bridge.

That was fun because we were going across a really old bridge and it had really cool towers. When we got across we saw a bit of the Roman wall left from the original London in Roman times. It is one of the only things still remaining from the original London. We went past it and then we were close to The Tower of London.

We got off the bus and headed towards a ticket booth for the tower... I still didn’t realise that we were going in, but we went and got a ticket each! We went down to the entrance of the tower and the guard checked our tickets and they were okay so we went through a big gateway that looked really old.

First we went into the Weaponry. There were hundreds of different weapons. There were spears, swords, all sorts of guns, cannons, and other things. We went into the cannon room and there were tiny barrels of gun powder. There were also medium, big, even bigger, and colossal ones.

Then we went into the Armoury where you get to try on little bits of armour. I tried on the bits for your hand, leg, arm, and foot. We saw all of the armour belonging to all of the kings and saw King Henry the 8th’s armour. Apparently, he is one of my Nana’s ancestors so that means he is one of mine too.

Then we went to the Jewel room. You go on an conveyor belt like at AQUA. We saw the crowns first they were all jewelled up like mad and they were beautiful, I can see why they had you on a conveyor belt because there is no way anybody wouldn’t want to steal those but you just wouldn’t have time on the conveyor belt. Then we saw the scepters belonging to the queens they were all jewelled up too. Then we saw the punch bowls and they were solid gold!!! There was one humongous one and I’d say that not even a crane could lift it!

Then we went out and went to the actual part of the tower where royalty lived and we went in... it was room after room, stairs after stairs, so many stairs and rooms! The moat was gone because when the people who used to live there went to the toilet it flushed down to the moat so it had to be drained. The rooms were amazing. The bedrooms all had beds and bathrooms and one had a secret door. I think it went to the top of the tower but Nana and I didn’t go on the roof to check it out. Then we went to the store inside the castle and we got some sweeties and I got a great pen that I really liked with a gargoyle on it. Then we left the tower.

It was getting dark. It started to rain, so Nana got us inside a nearby shop so we could keep dry. She bought a mug that had “God Save The Queen” on it. When it stopped raining we went back to the tower. We went into a jewelry store there but everything was too expensive. Then we went to get the bus back to the hotel. We found the bus up the street and we nearly missed it but I ran as fast as I could. They were about to leave and I stopped them in the nick of time! It wasn’t too difficult, I just waved. We got on the bus and went back to the hotel. When we got back we prepared for my Poppa and Ben to arrive, because all the suitcases were on Poppa’s bed! Ben was already in London but he was going to bring Pop to the Hotel.

About an hour or two after we got back to the hotel I saw a blue car out the window then I saw two men get out of it. I saw a man with very short hair and he was wearing jeans and a big jacket and could tell it was Ben. I also saw someone with a leather jacket on and I thought and thought but then I remembered Dad and Pop wear those and it wasn’t Dad because this man had longer hair than Dad. So I thought it must be Pop! I told Nana and she went “No!” (sarcastically) and I went “YES!” and I ran to go to the elevator. Nana said “Don’t...”, but I had already gone out the door. When I got down there he wasn’t there! He was still outside and when he came in he didn’t recognise me. When I ran up to him he noticed my red hair and knew it was me so he said “Kaleb?” and I said “yes” and he dropped the suitcase and hugged me so hard!!! We went up to the room. Ben and I were in the lead because poppa didn’t know the way, or what room or floor. We got to the room and Nana must have heard the door open because she jumped up out of the bed and ran to the door. It was very dark now—it was about 9:00 at night—so Ben didn’t stay long. About a half an hour later he left. We were all very, very tired so we were asleep in a SNAP. But we were awake very early the next morning, because Pop and I had LOTS of things to do!!.

You’ll have more to read in my next entry coming soon. I hope you enjoyed this one and found it as fun as I did.