Last Day in the UK! It Rhymes!

The globe from the outside
London, England

Our last day in the UK was pretty relaxed; just wandering. The first stop of the day was the reconstructed Globe Theater. The Globe is on the banks of the Thames, and is pretty true to the original 17th century specifications. The only major changes are in regard to fire regulations; fewer people can enjoy a show at once, and they now have electricity.

We were the first tour group of the day and when we entered the theater it was empty. We managed to take a few good pictures before 100 French high school students joined us. It must have been tour group day because we ran into them everywhere. I would love to see a play here, but in early April, they aren’t showing any yet.

Ice Mice on the Millennium Bridge
London, England

We left the Globe and walked toward St. Paul’s Cathedral over the Millennium Bridge. This is the bridge attacked by Death Eaters in the cinematic version of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. We were going to pretend to witness the attacks when something else drove all other thoughts from our minds: ice mice. Someone had placed about a dozen mice on the bridge; they were made of ice. I only wish a sign had warned us ahead of time; watch for ice on bridge.

Twinings Tea Shop on the Strand
London, England

We next looped around St. Paul’s, a lovely church designed by the famous architect Christopher Wren. We admired it from the outside and continued along The Strand, stopping eventually at Twinings. Twinings is a tea company and we visited their original shop in London; it opened in 1706. Inside the Strand Shop are few displays of antique teas and memorabilia—oh, and tea!

The shop smelled amazing, and there were many ways to customize your tea purchase. I bought a few tins; they’re beautiful and I may even repurpose them into a craft once they’re empty. The shop was well lit and a pleasure to explore; the front door is still original.

Lincoln's Inn Fields aka #12 Grimmauld Place
London, England

When we left, we wandered over to Lincoln’s Inns Fields. This area was a little less genteel; there was a van distributing food for the homeless. How fitting then that this area provided the exteriors for #12 Grimmauld Place, Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. We snapped our pictures and returned to the more populated streets.

Leadenhall Market
London, England

Grimmauld Place was quite different from the other HP exteriors set we visited: Leadenhall Market. This is a covered market with a lot of specialty shops. The area is very quaint; each address is made of mosaicked tile. One particular sore in the market held our interest: The Glass House. Though it has since changed hands, The Glass House was used to film the muggle side of The Leaky Cauldron. It’s blue now, but the exterior is otherwise the same.

The Glass House in Leadenhall Market
London, England

We also visited a Waterstone’s Bookshop while in Leadenhall market. The internet can help you find any number of books on a particular subject, but I still maintain the best place to find information about the city you’re in is the local bookshop. Here you will find books you didn’t even know existed, sometimes as translations from other languages. It’s also more fun to buy a book in a store than it is online. You can hold it, feel the weight of it in your hand, and peer through its pages before purchasing.

I was on a hunt for a particular Jack the Ripper book, authored by the London Walks guide, Donald Rumbelow. Here on the blog I’ve directed you to Amazon, but that is because you are (probably) not in London. The first store didn’t have the book, but they directed me to another stores in the city; the hunt continued.


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Shakespeare's Globe
St. Paul's Cathedral
Twinings Tea
Waterstones Bookstore
Jack the Ripper Book by Donald Rumbelow

You Were Seen by No Less than Seven Muggles!

The train ride between Edinburgh and London is beautiful and very picturesque. I googled the route and determined we needed to sit on the eastern side of the train. We saw cliffs on the coast, sheep and cows in the fields, and large towns, like Newcastle. It was a great way to travel and it only took about 4 hours. There was even a little kitchen on board for buying snacks and drinks. If you have an opportunity to train across the countryside in the UK; take it.

When we left for Scotland, we didn’t really have time to visit Platform 9¾, so when we returned to King’s Cross Station, we headed there first. Platform 9¾ is not actually between platforms 9 and 10 like in the book, but they are within sight.

This is not an attraction you can just wander up to and expect it to fit in your schedule. The muggles have noticed something, and the line is long. There is a conductor who outfits you with a scarf in your house colors, and a professional photographer who takes a picture of you while you are jumping. When holding the cart and jumping, you look like you’re running into the wall—especially when the conductor holds your scarf out in an act of movie magic.

After posing for your mildly embarrassing “magic” photo, and after your friends have taken personal photos of you being ridiculous, you can visit the Platform 9¾ Harry Potter Shop. In the shop you view the professional photos and decide if you want to purchase any souvenirs similar to those available at Leavesden. Most importantly, you can purchase a replica ticket for the Hogwarts Express.

Yes, this was a really cheesy place to visit. Yes, the line is long. But it was really fun, and as of this moment, still free.

My ticket to Hogwarts

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My Name is Zack Bagans . . . and these are Our Ghost Adventures

When Joe and I first started dating, we would stay up late and watch Ghost Adventures, a show that used to scare the bejeezus out of us. In one episode, the team went to investigate the Edinburgh South Bridge Vaults, and it was a very active episode. Loving a good, terrifying thrill, I booked tickets for my sister and me to tour the underground chambers.

Tours are run by Mercat Tours, and there are 2 tour options for visiting the vaults, historic or ghost; we chose ghost. The historic tour is during the day and utilizes electric lighting. The ghost tours are at night and the vaults are lit only with candlelight. This was a simple way to set the mood without the use of costumes; when the vaults were in use, the only light source would have been candles. Candlelight is pretty inadequate; living or working in the cave-like vaults would have been depressing.

When Edinburgh’s population became far too large for the city limits, the city built a bridge to extend outward, the South Bridge. The area under the bridge was built into useable space by constructing various chambers underneath. These were connected by passageways, and for a while, they were used by respectable business owners. When the bridge was built though, the builders cut a corner and didn’t waterproof the vaults. Water and other nastiness seeped in from the streets above, and the legitimate businesses fled. In their wake, dozens of illegal uses for the vaults sprang up.

The vaults were filled in the 1860s and then rediscovered in the 1980s. When people began revisiting the vaults, they noticed spiritual activity. Most of the spirits in the vaults seem to stem from its nefarious past. There are rumors that the Hellfire Club met in the vaults; that some pagans accidentally opened a portal to hell; that body-snatchers used vaults to store corpses. Some of the rumors are true, but fact or fiction, spirits remain in the vaults.

We visited a room where a child named Jack frequents, and my sister said, after visiting that room she just didn’t feel right, and begged to leave as soon as possible. We stayed long enough for me purchase some books (mmmmmmmmm books). We also talked briefly with our guide to see if we were in the evil, haunted hotel. While its exact location is a mystery, we at least weren’t staying in the same neighborhood.

I didn’t feel much, just temperature changes, but it was hard to focus on any errant sounds or smells in a large group. Furthermore, there were other tours taking place, so distant sounds could be attributed to them. I would love a more private tour of the vaults, one in which I might notice more of the supernatural.

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Mercat Tours

Edinburgh South Bridge Vaults

Ghost Adventures

Rumors of Spiritual Activity in the Vaults

Hellfire Club on Wikipedia

Mine! Mine! Mine!

Forth Rail Bridge, built in the 1880s.
Edinburgh, Scotland

The Firth of Forth is a curiously named waterway just North of Edinburgh. Forth is the name of the river, and firth means estuary, so the Firth of Forth is the mouth of the river Forth. Boat tours leave the port town of Queensferry, and this town can be reached from Edinburgh by bus. We arranged to take a bus/boat tour with Forth Boat Tours aboard the Forth Belle, and we left Edinburgh at about 10:30am. We had a beautiful, albeit crisp, day for our tour. The boat took us out the Firth to Inchcolm Island, where for an additional £5, you could disembark and spend an hour and a half wandering around the island.

Seals basking in the spring sun.
Firth of Forth, Edinburgh, Scotland

Incholm Island has the ruined remains of Inchcolm Abbey, among them, the best preserved medieval cloisters in Scotland. Like many ancient buildings in Europe, the abbey reached its current size through many generations of builders adding to it. The earliest buildings of the abbey date from the 1100s and the most recent ruins are the battlements from WWII. There is a paved path from the dock to the abbey, but to reach the battlements and the southern tip of the island, you must be prepared to do a bit of hiking. You have permission to roam all over the island during your visit; time and physical ability are your only limits, though they recommend you don’t approach the wildlife.

Inchcolm Island and Inchcolm Abbey
Edinburgh, Scotland

When we arrived, we bypassed the crowds at the abbey (the 1^st sight) and headed uphill toward the southern coast of the island; we were on a puffin hunt. The captain of our boat announced that the first puffin had been spotted the previous day; apparently they are like robins. The vegetation has been allowed to grow wild, and the ground is very uneven, punctuated with rocks and tufts of over grown grass. The area acts somewhat as a wildlife preserve, with seals and gulls sharing the space with puffins in the summer. Hundreds of gulls were on the southern hillside, and the noise was deafening. The island was beautiful, but the ground was covered in poop—look but don’t touch anything.

Inchcolm Abbey
Edinburgh, Scotland

We hiked downhill toward the water, and on our return hike up we encountered Maude and her friend. The girls, about 6, were exploring the island with their dads. Maude was very precocious and invited us to hike back down to the water with them in search of the seagull nest factory; she assured us it was located there. We declined, as we had just been there, and parted ways with the promise of a progress report later.

Seagulls on Inchcolm Island
Edinburgh, Scotland

We returned to the abbey and climbed the tightest and steepest spiral steps I have ever encountered (so far) to the roof. We visited the chapter house where my sister sentenced me to jail time, and pondered the ruins of the choir; somehow the choir retains half an arched vault without succumbing to gravity.

Our final stop was the north end of the island to visit the old war ruins. The entire firth was heavily fortified during both world wars as it was an important port. Other islands in the firth were fortified as well. Inchgarvie Island was fortified in a specific pattern, and against the horizon it presents the silhouette of a battleship.

Ruins of the Choir
Inchcolm Island, Edinburgh, Scotland

We reached the ruins by marching blindly into a dark, scary tunnel. We were emboldened by the arrival of another visitor who assured us that the tunnel did indeed go through to the other side, and that it was perfectly safe. We walked in, and it was scary, and then it was over. The tunnel was actually short, but it was curved, so it looked endless. Once through, we saw the mouth of the Forth and looked toward the North Sea, but there were not puffins to be found. It must have been too early in the season still.

The "battleship" island
Inchgarvie Island, Edinburgh, Scotland

As we were walking back to the boat, my sister slipped on the pavement (Scots for sidewalk) and cut her knee. The boat only had gauze, so when we returned to the mainland I went into a small store and asked if they had band-aids.

The clerk said “No, but the bikers might”

“Bikers . . . .?”

“Next door.”

The bikers next door were Harley Davidson riders, and they looked like a tough bunch. But, as anyone but your mother will tell you; never judge a book by its cover. They were very kind and concerned, and they got us set up using supplies from their aid kit—free of charge. The place where they hang out is called Biker's Cove, and everyone reports them to be a friendly bunch. It was a very interesting afternoon.

The creepy, dark WWII tunnel
Inchcolm Island, Edinburgh, Scotland

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Forth Boat Tours

Inchcolm Abbey

Incholm Island
Biker's Cove

I’m Seeing Hogwarts!

This trail was ridiculous.
Holyrood Park, Edinburgh, Scotland

Our 2^nd day in Scotland was easily my favorite. We started out with a hike in Holyrood Park, the very large nature park adjacent to Holyrood House, the Queen’s residence in Scotland. We rose early and spent some time climbing a ridiculously steep path shortly after sunrise. We walked for about an hour before returning to our hotel for a shower. This park is one of the many reasons I want to return to Edinburgh; the views were great from midway up, but I want to reach the summit.

The view from the midway point.
Holyrood Park, Edinburgh, Scotland

Our next stop was the Elephant House, an unassuming coffee shop with views of Edinburgh Castle. The castle sits high on a rocky crag and has various towers and turrets rising from the rocks. Below the castle is Prince’s Street Gardens, a park on the site of a former lake. The Nor’ Loch was drained when the residents realized the health hazards associated with using the lake as a sewage dump.

I ordered a jasmine tea and a shortbread cookie in the shape of an elephant. Snack in hand; I wandered into the back rooms of Elephant House to see the castle. Looking out the windows at the castle, and imagining a clean lake below it, I saw Hogwarts Castle appear in my mind’s eye. And perhaps I was looking at the inspiration for Hogwarts; before the mania, JK Rowling used to sit in this café and write.

The Elephant House Coffee Shop
Edinburgh, Scotland

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Holyrood Park

Holyrood House

Elephant House

It Cures What Ails You!

I usually prefer the sweet drinks, except when it comes to tea—sugar free baby. So when we went to the UK I was drinking cider like it was going out of style; which it was, cider is pretty slim on the ground in Germany. They had all kinds! On draught! In the bottle! Flavored! Subtle! Crisp! According to the National Association of Cider Makers, “45% of all apples grown in the UK are used for making cider.” I was in cider heaven, and I cannot wait to go back. I wonder if we can make our own cider? You can make beer . . .

                                                                   

In Scotland, all ciders aside, they drink whisky. Or scotch. I’m pretty sure it’s the same drink, but I’m also not positive. I’ve never had a taste for whisky; I think my experience was limited to trying Jack Daniels once, and hating it. But it was Scotland; you have to taste the whisky . . . unless you’re allergic to gluten. Being such a whisky novice, I figured I should find a place to help guide me in my experience; also, a place that might have corn or rice whisky for the gluten intolerant. I found the perfect place; it was right on the Royal Mile (main street) in Edinburgh: Whiski Bar.

Whiski boasts 300 whiskeys on their menu as well as locally sourced food. The food was amazing. It was also mostly traditional Scottish fare, and it complemented my whisky and my cider, oh yeah I went there, perfectly. During our visit I had a lovely cold, and I couldn’t stop coughing. Once I was about halfway through my dram, my coughing stopped and my chest felt all warm. I felt like Harry drinking Firewhiskey for the first time. For dessert they have a regular menu and a cheesecake of the day. That night, the cheesecake was whisky cheesecake. It. Was. So. Good. I didn’t even care that I’m lactose intolerant. Somehow they combined the best parts of whisky with the best parts of cheesecake; mainly the delicious parts.

I bought a travel sized bottle of whisky at a nearby whisky outlet. I got to taste the various kinds while we were shopping, and they all tasted pretty good. I think it’s that first sip you have to get past, and then it goes down a little smoother. Or maybe it’s just the atmosphere of drinking whisky in Edinburgh, because when I got back and we opened the bottle, it was a bit more than we could handle. Regardless, I’ll be drinking more on our next trip northward.

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Whiski Bar

Whiski Bar Menu

Mary King’s Close

Our first night in Edinburgh, we toured the underground remains of Mary King’s Close. A close is, quite simply, a narrow alley: in some places only shoulder width apart. There are many closes that are still at street level in Edinburgh, but Mary King’s is under the city chambers.

The close and the rooms/apartments off the close are remarkably intact. They are like caves, with only an entrance in the front, and no windows. It was very depressing to think of the people packed into the small rooms about the size of a bathroom. Edinburgh was very over crowded in the 17^th century, and the city built both up and down since out was not an option due to geographical constraints. Some buildings in the closes were 14 stories high, with many more layers below ground, dug into the soft stone. Due to this overcrowding, the area was very susceptible to disease, and in 1645 the plague swept through, eliminating roughly 50% of the population.

Since so many of the former inhabitants living on Mary King’s close had died, the neighborhood gained a reputation for being cursed or haunted, and people refused to live there. There were even rumors that the victims of the plague had been boarded up inside the close and left for dead. This wasn’t true; they were cared for by plague doctors, but most died anyway. By the mid-1700s, the neighborhood had become rundown and derelict; the government did in fact brick it up and use it as construction material. They built the present city chambers over top of the existing close, much like the necropolis under St. Peter’s basilica.

Underground, the temperature is pretty constant, and it was warmer than outside. It was damp and filled with stale air, the kind that gave way to irrational worries about catching century old diseases. The walls were stone, and because of the dim lighting, the whole place looked as though it were under a sepia filter.

The only way to access the close is with the tour company, and it was completely opposite of the Jack the Ripper tour. Our guide was a ghost; the shadow of a fictional man who lived on the close during its heyday. He had a lantern and was costumed, and there were various gimmicks throughout the tour designed to startle you. The tour did contain a lot of history and the guide knew what he was talking about, but I think the whole tour would have been better if it were more straightforward. 

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Mary King’s Close Tour
Mary King's Close at Wikipedia

Craigmillar Castle

Craigmillar Castle is a veritable rabbit warren.
Craigmillar Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland

 On Tuesday, Joe returned to Germany, and my sister and I continued onto Edinburgh, Scotland. We took the train from King’s Cross Station and arrived in about 4 hours. Shortly after arriving, we took a bus to the outskirts of the city so we could explore Craigmillar Castle, a ruined castle abandoned since the 1700s. I wouldn’t say uninhabited though—some very brave pigeons have taken up roost, and they do not enjoy being disturbed. When we visited, there was only 1 other couple on site, so it’s possible the birds aren’t disturbed often, thereby increasing their ire when it does happen. Rarely would we enter a room and not be greeted with the sudden, frantic flapping of wings—a sound that has always made me duck and cover my head, lest I get pooped on.

Every castle needs a pleasure garden. Craigmillar Castle's
had a pond in the shape of a P for Preston,
former owners of the castle.
Craigmillar Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland

Abandoned castles tend to have very high ceilings, but in their prime, the rooms were much shorter. They had wooden ceilings that have since been lost to time, thus a single story room now would have been a two storied room then. This accounts for the doorways and windows some 10 feet off the ground. However, in Craigmillar Castle, the windows above the ground seem ordinary, not extraordinary. The castle has been altered so many times; it’s a veritable maze with dead ends, switch backs, and secret stairways.

Playing on the Curtain Wall
Craigmillar Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland

I loved climbing the curtain wall and being in the guard towers. They provided wonderful vantages of Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth leading to the North Sea. It was a mostly peaceful way to spend an afternoon, and I only say mostly because every flurry of wings caused minor heart attacks.

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Craigmillar Castle

Chawton Cottage

Winchester Cathedral
Winchester, England

Our journey back to London from the beach took us by Winchester, and we stopped for a quick visit. This was a very cute town, and it reminded me of home. Chagrin Falls with a cathedral and some ruined castles.

Winchester Cathedral is a typical British cathedral from the outside, and probably inside too, but we weren’t willing to pay £8 each to find out. That’s approximately $12 a person to visit a church, and we felt that was a bit steep, so we admired it from the outside only. Inside is the burial place of Jane Austen, a very itinerant writer; many English places have a Jane claim to fame. Winchester is her final resting place, and it was here she spent the final weeks of her life.

King Arthur's Round Table

Winchester seems to house many remains, including the remains of King Arthur’s legendary round table. While the identity and reality of King Arthur are sometimes questioned, this round table is real and round, though it is no longer a table. The table was carbon dated, and is from the 13th or 14th century, so it is not actually a relic of the mythical king. The legs have been removed, and it is hanging in the Castle Winchester Great Hall overlooking all of Winchester. The Great Hall is all that remains of the Castle Winchester and it was originally used for legal purposes. King Henry VIII had it painted in its current colors. At the other end of the hall is a giant, vining mural of royalty and Hampshire members of Parliament since the 1200s.

Ancient plumbing isn't pretty.
Wolvesey Castle
Winchester, England

Back at the bottom of the hill were the remains of Wolvesey Castle, a Bishop’s castle from the 1100s. The rooms were quite spacious, and the ruined walls stood out against the sky. Bishop Henry of Blois also had indoor plumbing—a marvel in his day, but a bit of a cesspool now.

Wolvesey Castle Ruins
Winchester, England

When we finished imagining what was once a beautiful castle, we returned to Main Street for dinner. My sister and Joe wanted to check out a restaurant we walked by earlier that smelled good. The previous night we had eaten at a pub near Temple Tube Station that had the best onion rings. We were on an onion kick. The two were shocked when the menu didn’t have onion rings. I should explain . . . they had onions on the brain and thought the place was called Onion Jack’s. It was actually called Union Jack’s, like slang term for the British flag. Since they didn’t have any rings, we moved onto the next destination: Chawton.

Winchester was where Jane Austen died, and Chawton was where she lived and where she wrote. While Austen was living in Chawton Cottage, Sense and Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma were all published. Her former home has been converted into a museum and gift shop, but these were closed when arrived. But for me, it was enough just to see the place where she wrote. I’ve read some of her letters and the village and houses were exactly as she described. I also liked thinking that the town provided her with people to study and helped her create her own characters that continue to inspire and captivate.

Chawton Cottage
Now the Jane Austen House Museum
Chawton, England

The onion twins were also satisfied. Across the street was the village pub The Greyfriar. They each ordered a side of onion rings with their meal. When my turn to order came, I asked about the soup of the day since I was feeling sick. The soup was potato and leek, and being unsure about what exactly leeks were, I asked, “Those are like onions, right?” At the time, I didn’t think much of it, but Joe pointed out that since all 3 of us ordered onion rings, it looked like we wanted onions on everything, and the waitress probably thought we were all crazy. My favorite part of being in the UK though, besides the onions, was all the cider! On tap! In bottles! Flavored! Subtle! LOVED IT!

We were seated right next to the fireplace, and we got to observe the people of Chawton in their local pub. Our waitress owned the place with her husband, and they had a giant dog. This guy was about 3 feet tall and very shaggy; he reminded me of a Muppet. When we finished, we reluctantly returned to the hustle and bustle of London.

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Pictures from Our Trip!

Winchester Cathedral

Castle Winchester Great Hall

Wolvesey Castle

Union Jack’s Pub Menu

History of the Union Jack (The British Flag)

Jane Austen House Museum

Jane Austen House Museum Online Shop - Where You Can Buy a Facsimile of the 1st Edition of Sense and Sensibility

The Greyfriar Pub in the Village of Chawton

Jurassic Park

Lulworth Cove, Dorset, England

The next stop on our farther afield trip was the Jurassic Coast. We visited a portion in a little town called Lulworth Cove; I chose it so we could see the Durdle Door. Moving from Hampton Roads to Alpine Germany cuts your beach time severely, and I was missing the coast.

The Durdle Door from the top of the Cliff. We hiked down to the shore.
Dorset, England

The name Jurassic Coast comes from the fossils found here over the centuries. The Jurassic Coast stretches along 96 miles of beaches on England’s Southern coast. The area is susceptible to land slips, and that is how many of the larger fossils were found; a swath of the cliffs on the coastline fell away revealing the fossils inside, including marine dinosaurs. The fossils span 180 million year of history, and are not only from the Jurassic, but also the Triassic and Cretaceous periods.

The whole Jurassic coast is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but you can still collect fossils if you follow certain guidelines. If you uncover large or scientifically significant fossils, you must report your find, and if you follow the rules, it is likely you will be allowed to keep it. Full details of the fossil code can be found here.

We found a few small fossils we were able to take without violating the fossil code, and we didn’t see anything larger. The bigger, more important fossils usually turn up after a storm when the landscape has changed enough to uncover them.

England's unique coastline; grassy hills to the right, sheer cliff faces to the left.
Dorset, England

England’s coastline is not like a typical American coast where you approach a nice flat beach and can see the ocean from miles away. The English coast is made up of sheer cliff faces that crumble easily. When we arrived in Lulworth, we were unsure if we were in the right place because the landscape still looked like the countryside we had been driving through; rolling, grassy hills. Once we climbed the hills, we were able to see their backsides, the rocky cliffs, and climb down to the shore. It was beautiful and tricky. In some places there used to be stairs and paths, but the land under them has eroded, and the man-made stuff has crashed to beach below. Now it is a much more authentic hiking experience; no handrails or pavements, just difficult ground. Even the beach itself was unstable; the sand was coarse, more like gravel, and it gave way under foot.

The beach and the cliffs near Durdle Door
Dorset, England

All difficulties in arriving were forgotten when we reached the beach, and our fossil hunt began. The smallest pebbles in the sand we largely ignored, though we did see some of the tiniest shells among them: about 2mm at their tallest. We looked for ammonites among the larger rocks and we actually found something! They’re small, but since we didn’t bring a hammer and chisel, they’re the best we could hope for.

The beach was gorgeous, I would love to spend more time on the English coast, and maybe discover a much large fossil. The area is dotted with small towns like Lulworth, and spending time in any of them would be a very relaxing vacation. Jane Austen herself spent some time on the Jurassic Coast in a town called Lyme Regis, and it later became the setting of one of her novels: Persuasion. 

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Pictures from Our Trip!

Collecting Fossils on the Jurassic Coast

Lulworth Cove Town Homepage

The West Dorset Fossil Code

UNESCO World Heritage page about the Jurassic Coast

Ichthyosaur Fossil Found on Jurassic Coast in April 2013

More Information about Lulworth

Jack el Destripador

We’re big fans of walking tours; they let you explore less frequented parts of cities while following a fun, central theme. In the past we’ve done been tours, but on this trip we started with a history tour exploring the infamous serial killer: Jack the Ripper.

A little online research pointed me to the best tour company in London, London Walks. They have dozens of different tours, all over the city. It was difficult to settle on a particular tour, but ultimately we narrowed it down to their most publicized tour, the Jack the Ripper walk.

The reason this tour is so popular and so publicized is because of the guides, or one in particular, Donald Rumbelow. Mr. Rumbelow is the designer of the Ripper walk, and the guides base their tours off his research. He is the leading authority on Jack the Ripper and has written several books on the subject, with a new one due out this fall.

The Complete Jack the Ripper
Photo from Amazon.com

It’s a scandalous tale involving members of the royal family and those close to them. It seems the murders weren’t random, but carefully calculated killings. To this day, the records are still classified by Scotland Yard, and their date of de-classification keeps being pushed back, citing concerns for national security. Mr. Rumbelow believes that is the truth came out, there are persons still living who would be affected, and that is why the records are still being withheld from the public.

The information in the walk is not published on the London Walks website, and I won’t be ruining the surprise here. If you are in London, I highly recommend the tour, and it runs every night. If London is not in your travel plans, or if you are impatient, you can order Donald Rumbelow’s current book, The Complete Jack the Ripper, from Amazon and obtain the information that way.

This tour was wonderful because it was conducted by a subject matter expert, and because it was designed to educate. The London walks don’t try to reel you into their tours with gimmicks and costumes. There were other tour companies operating in the area, and these guides were costumed and/or carried weird props; London Walks doesn’t do that. Our guide saw one of these other groups and sarcastically asked my sister “Do you wish I had a lantern?” Our tour was more like mobile lecture on a seedier chapter of London history, and it was very enjoyable.

Useful Links!
London Walks
Jack the Ripper walk
Buy The Complete Jack the Ripper from Amazon