The Tower of London seems like a great place for Glenn and I to tour; he, the teacher of history, and I, the buff of history. I had found out about the Ceremony of The Keys through my reading of Rick Steves’ book on London. Rick has been traveling throughout Europe for the past 20+ years and his books are updated yearly to keep current on sights, tours, activities, prices and shortcuts.
The Ceremony of the Keys has been going on for the last 700 years. It has evolved over time to a locking of the doors of the Tower of London every night at 22:00 hours - 10:00 p.m. for us colonials. Just getting tickets to be admitted was no small effort.
According to the web site, the tickets are free. But this is a monarchy that puts a lot of stock in tradition, so even though there is a Tower of London website, don’t think they have been swept up into the 19th Century! The tickets must be requested in writing. The request must list two dates in order of preference. The request must include a self-addressed envelope with postage on it to pay for mail from London to one’s home town. In Royal Mail stamps. (Yes, she also has her own Postal Service!) So how does a nice Jewish girl living in Baltimore, Maryland buy British stamps? On E-Bay?
Ah, the glories of technology - and Facebook! I put out an all points bulletin on the Internet and before I can sneeze, a Girl Scout comes to the rescue. Lorraine, my good friend, sister Girl Scout and PhD. meteorologist with NASA, has friends in all places. An e-mail from her to Tamara in the U.K. gets the wire buzzing and BINGO! Tamara sends the request to the Tower, the Tower sends the ticket to me and here I am with Brother Glenn at the appointed hour to enter.
The Yeoman Warder in charge of us is named Allen. He has spent some 23 years on active duty, a requirement for application to be a yeoman warder. He is delightful, funny, informative and considerate. The entire ceremony is scheduled to last a mere six minutes. The active duty personnel are charged with accepting the Queen’s keys from the yeoman. Our part is answering to “G-d save the Queen” to which we all loudly reply “Ah-men” as instructed. We are not about to flub our one and only line! Allen escorts us back out the small door in the gate and I am able to present him with our special tokens - the two lapel pins of the flags of Maryland and California. Our adventure ends on a high note - then downhill the evening goes.
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