European City Parks

For 1000 years Beefeaters have kept watch at the Tower of London. Now the Tower’s Body of Yeoman Warders has welcomed its first female, Moira Cameron. After rigorous training, including duties attached with the famed Ceremony of the Keys conducted each night of the year, Yeoman Warder Cameron has donned her blue and red dress uniform.

“Working here at the Tower of London is absolutely amazing, I feel so privileged to be here and it’s great to be in the uniform at last. I’m still getting used to wearing it but it certainly makes you stand very straight!”

Chief Yeoman Warder John Keohane said: “Yeoman Warder Cameron has been with us for a few weeks now and I can see she already has built up a great rapport with our visitors. Now that she is in exactly the same uniform doing exactly the same duties as her male colleagues, I think she will prove a great asset to the Tower and a valuable member of my team.”

Yeoman Warders are all former military people who have proven service to the crown and boast exemplary records for all duties. Over the following year, Yeoman Warder Cameron will learn by heart the complete history of the Tower so that she can lead one of the hour-long visitor tours that cover the myths, legends and stories of key events in English and Tower history.

Yeoman Warder tours are highlights of any Tower of London visit. The Beefeaters are all gifted storytellers who play to the crowd. The animated behavior entices and sometimes scared the hell out of children. Along the way, they describe grisly executions, house arrests and torture techniques, marriages and wars. On any cold, blustery day in London, a Yeoman Warder tour of the Tower takes the chill off your back.

For a peek at what you’ll experience, visit The Tower of London web site.

As if the Eurostar wasn’t already attractive enough, the UK’s first high-speed line will improve the journey time from London to Paris.

From November 14th, 2007, the journey from London to Paris will take 20 minutes less than before, making the total journey time just two hours and 15 minutes.

For those tourists visiting Europe, the Eurostar is also cleaner and more reliable than airlines, producing ten times less CO2 emissions that is set to be cut even more by 2012.

“Our check-in times are incredibly fast and on-time performance is 92 per cent compared to the airlines’ 55 to 70 per cent,” said Emma Harris, director of sales at Eurostar.

Trains will travel at a top speed of 186mph on the high-speed line, which has the potential to encourage even more passengers to choose rail over air travel around Europe.

The Eurostar also offers cheaper discount deals, with affordable return trips available from £59.