Today started bright and early, as we were supposed to meet our group at the Tower of London at 9 this morning. All the girls were there right on time, but the professors were nowhere to be found. I never found out if they were just late or if we were in the wrong place, but all in all, we didn't actually enter the Tower grounds until about 9:30. Luckily there was a cute little gift shop to look around in while we waited. File under list of things that I would have bought had I had the money and the suitcase space: Christmas ornaments of Henry VIII and all his wives, an entire set of Tower of London china, and numerous unicorns.
The first thing we did upon entering the Tower was take a walk along the parapets. There were several rooms along the way with fun facts about people that had been imprisoned there. We then made our way to the Crown Jewels. Sadly, cameras were not allowed, and anyway, no picture could truly capture what it was like to see them in person. There was a scepter with a diamond the size of a chicken egg on top, which if you looked at it from the wrong angle, nearly blinded you with its sparkle. There was a slightly (but only slightly) smaller diamond on Queen Elizabeth's crown, as well as two huge sapphires and an enormous ruby, among hundreds of other smaller, but still sparkly as cuss gems. Once we exited the building, I had a pretty good angle on the Tower itself:
Such majesty! Apparently, the architect of the Manti and Logan temples was a big fan of the Tower of London and used it as inspiration. Pretty cool to see the original. Next stop: torture chamber! Honestly, this was a little disappointing. It was only one room, and the rack that it had was just a recreation rather than an original. They also had a recreation of a scavenger's daughter, which is the opposite of the rack, in that the rack stretches you out and the scavenger's daughter squeezes your knees to your chest and stops you from using your arms. Both seemed pretty awful, so try not to upset any medieval monarchs.
We also got to see the Bloody Tower, where they kept the Princes in the Tower, of Richard III fame. Apparently, they found the princes' bodies buried by the white tower not too long ago, but no one is quite sure who had the princes killed. Richard III seems the likeliest suspect, and Shakespeare seemed to agree, but it could also have been Henry VII. The world may never know.
Moving on, we walked through the Line of Kings, which was basically just a lot of armor. It was pretty crazy to see a suit of armor that Charles I or Henry VIII had actually worn. I got a picture of Henry VIII's armor, but it wasn't very good, so have a generic suit of armor instead. I can't remember whose it is, but it's still pretty cool.
While walking down this line, we also went through St. John's Chapel, a lovely example of Norman architecture. Cameras were not allowed inside the chapel, but I would encourage you to look up a picture because it's really beautiful. It's also just tucked inside the Tower. It's not like its own building or anything, it's just another room, which I wasn't really expecting.
At this point, we'd seen just about all there was to see, so we headed out. We had a lovely view of the Tower Bridge, which seemed like the perfect opportunity for a selfie:
I don't look great, but there you go. Photographic evidence that I actually am in London and I'm not just downloading these pictures off the internet. We were all starving, so we stopped at Pret A Manger for lunch. These are on pretty much every corner in London. It's kind of like a scaled back, French-style Zupas/bakery where you can buy fresh sandwiches or baguettes. I would definitely recommend it, if you ever run into one. The next item on our itinerary was our first London walk. It started back at the Tube station, and I was able to get a pretty nice picture of the whole Tower complex on our way up.
Look at how green the grass is! It's amazing. Anyway, the theme of our walk today was the walls of Londinium, which is the name of the Roman settlement that was here originally. We headed up from the Tube station. After lots of walking, we reached Spitalfields Market (apparently short for "hospital" and not like spittle) which is a covered, artsy sort of shopping area where you can buy clothes, jewelry, top hats, etc. from vendors. Down the same road was Christ's Church, which is one of the churches that was built after the Great Fire of London.
Not a great picture, but you get the point. It was lovely inside, and is apparently undergoing some remodeling and restoration to try to undo some of the damage the Victorians did in their efforts to improve it. Silly Victorians. Next, we headed through Exchange Place, a nice square with an enormous statue (called the Broadgate Venus, look it up), a fountain, and a place for croquet tournaments. Only in England. Lots more walking followed. We passed by St. Bartholomew's Hospital, which Sherlock fans will recognize as the place where Sherlock Holmes faked his death. I'd like to go back and take a better look some time. We then arrived at the Museum of London where we walked through a few exhibits. We finally concluded our walk at the St. Paul's tube station, where we boarded a train back for our lodgings.
It's been quite awhile since we got back, and my legs and feet are still killing me. It isn't just that there's lots of walking; lots of the streets are cobblestone and are harder on your feet than your American cement sidewalk. It's beautiful here,though. I love the history everywhere you look. I love that you can be walking along the street and see churches that were built before America had even declared its independence. I love that you are walking the same streets that Shakespeare and Dickens walked and that most of the historic buildings are protected by law so that you can't change how they look outside. It really is a great city.
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