I think the pictures that Ben and I are the most sick over losing are the ones of the Tower of London. That place has 1,000 years of history and it is a must-see. You know you have a lot of history when there's part of the museum inside dedicated to previous museums of the Tower of London. Being American, it's hard to truly understand how old some of this stuff is when our country is only a couple of hundred years old.
I hope I never forget that moment when Ben and I climbed the stairs to exit the tube station just to see the Tower right there in front of us. It was like *boom* there's a castle. So cool.
We didn't know how long it would take for the tube to get us there so we arrived 30 minutes early and walked around the perimeter before the gates opened. We were among the first few to enter when it opened at 9 and I'm so grateful we practically had the place to ourselves for two hours because by the time we left mid-afternoon it was packed.
This is the White Tower. The stairs are made of wood for defense purposes. It can be easily pushed down and destroyed to make it difficult for attackers to enter. Inside was Ben's favorite part of the tower. It was full of weapons, armor, and lots of battle artifacts. I will fully admit to not being nearly as fascinated by it all as Ben was. It probably took Ben three times as long to get through each room as I needed. Ha.
King Henry VIII's suit of armor (well, one of them).
Ben and I gained a serious respect for war horses during this visit. They were armored themselves and had to carry an armored man and his weapons. Those horses were tough.
I had already known that the Tower also served as a public zoo for 600 years. You could either pay to enter or bring a small animal (cat, dog, etc) to feed the larger ones to get in. They finally shut down the zoo after several dangerous animals got loose on different occasions, harming the public's safety.
The ravens are a huge part of the Tower. There is a several century old superstition that if the ravens ever leave the Tower grounds the Tower will cease to exist. So they keep ravens caged up on the grounds at all times and they live off of blood soaked bread. Gross.
We walked along the tops of the outer walls for a good portion of the perimeter. It was fascinating going from building to building via the walls. Since the tower is so old, all the different sections were built at different times for different reasons. The prison cells all seemed to be along the outer wall.
Side note: almost every touristy place we went on this England trip we were surrounded by young kids in their school uniforms on field trips. Ben and I couldn't get over how adorable little kids with British accents are. SO CUTE!
This is traitor's gate. You would ride down the Thames in a boat and enter through this gate to go to prison or your execution. There was a hidden archer's cove to the side should someone try to escape their sentence.
There were several prison cells that ranged from miserable to fancy depending on your social rank. People were imprisoned at the tower for several different reasons, but the most common seemed to be because they were Catholic. There are so many names, phrases, pictures, and symbols carved into the walls as people's final hope of being remembered. Most of the carvings proclaimed that the prisoner who etched it was dying a martyr for not denying their faith in the Catholic church and that Christ would save them in the next life. I hope all of their temple work has been done.
As someone who was born and raised in Raleigh, NC, I was fascinated to learn a little bit of the history of Raleigh's namesake, Sir Walter Raleigh. He was imprisoned in the Tower three times by Queen Elizabeth I (even though he was a dear friend of hers) and King James I. Once it was because he didn't ask the Queen's permission to marry (although it was because he married one of her ladies in waiting). His cell was very nice because of his nobleman status. He was even allowed to leave his chambers and walk outside (within the Tower walls, of course) to work in his private garden he was allowed to keep on the grounds. Since his social status was high his family was allowed to live with him in his tower and they even had a son while living there. The son was baptized in the chapel on the Tower grounds.
I can't even tell you how many tower stairs like this we climbed during our entire trip. I often fantasized while climbing sooooo many stairs at a time (I'm looking at you, St. Paul's) that by the time we finished our trip we probably climbed enough stairs to reach the moon. Okay, that's an exaggeration. But know that a good portion of our trip looked like this and felt like burning legs. Exploring old Europe is not for the frail.
Then we went to the section of the Tower that housed the Crown Jewels. Ben and I switched places and this is where I was in love. You couldn't take pictures inside anyway, so here are some google images:
That sceptre hold's the world's largest diamond ever discovered. And if you're thinking, "That diamond's big, but not that big," that's because they chopped the diamond in half to use one part in the sceptre and one part in a crown.
I also found it fascinating looking at all the monarchs' crowns from the last several hundred years that many of them lacked jewels from where jewels obviously once were. Apparently they take out jewels from specific monarchs' crowns to put into newer monarchs' crowns. For example, Queen Elizabeth II had jewels from Queen Victoria's and Queen Elizabeth I's crowns, as well as Edward the Confessor's rings. Sometimes the royal families have even had crowns or tiaras made that were so ornate and expensive because they wanted to make a statement during the coronation, just to return all the jewels to the jeweler after the ceremony and get their money back.
A closer image of the diamond.
We ate lunch within the tower and tried these two sodas. Gooseberry was pretty gross, but the Elderflower lemonade wasn't bad.
That was the elephant's tiny compartment when the Tower was a zoo. Sad! It was a normal thing for kings to give other kings exotic species as gifts since they all already had everything.
A much newer section of the tower. People still live within the tower. I was really surprised by that.
I think this picture was taken within the Keep. This is one of the many gardarobes. You can look through the hole in the seat and everything just goes straight down the tower walls. Have I ever mentioned that I'm grateful to live in a day with indoor plumbing?
The Tower is right next to Tower Bridge. So we used our London Pass (a must if you ever go to London) to tour it. There's a museum inside the bridge that was really fascinating. This bridge is just over 100 years old, which I think is really amazing considering it's a drawbridge.
We took an elevator up to the top walkways and crossed on a partially glass floor. One foot over the bridge, one over the Thames. A lot of people were put out of their comfort zones to walk on the glass but fortunately it didn't bother me. Ben and I just thought it was cool. After we went through the museum we were able to tour the pump room where they used to power the drawbridge with steam up until about 40 years ago. Those pumps were ginormous! It was really fascinating.
After that we walked along the Thames to try and find the Globe Theater. It was a longer walk than we had anticipated which ended up being a fun adventure. It was awesome because we ended up walking through a market where a bunch of street vendors came together. There were so many international cuisines we've never tried and it was hard to walk out of there without buying something from each. We ended up getting a meat pie (venison) and it was AMAZING! We were really looking forward to trying meat pie and I'm determined to learn how to make one with a hot water crust. We also bought some small desserts from a patisserie stand where we discovered an amazing treat we've never heard of: tiffin. It's a mix between a cookie and a brownie and it is heavenly.
We finally got to the globe just to find out that it was closed. Seriously, y'all, places close early there. So instead we hopped on a river boat and cruised from Westminster to the Tower and back.
Big Ben and Big Ben from the roof of our boat.
An Egyptian obelisk. I think they said it was 3,000 year's old?
A view along the Thames river.
St. Paul's Cathedral.
And the Globe Theatre sitting behind the bridge that Death Eater's once destroyed. ;)
We also went under London Bridge. It was interesting learning about the history of London Bridge. It's about 2,000 years old and dated back to the Roman Empire. Of course, the bridge itself has been replaced several times. The current bridge there was built in the 1970's and the one they took down to replace was relocated to Arizona. Huh.
This was our first full day in England and it quickly became clear that Brits are the kindest and funniest people. So if you ever go to England, talk with your waiter. Joke with those old ladies on the bus. Pay attention to tour guides' knowledge. I almost want to move to England because people there seem to be much better behaved than here. It was a "very jolly trip."
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