Day Four from Melissa

Hello, all!

Got up, ate breakfast, and then off to Tower Hill!  This is the train station we waited in.  They say the cars closest to the front are the emptiest.  I'm not experienced enough to know if it's true.

In case you didn't know, Tower Hill is the home to the Tower of London - one of the oldest and strongest keeps in Britain.  It's served as prison and execution place to scores of historical figures including William Wallace, Anne Boleyn, Baliol, etc.  So many exciting people walked through there, and now I'm one of them!

First of all, I didn't realize that the Tower of London included such a large complex.  There are all kinds of walls, towers, rooms, housing, turrets - you name it, they have it.  These are pictures I took as I went in through the layers.

Outside layer

One layer in

The White Tower - the center of the onion

The White Tower is the building in the middle, with four tower-esque turret things on it.  It's the oldest of the lot, and has foundations that were laid by William the Conqueror, a thousand years ago!  As with everything else though, it's been built on and around and through by countless other kings.

We saw the Crown Jewels, which were absolutely fabulous.  They're guarded with vault doors thicker than my hand, weighing 2,645 pounds apiece.  Since we were there early, there wasn't much of a line, so we could double back and see them twice!  They literally sparkle with jewels.  Now I can say I've seen two of the most famous diamonds in the world - the Hope diamond in the US, and the Kohinoor diamond in the UK.  Pretty neat!  Sadly, no pictures were allowed.

Oh, and in case anybody reading this has seen Sherlock, I'll tell you right now - the setup was nothing like in there.  Completely different.

The Crown Jewels were in glass cases, with automatic walkways running past them, like the ones at the airport.  It's kind of stunning - I highly prize my fancy ring with one ruby in it, and these had them crusted on like frosting.  In fact, legend has it that two of the pearls in the crown were Elizabeth I's earrings.  Huh.

This is where both Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard had their heads cut off.  Now there's a nice little memorial.

We also saw the torture chamber, which was considerably smaller and less ghoulish than they lead you to believe.  No pictures - sorry.  Then we walked to the Traitor's Gate, which is halfway in the water.  Traitors were rowed through it in boats as they entered the prison.  Anne Boleyn, for example.

Inside the White Tower is a collection of armor.  They've had a version of that armor exhibit there since the 1600's, so not only did they have the collection of historical armor, but they also had the history of the collection of historical armor.  If that makes any sense.

This is a suit of armor belonging to young King Henry VIII.  Along the hem of his metal 'skirt' are the initials H and K entwined - for Henry and Katherine of Aragon, his wife at the time.

Then we walked along the walls, and found a room where King Alfred (?  I think it was him.  Maybe not.  So many kings...) had been found dead.  Not recently, of course.

This is a video of me on the walls.  Hope it works. You could walk most of the way around on them.  In the background, you might see Tower Bridge.  It's the one that the helicopter flew under during the Opening Ceremony of the most recent Olympics held in London.

Another video of me walking toward the exit of the Tower complex, showing how some bits fit together.  The Torture Chamber is inside Bloody Tower, but I didn't show it.  For an explanation of the polar bear, see Miriam's post.  I'm sure she'll feature it.

Leaving the Tower, we walked by a wall built in 200 AD by Romans.  This is the weirdest area.  It was just sitting there - anybody could have walked up and touched it.  Huh.

After that, we walked to an old church nearby.  They claim to be the oldest one in London.  You can go down in their basement and see Roman tiling - there used to be a house built there.  Again, sorry - no pictures.  I think Miriam might have some, though.

These are the stairs we had to go down to get inside the basement.  Steepest stairs I've seen in a while!

The church was a little spooky.  It's called All Hallow's Church, and it was dedicated on a Friday the 13th.  As an additional note, there was a plaque in the basement.  This was the baptismal place of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania.  So neat!  I did a little dance of joy.

Then we took a bus ride.  There are these red double-decker buses that are everywhere in London, and we got the front seats on the second level, right over the driver.  At times it felt like a ride at Disneyland, because we swooped and bobbed and drove on the wrong side of the road, past buildings that looked like the castle in the Magic Kingdom.  Mr. Toad's wild ride had nothing on this one!

Does that not look like Disneyland to you?  Actually, it's their biggest court building.

And then we turned a corner and there was St. Paul's Cathedral, large as life.  I will admit - I started crooning "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins under my breath as we reeled by.

So that was the most exciting part of my day, so that's the bit I'm telling you about.  There was a lot of walking - seven miles today - but I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Bye for now!