Tower of London Tour (Sept. 12th)

Today we got to see our fab tour guide from Westminster Abbey again-got to love John!  He agreed to tour us around the Tower of London (name is deceiving: it's more like a castle-complex!) as a class, so we headed over in the afternoon after walking to Soho in the morning.  

We walked across the Tower Bridge to get there (because, scenic!) and it was so fun!  Talk about a great view. Also, I felt really important for some reason.  Not sure why, but it was definitely a nice walk across the river.  We arrived a bit early and met the class outside the gate, quickly realizing that we were in for a surprising tour-the Tower is HUGE!  I took so many photos…as usual.

The ominous clouds add a little somethin' somethin' to the scene, yeah?  Classic London.  So we met up with the rest of the class and John, and he gave us a brief overview of the Tower and its history.  Construction began in 1078 (OLD!) circa William the Conquerer days.  The guy loved to invade and take over castles!  But he had this one built for him because he felt he needed a place to "store" all of the unruly Londoners.  Yeah, okay.

The Tower has served many purposes over the centuries: a home for Kings and Queens, a prison (freaky torture devices included), the royal mint, and a storage place for the crown jewels. WHICH WE SAW!  They were so majestic.  To prevent crowds and robbery, there is a conveyer belt kind of thing (like a moving walkway in airports!) in front of the cases, so visitors are given a limited time to look-no photos allowed!  I obviously went around a second time because they were so beautiful and sparkly.  What's not to love?  The jewels are stored in the building (if you can even call it that..) above ^.

After we looked at the jewels we walked around a little more, and it turns out there is basically a little village when you get further inside the depths of the tower!  All sorts of people have lived there over time; most notably the prisoners/people waiting to be executed.  

Speaking of executions, we spent some nice quality time in this area (right next to the village area) where poor Anne Boleyn was killed.  Got to feel for her.  I thought it was great that we got to visit the Tower and have a (spontaneous!) tour with John!  Seriously, he is awesome and made the experience that much better.  And the views from the Tower?  I'm not complaining.

xx