Day Seven, The Bloody Tower

Today we started out at the Tower of London. We had a good introduction to the history of the tower from a guide, then we were able to walk around and explore the various buildings and exhibits. There is a special exhibit going on at the moment titled Henry VIII: Dressed to Kill. Ben enjoyed studying all of the suits of armor that were made for King Henry during his lifetime. They were on display, along with his measurements, so that it was obvious to see how he went from being an athletic young man to a greatly obese one in his old age. There were also displays of armor that was made for horses, as well as information about the jousts and the various instruments and weapons that were used during those competitions.

The guide pointed out this green area in the middle of the buildings. This was where the executions took place. Not many people were executed at the tower, but two of them were wives of King Henry VIII: Anne Boleyn (who changed her name from Bullen, apparently, to sound more French!) and Catherine Howard (who died a queen, but would rather have died the wife of Thomas Culpepper). Both of the former queens are buried at the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula directly behind the place of execution. Their graves aren't marked, but rather identified by plaques placed in the church.

Surprisingly, the tower wasn't very crowded during our visit, and we were able to take our time viewing the Crown Jewels. They are displayed in cases you view from a moving sidewalk. We were able to circle back around for another look. The Sceptre with the Cross contains the second largest diamond in the world, the 530 carat Great Star of Africa.

There was also a small military museum, the Royal Fusilier’s Museum. This is a regiment based in London, and it was all about their involvement in various military campaigns throughout the world. I was very interested to see their section on the American Revolution. It is interesting to see how "the other side" viewed the conflict. The display stated that the Americans objected to taxes that were imposed by the British king to pay for the defense of the colonies from hostile action by the French and Indian attacks. How ungrateful!

We next headed to the Tower Bridge for the Tower Bridge Experience. This includes many short films placed at intervals along the tour that discuss how the bridge was built and how the drawbridge works. We walked along both of the upper walkways and took photos of the views of the city from each side. It was interesting to learn that when the bridge was originally built in 1894, it was painted chocolate brown. Later, it was "battleship gray." It only gained its current recognizable red, white and blue paint scheme in 1977, in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee.





There were small windows at the top of the small staircases that you could slide open to take unobstructed photos. When those were opened, however, it was extremely WINDY! I managed to hold on to the camera long enough to get some good photos:

At the end of the evening, we had a scary encounter with some local characters. "John Bishop" and "Sarah Farmer" were two of the guides from the London Paranormal Society who took us around Spooky Smithfields. There were plenty of gruesome stories, including the burning of Protestants, body snatching, unsolved murders, and the general sufferings that took place in Newgate Prison. The area covered was not very large, but there were plenty of blood-chilling events in just that small area!

Tomorrow we are going shopping, and then on to the Lion King.