The Towers of London

Lots of internet time today-- I bought 2 hours-- but I will probably use it all telling all the wonderful things I have seen this weekend.

Anyway, back to Thursday. . .

Our outing of the day was down to "the City," as Londoners call the oldest part of the town down by the River. The first place we stopped was The Monument, which does not have a very imaginative name, but nevertheless is a very cool place. It was built by Wren in the late 1600s, to commemorate the great fire of London in 1666. It's a really tall column, basically, on a carved base, with a sort of torch on top. It doesn't look very big from the outside, but inside there is actually a spiral staircase, which you can climb up to an observation platform near the top. Did I say a very long spiral staircase? 311 steps, they say-- I was too busy just trying to get to the top to count them. It was also a very hot day. But the view from the deck was worth it, of course. I got pictures and a video looking down over the River and the City.

Then we walked over to London Bridge, which is not the famous and recognizable one with the towers, but the next one over-- rebuilt in 1964, or something like that, (because the other one was falling down?) and a very plain, utilitarian bridge. I like the other one better.

From there, after lunch, which was another peanut butter sandwich, we went to the Tower of London! It was great. I promptly "lost" my group and went over the whole thing slowly. It's an amazing place-- each part of it was built in a different time, starting with the White Tower (the middle part) built by William the Conqueror shortly after the Norman invasion in 1066. That part was really cool-- inside now they have displays of armor and weapons, which were really fun to see.

Even more fun, perhaps, was to go up into the later towers built into the inner wall, where they kept prisoners-- you can still see the carvings they made in the walls-- some of them very detailed. (One of the towers was even named Beauchamp Tower!)

And, of course, I saw the tower green, where they used to chop peoples' heads off (including Anne Boleyn and such), and the famous ravens-- someone told Charles II, I think it was, that if they ever left the tower, the monarchy would fall. So now they clip their wings so that they can't fly away. Cheating, I think. And there's a partially-refurbished medieval palace in another part of the castle.

And I went to see the crown jewels. Wow. I've never seen so many diamonds in one place before. There are probably 10 crowns on display-- the one they actually use for the coronation and then the individual crowns of queens and stuff. And the coronation robe is all woven with gold thread. I saw it all-- "the sceptre and the ball, the sword, the mace, the crown imperial, the intertissued robe of gold and pearl . . . " It was amazing. I would be queen just so I could wear that stuff.

Anyway, I walked around inside all afternoon, taking way too many pictures (I have to ration them too!), and having lots of fun. Then, I went out to the gift shop outside to pich up a few things, and got a nice surprise-- I met the Daltons and the Browns in there! I knew that they were going to be here in London, but I never thought that we would run into each other in this huge city. (Although the thought did cross my mind, strangely enough, on the way to the Tower.)

I was thouroghly tired out by that evening, from all the stairs and sunshine, both of which I have come to dislike, and both of which have been rather plentiful this week! You'd think sunshine would be a positive thing, but not here. I was very content with the rainy, cool weather we had at first-- sunshine mixed with the humidity here brings almost unbearable heat.

I got to talk to Mama and Papa Thursday night, which was great-- I miss everybody! I wish I could call you all!