Monday 2 February 2009

The Tower of London

Okay, I’m back in blog mode! Weeks late and with so much to talk about but back nonetheless! If I still have readers, I thank all two of you. I thought I would start with something I completely left out in my last post, which was our visit to the Tower of London. I didn’t really know much about this place, other than the fact that it was super old and that a lot of people—royalty included—lost their heads there. Queen Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey, the little Princes (I remember them most from Shakespeare’s Richard III), Thomas Moore, the list goes on and on. It’s a World Heritage site and, for me, one of the coolest places to see in London. There is lots of history here; all you have to do is look around. They house the royal jewels here and the White Tower has tons and tons of weaponry exhibits and stuff about the King’s horses, info about British currency, all kinds of (boring) stuff. One of the towers (because there are several, don’t let the name fool you) was used as a holding cell for the most elite prisoners and the walls are filled with graffiti, etchings into wood that have survived hundreds of years. It’s surreal to see the name ‘Jane’ carved in beautiful script or the phrase “The more suffering on Earth for Christ in this life, the more glory with Him in the next,” whittled into the wall above the fireplace. From the Tower of London you can see some of the most beautiful views of the city, including Tower Bridge. I was walking around the place taking pictures of windows and doors and archways because I found myself fascinated by the architecture. It wasn’t until someone said to me, as I was taking a picture of a small room with a seat and a beautiful window, “crazy that they used that as a toilet, huh?” that I realized I may have been taking the photos a little too far. Oh, I almost forgot about the ravens. There are ravens at the tower, seven of them today that have been there (not these exact ravens, of course) since the 1600’s. Legend has it that a psychic of King Charles (I don’t remember which) had a vision that if the ravens ever left the Tower of London, then the city would fall. So, Charles demanded that there always be six ravens at the Tower. The seventh one is a back-up, just in case something happens to one of the important ones. These guys were a little frightening; they eat blood soaked biscuits on a daily! I saw one trying to grab food out of a “litter bin” (trash can) and I got pretty close to take a picture, close enough for the damn thing to squawk super loud at me. I wasn’t about to provide the blood for their biscuits...

1 comment:

  1. man, that raven looks like a surly chap! he's ready to throw down! missed your blog while it was on hiatus. started to wonder if there was a writer's strike...

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