Tower of London

 Dear Gentle Readers

Today we caught the train into London to visit this piece of history - The Tower of London. Constructed by William the Conqueror in 1068, it was initially called The White Tower. To the inhabitants of London who had only seen wooden structures, seeing this stone monolith would have been very impressive, which is just what William was trying to achieve.

Just to prove we are actually in London, here's a selfie in front of Tower Bridge. Tower Bridge is named after the Tower of London.

First thing we did was join the tour given by this Yeoman Guard, informally known as "Beefeaters".

He gave a very good and humorous description of the Tower and its history. He said "The Normans may have built this tower, but we are VERY PROUD OF IT". He also took pains to say he was not wearing a costume, it is his uniform! The Yeomen Guards now have to have served 20 years i the military before they can apply to be one.

He then pointed out this memorial to all the women who have been executed in the Tower. You have to be a person of some standing to be executed in the Tower. The most famous is of course Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII, on trumped up charges of incest and treason. She was beheaded and because she had a "phobia" of the axe, King Henry was kind enough to commute it to a sword beheading and imported a specialist swordsman from France to perform the deed. He removed her head with one stroke while she was still praying and when he held her head up, the lips and eyes were still moving in prayer.

Of course other women were executed here, Margaret Pole, Catherine Howard (5th wife of Henry VIII) and the most tragic of all, Lady Jane Grey, the 9 day queen.

In the White Tower, we found this, a guardrobe, a medieval toilet built into the outside wall. The "waste" fell into the moat below.

These are two pistols that belonged to Henry VIII, a wheellock and a flintlock version.

Here's Victoria, deep in the bowels of the White Tower.

There were a lot of stairs, these ones were spiral steps in one of the four towers at the corners of the Tower.

This is one of the famed Ravens of the Tower. Legend has it that if they ever leave the Tower, it will crumble to dust and the kingdom will fall. The Beefeater said he didn't believe in superstitions BUT they have a Master of Ravens, just in case. They always keep at least 6 ravens plus a spare or two.

This is the Traitor's Gate, where persons accused of treason would enter through this gate. Anne Boleyn entered the Tower through here as did Princess Elizabeth I before she became Queen. It's no longer used and as you can see, it has been bricked up.

These are remains of Roman walls that William used to build the Tower on top of.

On the way back to the train we passed this unusual sculpture so we couldn't resist taking our photos next to it. Here's Victoria

and here's me.

We also saw the Crown Jewels but no photos were allowed in there, but they were pretty spectacular, especially the Koh-i-Noor and Cullinan diamonds.

We were footsore again after three hours in the Tower so it was on the train and back to our AirBNB. Tomorrow it's off to Nottingham, home of the fabled Robin Hood.