The Tower of London

The Tower of London is really more of a castle. The name stuck because the original building there was just a three story tower. It was built 950 years ago, or thereabouts. William the conqueror wanted to make sure he could control the anglo-saxon folks he just conquered, and also wanted to defend the Thames and its main crossing point. Anyway, we spent the majority of our time in that area today.

We walked into the center of the tower grounds via a bridge, which we think used to cross a moat, but is now covered in grass:


We walked into the first tower that we saw, and then walked outside on one of the walls. It gave us a wonderful view of the Tower Bridge:


I kept thinking that the Tower bridge was London Bridge, but I was wrong. London Bridge is apparently the next bridge west of the Tower Bridge, and is a generic and boring looking bridge, so we didn't take a picture of it. Anyway, back to the London Tower, we made our way into the White Tower, which is the oldest tower on the grounds. It houses various exhibits of weaponry, ranging from swords and lances to guns and cannons. It was quite impressive, but also strange because they were reproducing exhibits of exhibits, because such weapons were actually displayed on the walls. Towards the end of the White Tower tour, we came upon this:


According to the sign, suits of armor that completely covered the entire body were very rare. Also, you could purchase this for your own display at home for around $10,000!

We also saw the crown jewels, but they wouldn't allow photographs. So, here's an example of what they would look like (actually replicas):


There were a couple enormous diamonds among the crown jewels. And I mean enormous. One of them was 530 karats. To think, the royals have been complaining they're short on cash. Well, I suppose the crown isn't exactly a liquid asset. Strangely, my favorite part was how they put you on a moving walkway, so that nobody could just stand there and block the way. Very efficient.

We left the Tower after the jewels. I mean, we could have gone and seen some torture chambers and the like, but we were tired. Crossing the Tower Bridge left us some good shots of the Thames and all the modern construction going on around there.


On the other side, there are a slew of ultra modern buildings being built by and for the new mayor's office. They have this logo that neither of us understand:

Mayor of London

After seeing the London bridge, we headed back. The last thing we did was to go have high tea. We attempted to go to the Ritz. As it turns out, we should have checked their website, as they have a dress code. And we didn't exactly pack a jacket and tie for tourism. How sad. Anyway, we instead had afternoon tea on the fourth floor at Harrods, which was actually fantastic. I love those little tea sandwiches, and scones with clotted cream and jam are possibly my new favorite snack.

Sorry for the short post today; it's late and we need a good night's sleep. Have fun!

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update on the Prada umbrella situation: We still haven't gotten one, but we really didn't need one today because it wasn't raining hard enough to warrant an umbrella.