A Good Place to Be a Raven

June 9 ‐ London : The Morning

Our first stop of the day was the Tower of London – this was an old castle, fortress and then prison.  We spent nearly all day there and had a lot of fun!

I was really excited about the historical reenactments, which did not turn out to be what I expected (a factual recreation of Anne Boleyn’s execution or the like) I had a great time watching what they did put on (an enormous duel with about a dozen costumed actors).

   

Actually, I enjoyed it so much I made Zelda come back and watch part of it twice.

We saw the ravens that are somewhat famous in the tower and supposed omens of England’s continued reign. They keep a few in cages, to ensure the continued success of England, but as Jack pointed out – they don’t really need to be trapped there. The Tower of London is a good place to be a raven. By the way – ravens are huge!

I was rather excited about seeing the spot where Anne Boleyn (and Lady Grey and Catherine Howard and Jane Boleyn) were executed.  Apparently Anne Boleyn’s executioner had a sword so sharp that when he cut off her head, it spun! And legend claims that when he help up the head, the lips where still moving.

And of course we saw the crowned jewels! Ohmygod were they sparkly. They were inlaid diamonds, and the gaps between them were filled in…with more diamonds!

We weren’t actually allowed to take pictures of any of them. In fact, someone near us took pictures and got dragged out by a decidedly miffed security guard.

Every monarch had their own crown. Zelda and I agreed that the best crown was royal purple velvet with arching curves of diamonds, which we recall being Mary (Bloody Mary)’s crown. I was also partial to Queen Victoria’s crown, which was tiny and solid diamonds. And then there was the royal sceptre, which we think might have been officially that of King James’ although not every monarch had their own, there seemed to be only 2 or 3. But this sceptre had the biggest jewel I have ever seen in my life. HUGE. And really beautiful; I didn’t so much expect that of big shiny rocks, but it was actually genuinely gorgeous. I suppose I should hope so for how many people probably died over it.

Actually, the most amusing of the crown jewels was the royal punch bowl, as paired with the royal ladle – which was actually the sort of ladle I would have if I were king – it is nautilus shaped. I mean, how else does one properly serve royal punch?

We had also grudgingly decided to peek in at the armory exhibit (I generally understand what armor looks like. And rotting crossbows? meh) in the White Tower … it turned out to be one of the coolest things we saw! The exhibit was massive – spanning two towers (White Tower and Power Tower) and set up like a proper museum, with glass cases and placards and velvet ropes. And there was an interactive exhibit (for kids, but who cares?!) where we got to pick up swords and axes and shoot a really confusing fake bow and arrow.

I saw a bit of horse’s tail armor that was super cool!

In the first hall of the Power Tower was an amazing constructed dragon from equal parts rifles and scrolls and awesome. It’s tail was a horse bamen (armor mask)! And it had coins in its belly. Oh it was so cool.

       

All in all we had a great time!

The Tower of London is right near the London Bridge, which we also got to see.

Actually, we got to see extra of it because we got lostish nearby looking for the underground station. We finally found our way when we’d walked in a circle. I wasn’t convinced we’d walked in a circle until Zelda pointed out the roasted nuts vendor I’d suggested getting nuts from not 10 minutes earlier.

As a side note Zelda genuinely believes that the song goes ‘London bridges falling down…’. I have told her that this is wrong, and after humming a few bars of the song, she said ‘No. I don’t think so.’

Much love from London!

-Ida