The events of Wednesday the 29th of October 2008
I’ve just been a regular Londoner these past two days!
Much like yesterday, I decided to make the journey into London. Truth be told, I don’t mind it too much ‘cuz it only costs me £5 on the train. (I don’t think about the bus or the Tube too much ‘cuz I use my Oyster Card for both of those.) Also, I can kill you with my brain. I mean, also, I don’t go into the city THAT often so it costs me like five quid every three weeks or so.
I thought I was doing good on time, in fact, I made it to my destination with Tube transfers and everything round 11:15. I followed the flow of people ‘cuz most everyone was going to the same place. When I stepped out of the station, I once again kicked myself for not bringing me Da’s camera (I don’t have any batteries!). There’s this viewing spot right outside the station that looks on The Tower of London over the River Thames. ‘Twas very picturesque.
I wend my way down the path. There were plenty of tourists all going the same way, so I wasn’t too worried about not finding where I was supposed to go. I got to see the foundation of one of the original posterns that was uncovered while workers were building the Underground.
By the time I got to the ticketing area, I was wishing I had gotten there as early as I’d originally planned (9 AM or so) or that I had booked my tickets online. The line was crazy long! As much as I tried not to think it, I could help it — I added buying tickets to my list of things I’m not overly impressed with in England. Yes, I know I’m probably being crazy unreasonable, but if you had seen the line and how slowly it was moving, you mighta thought the same thing!
I did not voice any of these things; that’s what the people behind me were for. I didn’t know which was worse, having to queue up or having to be by American complainers. While I admit, I agreed with most of their points since it took nearly an hour to buy the tickets, I’m never one to voice these things. At least, not in an English-speaking country where most everyone around me can understand what I’m saying.
It cost £16. I decided that I would be damned if I didn’t get the most out of my money! It was by far the most expensive touristy thing I’d done.
One of the first things I looked at when I got past the gate was the moat. I got to stand in it. I didn’t get to stand in the one at Osaka-jo, so I took advantage of the fact that it was part of the tour. I read all the little signs about the moat, like how it used to be where all the human waste ended up and they decided that was just plain gross. They had it drained and refilled. And one of the people, I can’t remember who, decided they ought to make the most of the water and put pike into it to help feed the peoples.
Also in the moat was a trebuchet. There was a little crowd of children listening to one of the reenactors talking about it. (I was reminded of Doctor Kaboom! from the Renaissance Faire.) I tried to get in to listen as well, but there was quite a lot of people standing about so I couldn’t get close enough.
Once I left the moat, I returned to the main path into the Tower. My favorite part about the whole thing is the fact that it’s not a tower at all. At least, not in the sense that I was thinking. When I think “tower”, I think like Sears Tower or the Tower of High Sorcery. The Tower of London was more like how I picture Darry or one of the other lesser strongholds of Westeros (yes, I am referring to A Song of Ice and Fire…again).
I’ve been doing museum-y stuff lately, and lately I’ve been thinking I ought to get one of those audio tour things (this along with “I should have brought my camera”). And yet, I walked on past the lady hawking the audio tours. One of these times, I’ll actually get one. (And maybe bring my camera.)
The first thing I walked by was the Traitor’s Gate. I wish I could say that I took in its historicalness, but I really didn’t. There was a Yeoman Warders tour in front of it, so I moved on. I did go into the “Torture at the Tower” part. Everyone always thinks about the Rack; I didn’t even know about the Scavenger’s Daughter, which is essentially the opposite of the Rack.
For some reason, I thought this part of the tour would be more extensive ‘cuz for whenever I hear about the Tower of London, images of torture come to mind. Mostly ‘cuz of history and stuff; it was used as a prison and it does have a history of blood. Heck, there’s even a tower called The Bloody Tower.
That’s getting ahead of myself, though. Like I was saying, I thought this part of the tour would be more extensive, but it really wasn’t. I was impressed by the writings on the wall. They’ve preserved some of the etchings made by prisoners and they had plates next to most of them for the parts that were more difficult to read. They were mostly names, but some had messages. Of course, I can’t remember any of them verbatim, but they had religious context.
I went off to the White Tower next. I’d read about how they have suits of armor stored there and I thought perhaps they would have swords as well.
The first floor had muskets and flintlock pistols. When I rounded the corner, there were models of horses and the line of kings’ armor. One of the most prominent displays was that of John of Gaunt’s armor; he was apparently a giant of a man.
I was happy that the tour didn’t end there, as I’d originally thought. On the second floor, there were examples of weaponry from the Spanish artillery. There weren’t a lot of swords, but looking at the Spanish morningstar was still pretty cool.
Up the winding staircase again brought me through to the Chapel of St. John. This floor mostly contained information of the building of the White Tower. I wish I could say that I stuck around to read every single sign, but I decided to move on. I mean, I went to that particular tower to see medieval weaponry. I will say that one of the interesting things on this floor was the Norman toilet. And people think they were so uncivilized back then.
When I got to the next floor, there was a tour group going on. The lady was talking about the different suits of armor so I decided to attach myself to the group.
The first suit of armor belonged to Henry VIII. It was originally silvered, but due to poor preservation it had lost its veneer. It was, however, still intricately engraved. The entwined H and K were representative of the union between Henry and Katherine of Aragon. Also, both English and Aragon symbols were represented to further emphasize the union between the two countries.
The woman said that the armor was made for Henry when he was at the age of 24. Most people think of Henry differently which brought us to the next suit of armor. It was much broader and had a very distinct codpiece. This was the last suit of armor supposedly worn by Henry VIII for the last tournament he held. He did not ride in the tournament, but he did wear the armor for show.
We looked at the armor of Charles I. It was originally made for his elder brother Henry, but Henry had died by the time the armor arrived so it was given to Charles instead. The woman pointed out the painting on the wall as well, saying that the information describes Henry, but the face is actually that of Charles. “They recycled even then.”
The next suit of armor was also the heaviest. It belonged to William Somerset. This particular suit showed how the fashion of armor changed throughout the years; it was displayed with pantaloons.
An interesting suit of armor that belonged to James I was given to him by the Shogun of Japan. I couldn’t help but smile about that one; I didn’t even know that there had been relations between the two counties at that time.
I couldn’t help but think of The Tudors when we looked at the jousting lance that belonged to Charles Brandon, brother-in-law to Henry VIII. It looked heavy but it was actually not as heavy as one would think. As a tournament lance, it was made to shatter upon impact and most of the weight was at the handle.
That pretty much ended the tour of the suits of armor. I had to laugh when the woman said, “I hope you enjoyed your tour. If you did, my name is Theresa, if you didn’t my name is Barbara.” I found that incredibly amusing.
There was actually loads more that Theresa talked about, but that which I’ve written about were the ones I remembered the best.
I stuck around on that floor ‘cuz there were still lots of things to see and read about.
That pretty much ended my exploration of the White Tower. I’m not gonna lie, I really liked it. (Probably why I wrote so much about it.)
I had wandered around for about an hour or so. I saw a line for something just outside the White Tower’s entrance so I decided to jump in. It was quite a long queue, so whatever it was must be cool.
It was the line for the Crown Jewels. I didn’t really care to see them, but it was something listed on the Ten Things to Do at the Tower of London so I went on in.
Here’s the thing about the Crown Jewels…I really don’t think they’re the real deal. Sure they’ve got all the pretense of security and all, but to have the Imperial State Crown there? Isn’t that something you’d want to keep at like Buckingham Palace?
I did enjoy the video of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. I wasn’t alive when it happened, so it was kinda cool to see.
After the Jewels, I went to the Bloody Tower. On my way there, I got to see two of the ravens. Again, I wished I had brought my camera ‘cuz one of the ravens was just chillin’ out on this fountain not at all bothered by the people taking pictures of him. I think it was a “him” ‘cuz he was bigger than the other one.
The Bloody Tower was just kind of there. I did think it was cool that it was renamed “bloody” after the Princes in the Tower. It was apparently originally the Garden Tower.
I took the tour of the Medieval Palace and South Wall Walk. There was lots to see. I can’t really remember it all ‘cuz all the Towers started to blend together. One of ‘em had a replica of a bedroom; one had examples of tools they used back then; the Salt Tower had more inscriptions from prisoners; and the Martin Tower had the old jewels and explanations of how the diamonds were cut.
That pretty much ended my day at the Tower of London. I spent around three hours wandering around the different places. I hadn’t eaten lunch yet, so that was my motivation to leave.
I didn’t really know where to go for food but I ended up finding Tower Place, which had quite a few different places to choose from.
I’ve been craving burgers lately, so it was rather convenient that I found Gourmet Burger Kitchen, and that it was practically empty when I got there! I ordered a classic burger, but it was still pretty frickin’ good! I usually have burgers plain, but the relish thing (essentially salsa) made it pretty tasty. And the fries, yes fries, were pretty good too. It cost about £10 for everything, but considering it was a fancier burger place than MacDonald’s, I was pretty happy.
It was definitely a good day in London. Even if I didn’t get to see the ghost of Anne Boleyn.