London: Part Five

Tuesday was our last day in London and we finally got typical London weather.  We woke up to a cloudy and cold morning, so we got to use our jackets.  Our first stop was across the street to the Tower of London.  The best decision we made on this trip was to stay an extra day beyond the holiday weekend because there was no line to get into the Tower of London, unlike all the long lines we saw on previous days.

The name "Tower of London" is a bit deceiving to those who have never seen it before.  The complex isn't just one tower, but is a whole castle with many buildings and walls that were built or added to by various sovereigns over the many years.  My guess is the name comes from the original structure built by William the Conquerer in the 11th century, which is called the White Tower.  Before visiting the White Tower though, we took a 45-minute guided tour that told us the basic history and some of the infamous stories associated with the castle.  As some of you might know, the castle was not only a fortress, and an armory, but was also home to a prison, torture chamber, and execution site.  There is so much fascinating history behind the Tower of London, but I will have to just give brief descriptions here in the interest of time.

Our tour guide

Prisoners were brought into the castle from the Thames by boat here

The tower above the archway, called the Bloody Tower, is where two princes were murdered

A memorial on Tower Green where two of Henry VIII's wives were beheaded, including Ann Boleyn

Though the tour only talked about a few parts of the castle, we still enjoyed it.  One other interesting fact we learned on the tour was that the last prisoner to be held in the Tower of London was Rudolf Hess in 1941.  He was a prominent member of the Nazi party who was held there until he was tried at Nuremberg and was sentenced to life in prison.  

After the tour, we headed over to the Jewel House where the British crown jewels are kept.  Sorry, we couldn't take any pictures inside.  Most of the crown jewels we see today were made in 1661 for the coronation of Charles II because the previous ones were destroyed by Parliament during the Civil War (1649-1660).  Despite being 400 years old, they are still beautiful and actually worthy of the term priceless.  For example, the Sceptre with the Cross, which was made in 1660, was redesigned in 1910 with a 530-carat diamond! It is the biggest cut diamond in the world.

Guards outside of the Jewel Tower, don't worry they have more security than just these old cannons

The Jewel Tower

After that, we visited the White Tower, which houses historical artifacts from the Tower of London and talks about the original uses of some of the tower, which is the oldest surviving building on the grounds.

White Tower

One of King Henry VIII's set of armor

The largest and smallest sets of armor ever made

The gigantic scary ravens they keep at the tower because of superstition

Houses inside the castle walls where people who take care of the grounds actually live

CBS was filming the Early Show at Tower of London for the Royal Wedding

Me outside of the Tower of London

Darren outside the Tower of London

There really is a lot to do at the Tower of London and you could spend a lot of time there, but we eventually had to move on so we could fit in some other things before we left.  We got a quick lunch of fish and chips and sandwiches and ate them outside as the clouds were clearing off.  We then headed over to Westminster Abbey once again to take the official audio-guided tour inside.  There were still a lot of tourists there, but they were also setting up for the Royal Wedding.  All the workers were out polishing and cleaning everything, while A/V guys were setting up TV screens and cameras at every angle.  It was a fun addition to the excitement of being at Westminster Abbey.

I've already talked some about Westminster Abbey in a previous post, so I won't go into a lot of detail here.  But on the tour we were able to see the tombs of Queen Elizabeth I, her sister Queen Mary, and her brother Kind Edward VI, among other sovereigns.  We also saw the tombs of Charles Darwin, Geoffrey Chaucer, Isaac Newton, and Charles Dickens.

The courtyard in Westminster Abbey

Our final stop in London was St. Paul's Cathedral.  Some of you might remember that this is where Princes Charles and Diana were married.  Usually, royal weddings take place at Westminster, but I think I read that the couple had such a long guest list, they needed the extra space at St. Paul's to fit everyone in.  St. Paul's is definitely a huge cathedral.  At 360 ft. high, the dome is the second biggest in the world after St. Peter's in Rome.  Both towers that you can see in the picture below were designed to have clock, but I guess they only put a clock in one of them.

After that, we got a quick dinner at a burrito place so I could have my fill of burritos before returning to the tortilla-less land of Switzerland.  We had to fly out of Heathrow and we had a good laugh that the train ride from our hotel to Heathrow was as long as was our plane flight from London to Zurich: about 90 minutes.  So that was our epic and fantastic five-and-half-day trip to London!  It definitely lived up to my high expectations!