I've been putting off a visit to the Tower of London because I kept hearing how crowded it always is. With some of the other places, you can avoid the crowds by going at certain times of day. Like, St. Paul's in the morning. Well, the Tower is busy, busy, busy all the time! I finally made it there, though, and I'm very glad I did, despite the crowds. The museums and things like that I can get by just fine wandering around by myself. In this vastly historical and significant places, such as Westminster Abbey and the Tower, I much prefer to have a guide of some sort to give me the brush up on history and the less well known stories that I need to make the visit actually mean something. I was a little late getting to the Tower because I d
idn't reali
ze it took so long to get there. It was about eleven thirty, so I decided to get lunch. I ate my very first London Fish and Chips sitting just outside the Tower of London (the chips were great, the fish was so-so). I went in the gates and waited for one of the Beefeaters, the yeoman warders of the fortress, to start a tour. So did about seventy other people. It was a big group, but the warder that led us was wonderful. He told us all sorts of stories about the rack, heads on pikes, public executions, and such. One story in particularly gruesome story was that of James Scott...let's just say the executioner, as the warder put it, "was a part-time butcher and a full-time drunk." Whew. The Tow
er has a lot more history than I realized; I mean, I know it's a symbol of London, but I never realized how well it deserved to be used as such a representation of the city. One of my favorite things about it is the ravens that live there. Legend has it that if ever the ravens leave, the White Tower will collapse and with it the entire nation of Britain. So, they always keep at least six ravens at the tower. Currently they have three extra. The Beefeater that led my group was the Ravenmaster. I was a bit rushed at the tower because I got there late and the girls were convinced that because of parent-teacher conferences, they didn't have netball (it took me a while to realize that netball is basketball, more or less) after school like usual on Wednesdays. So, I rushed home only to find that they did have netball afterall. My visit was rather quick, only about two and a half hours, but I was glad to go. There is amazing history there, and most certainly not the boring kind of history.
I've been putting off a visit to the Tower of London because I kept hearing how crowded it always is. With some of the other places, you can avoid the crowds by going at certain times of day. Like, St. Paul's in the morning. Well, the Tower is busy, busy, busy all the time! I finally made it there, though, and I'm very glad I did, despite the crowds. The museums and things like that I can get by just fine wandering around by myself. In this vastly historical and significant places, such as Westminster Abbey and the Tower, I much prefer to have a guide of some sort to give me the brush up on history and the less well known stories that I need to make the visit actually mean something. I was a little late getting to the Tower because I d
idn't realize it took so long to get there. It was about eleven thirty, so I decided to get lunch. I ate my very first London Fish and Chips sitting just outside the Tower of London (the chips were great, the fish was so-so). I went in the gates and waited for one of the Beefeaters, the yeoman warders of the fortress, to start a tour. So did about seventy other people. It was a big group, but the warder that led us was wonderful. He told us all sorts of stories about the rack, heads on pikes, public executions, and such. One story in particularly gruesome story was that of James Scott...let's just say the executioner, as the warder put it, "was a part-time butcher and a full-time drunk." Whew. The Tow
er has a lot more history than I realized; I mean, I know it's a symbol of London, but I never realized how well it deserved to be used as such a representation of the city. One of my favorite things about it is the ravens that live there. Legend has it that if ever the ravens leave, the White Tower will collapse and with it the entire nation of Britain. So, they always keep at least six ravens at the tower. Currently they have three extra. The Beefeater that led my group was the Ravenmaster. I was a bit rushed at the tower because I got there late and the girls were convinced that because of parent-teacher conferences, they didn't have netball (it took me a while to realize that netball is basketball, more or less) after school like usual on Wednesdays. So, I rushed home only to find that they did have netball afterall. My visit was rather quick, only about two and a half hours, but I was glad to go. There is amazing history there, and most certainly not the boring kind of history.
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