The Tower of London

Yesterday, in the company of kings, queens, clergymen, and other prominent prisoners, I entered the Tower of London.

But don't worry--I came out with my head intact. But my mind was slightly blown by the sheer history of the place. More history per square inch than pretty much any other site you can think of. And it was FANTASTIC, despite the near-freezing weather. Well, that's what it felt like, anyway. It was one of your classic foggy days in London town--not a good day to go light on the layers (which I did, because I ran out the door rather hastily) and I was cold all day, but tromping through the grounds, in and out of the towers and up and down lots of twisty little staircases kept the blood flowing.

First glimpse of the Tower! This is right outside the Tube station; please notice the Underground sign to the right.

Outside--it was raining. Note the umbrella at the top.

The Tower of London actually started out as a fortress/palace for William the Conqueror, commissioned soon after his arrival in Great Britain in 1066. It was built on the site of an old Roman fort, as evidenced by the remains of the Roman city wall. See below.

The Royal Menagerie was kept at the Tower until it was moved to the zoo. It included exotic animals from all over the world. Now the only wild animals kept there now are ravens. According to superstition, if ravens ever leave the Tower, the Tower will fall. 

Traitor's Gate! Famously, this is where Anne Boleyn, Sir Thomas More, and Queen Elizabeth I entered the tower of London for their imprisonments. I've said it several times before, but it's so hard for me to fathom that this is actually where these people walked and lived and died. Well, Queen Elizabeth escaped with her head, but still.

The RACK!

The White Tower: The central keep, and the oldest royal residence in Great Britain.

This is where you go to see the Crown Jewels. Things like this:

And this:

We were thoroughly bedazzled.

The outer wall--what used to be the moat.

In the White Tower: King Henry VIII's battle armor. This is the real deal. A lot of this is so REAL that it's hard to wrap my mind around. These were real people. These were really the places that they lived and worked and died. I found myself thinking that I really wouldn't want to be a royal. All that intrigue and no privacy and so much PRESSURE. I don't want to be a princess--I just want to be me.

Wish already granted. And that's just fine.

Do You Know the Muffin Man Who Lives on Drury Lane?

If you do, we'd sure like to know, because we had a heck of a time finding one.

After Trafalgar Square the group I was with decided to go and get a muffin on Drury Lane. I had romantic notions of a cute little bakery nestled in a corner shop selling muffins piping hot.

But alas, my hopes were dashed as we marched up and down Drury Lane with nary a bake shop in sight.

However, rest assured that we did indeed get our muffins. From a convenience store that was semi-seedy-looking, actually. But hey--they were still muffins, they were still on Drury Lane, and they were still good.

Our make-do muffin shop

My muffin. Chocolate, of course.

We went down the street a little bit to eat our muffins in Drury Lane Gardens, which was actually built on a church burial ground. Apparently there were quite a few burial grounds of old churches in London that were preserved as public spaces. Who knew?

The entrance to Drury Lane Gardens

 From our bench

Look--part of the old church still survives and you can see the cross on the side.

So we sat. And we did NOT feed the pigeons. Not intentionally, anyway. But if one is a semi-messy muffin eater, one cannot help if some crumbs fall on the ground to become easy prey for fearless pigeons. They'll come within inches if it means a crumb or two.

All in all, I would have to consider Mission Find-The-Muffins a success, even if we didn't find the Muffin Man.

National Portrait Gallery and Trafalgar Square

Some friends and I set out this afternoon after class to go and see some sights, and we made a quick stop in Camden Market because Jasmine wanted to see if she could find her umbrella that she may have left in a shop there.

This is Camden Market. I didn't get a very good picture of it, but there are shops and stalls up and down this street ranging from tattoo parlors to tour centers to stores with frilly women's clothing. We actually stopped at a stall that sold women's coats. And I was so proud of myself--the guy running the shop was trying to get me to try one on, even though I didn't want to, and I successfully kept a cool head and didn't waver in my determination. Hahaha. I consider that a triumph, considering I have allowed myself to be persuaded against my wishes before. I do have a backbone, thank you, so take THAT, coat stall owner! Sha-ZAM. 

Anyway.... the real reason for our outing was to go to the National Portrait Gallery and then down to Trafalgar Square.

The National Portrait Gallery

This place was amazing. All the portraits of famous and not-so-famous people throughout time combine to paint a larger portrait of British history. I think portraits are particularly compelling because they help us see the people of history. It's so much fun to see what you can discover about a person by looking at their portrait. I saw all the portraits that you see in the textbooks. 

Henry VIII

Queen Elizabeth

Shakespeare

King Charles I

Milton

Queen Victoria

All the greats. Wow. I feel like I learned so much about history just walking through and reading the captions.

As we neared the 21st century I was about beat, but we covered pretty much that entire gallery, and we were so proud of ourselves. So much fun. Then, of course, we went down the street to Trafalgar Square. Even though it's a central place for big events, there was nothing going on while we were there, but it's one of those iconic London places that you have to go see at least once. 

KayCee and I: The classic "Look, I was here!" photo.

Left to right: Caroline, Ariel, Lacy, KayCee

The National Gallery. We were way too tired to tackle two galleries in one day, so we'll have to come back to this one later.

A Scotsman was playing the bagpipes when we were in Trafalgar Square. I know some people hate the bagpipes, but I love them. There's something so stirring about listening to them. Perhaps it's the Scottish blood I have running through me veins, yah?

Of course, another view of Westminster and Big Ben.

Official Olympic Countdown Clock: 86 days!

St. Martin-in-the-Fields church

This is Nelson's Column, built to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson, who died in the battle of Trafalgar fighting against Napoleon. He is one of the most well-known and influential British officers. They really put this guy on a pedestal, don't they?

One of the lions at the base of Nelson's Column

Let Them Eat Cake (and Go See Matilda)

Yesterday after walking the Thames, Becca and I were exhausted. I come home every day now feeling like I could fall into bed and be asleep in five minutes.

Thus, we needed something to give our blood sugar a little boost...

...So we chose CAKE. Chocolate cake, to be precise, from a cute little sweet shop on the West End, right across the street from the theatre. 

And we ran out onto the center of a roundabout to eat it. 'Cause we live on the edge like that. 'Cause we're edgy like that. And cars came inches from our toes. And we ate our cake with only one napkin between the two of us. We also ended up with three forks, strangely enough. The girl in the sweet shoppe had had a long day.

CAKE!!

The last bite. I know what you're thinking: A-TTRACTIVE.

See the theatre right behind me in the picture?

We ran across the street to the theatre (and did not get hit by any cars) and made it to our seats about five minutes before the show was scheduled to start..

The show was Matilda the Musical, based on the book by Roald Dahl.

Happy face? I was being difficult. :)

This was the stage--the whole set was very high-budget and pretty spectacular. It was a fun show. They took some liberties in their interpretation of the story (movies and productions based on books always do) but all in all I enjoyed myself. I think in the past week I've been to more plays than I've been to in the past two years put together. I think I like this.

A Sit in the Flat and A Walk Along the Thames

It is super late, and I am absolutely exhausted. It's kind of strange, though, because my roommate Becca and I spent a good part of the morning and early afternoon just SITTING HERE in the flat writing our silly papers. Sadly, homework must be done even when one's classroom is in London.

This is my view from the window of my bedroom. I actually rather like it.

My roommate's bed, not mine, in case you were wondering. :)

Finally, at about 3:00 (excuse me--15:00) we couldn't take being cooped up anymore and decided to go for a walk along the Thames, because even though we had been to Westminster, which is right on the Thames, we hadn't actually seen the river. So we hopped on the Tube and rode over to Westminster Station. Of course, this meant more pictures of the London Eye and Big Ben.

Ready to get out!

Just coming out of the Tube station

Look, Big Ben again!

We decided to walk over Westminster Bridge and go down Queen's Walk for a bit.

One side of the bridge...

The other side of the bridge...

Queen's Walk and the Aquarium (closed). We'll have to come back another day. We'll see if that plan ends up holding water. Hee hee hee. (Get used to the puns, people--there will be a lot of them.)

The architecture is so impressive here.

 Westminster from the opposite side of the Thames

Back over the bridge, jiggety jog.

On the Westminster side I saw this statue with the inscription "BOADICEA, Queen of the Iceni, Who died A.D. 61 after leading her people against the Roman invasion." It caught my eye because I am intrigued with the roles women have played throughout history. Boadicea led her people in a revolt against the Roman empire, and routed a Roman legion and razed the city Londinium to the ground (yes, Londinium = London). Interesting character, isn't she? Again with the history--it's absolutely everywhere, and I love it.

I must admit that our walk along the Thames was somewhat like the plot of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. UP the river, and back DOWN the river, and NOTHING HAPPENS. Ever read that book? Oh, the horror. I know I'm being reductive and simplistic, but it's my blog and I'm tired and I'll do what I want. :) Hmm. Perhaps it's time to give that book another go.

Speaking of books, the play we saw as a class today was Matilda, based on the children's book of the same name by Roald Dahl. Becca has a lot of the pictures from that particular adventure, so I'll post about that when I get them from her tomorrow. But now, I am going to bed. Goodnight, one and all.