The Tower of London and Tower Bridge

Sunday, June 16

 

We got on the RV1 bus just outside our flat just after 10:00 and it got us to the Tower of London[360°] before 11:00 allowing us to get a jump on most of the day's tourists.  There were big lines for tickets but our London Passes allowed us to go directly to the entrance and we joined a group that was already being led by one of the Yeoman Warders.  His speal was very entertaining but we left the group after the third stop when it was apparent that the line to see the Crown Jewels was starting to back-up.  We joined that line when it was still only 50 feet outside the door and when we came out afterwards it had become a couple of hundred yards long.  Throughout the rest of the time at the Tower we watched that line grow further still and we were glad we didn't delay joining it or, worse yet, arrived at the Tower in the afternoon.

The Crown Jewels are pretty impressive -- they are valued at $32 billion!  Some question the accuracy of that figure and some wonder if they are really just replicas of the real things that are perhaps stored elsewhere.

Mesh wire animal sculptures, seen in the background below, commemorate the menagerie that once was a feature of the Tower of London.

 

The armories in the White Tower [360°] have been scaled back from my prior visits when you would reach a point where you just couldn't bear to look at anymore armor or weapons.  Some of the weapons displays have also been replaced with interactive exhibits which are interesting and avoid the previous problem of being overwhelmed.  One of the interactive displays allowed you to see through a knight's visor to appreciate just how restrictive your vision would be with a helmet on.

We went through several other towers along the outer wall including one which I'm sure I hadn't previously seen which had once been the residence of both Henry III and Edward I.   There was also a display of the less fortunate residents who had been tortured on a rack and something called the Scavenger’s Daughter which did the opposite of the rack, forcing the victim into a crouch and squeezing them.  Good times!  Other prisoners like Sir Walter Raleigh lived for years in comfort but in his case he was ultimately executed.

After the Tower we toured the Tower Bridge and walked along both sides of the walkway running across the top where I took the short video below.

 

 

We took the river boat back to the London Eye pier where we learned that the Tower Bridge is classified as a ship and is the only ship never to sail.  The river boat guide was very entertaining and informative as we passed riverside landmarks but he never elaborated on why the bridge is also a ship.

We observed another British custom by getting some Indian take-out but before dinner polished off the bottle of Baileys.  We also called my cousin Richard on Skype hoping to catch him while he was still with Mom at the barbeque being put on by her retirement home.  We discovered we were too late for that so we called Mom seperately who seemed quite surprised to be hearing from us while we were in London.

Marnie stayed up to finish watching "Mr. Bean's Holiday" but I had previously seen it so I went to bed and got my first decent nights sleep since we left Sacramento.