A bloody history

I've been here just on two weeks, and already veiwed by the public as one of them. Today on the tube, 6 people asked me for directions. The man sitting next to me said, in his funny little accent "you need sign that say Information!!" True, although I probably sent some people the wrong way, hahahahahahahaha!!!
I was going to go to the play, but the plan was thwarted when I realised that there is no matinee on a friday, so I will go to it next Thursday. Instead, I headed to one of London's top tourist attractions: The Tower Of London

Right: Waterloo underground station

O, the violent and gory times had in the tower of London. The moat was filled in during Victoria's reign, I think, due to the Thames no longer doing its job by washing out all the sewerage and it becoming a right stinking mess. Now its just grass, still separating it from the main city. There are 20 towers in all, the biggest and most impressive being the White tower, where the King and his sprogs lived, and the rest being prisons, or housing artillery, or the resident doctor. Each night they still lock the place down, drawbridges up, the two still original portcullis' lowered, and a password used each night for those who wish to move into the Tower after midnight. All very secretive. Aside from the crown jewels, there are a lot of other antique things like armour and cannons to protect.
I arrived just in time (after parting with 15 pounds to get in, unable to get the lady to believe I was under 15 and therefore only play 9.50) to join a tour group.

Left: my tour Yeoman Warder, telling us everything

The tour was a great idea, and was free. The group of people in the tour was maybe too many, but I learned more through him. About the executions of most people up on the Tower Hill not far from the Tower, and the private executions performed on the grass in the middle of the island, like that of Anne Boleyn. Apparently you needed some good contacts to procure yourself a private execution. Her body and that of some others buried beneath the Royal Chapel where dug up some 150 years ago and reburied with a marker. Of all the graves under the chapel only a few bodies were able to be identified - Anne Boleyn being one of them, since she had 6 fingers on her right hand. It was a funny coincidence I learned that today as I'd spent the morning on the train looking for someone with 6 toes. Everyone is wearing sandals, and in the tube you don't really look people in the eye, so I had to find something to do!
Below: some towers
In the Beauchamp Tower, which was just prison rooms, not really in solitary, one could see the graffiti made by these men hundreds of years ago. Tortured and terrified, they scratched messages onto the stones. It was pretty wicked.

I saw the crown jewels too. They were very sparkly, almost fake looking. I wonder if they could be fakes? Surely that would be false advertising. I liked the state trumpets the best. They had blue ribbons tying on a little cloth with the monarchs emblem. The crowns themselves were the most ludicrous, purple velvet with a white fur trim. Maybe I'm being treasonous by not liking the crown jewels! I did like seeing them, there were some awesome gold things, like this massive gold bath that I thought might have been used in christenings, turns out to be what they put their wine or punch in! So much for using the chilli bin, they've got a 24carat tub. The doors to the crown jewels were thick silver, looked like the ones on the safe in Oceans 11. Outside a Beefeater wearing his whole kit kept guard of the building. He must have had a sweat on. His had was huge, and he had to stand still while this annoying american kid yelled at him. There has only ever been one time when the crown jewels have been stolen, and that turned out to be an inside job, the King having organised it to get the insurance. Funny!

Right: the beefeater, in his kit, stands guard over the jewels.

Again about the portcullis - the one under the Bloody Tower (renamed that from something boring after the little Princes I forget their names but one was 12 and the other 10, the eldest was about to have his coronation, but they were murdered in their beds, either suffocated, or daggered to death. Their bodies weren't found until much later when one of the Henry's did some renovations and they were discovered buried beneath one of the staircases) is still the original and weighs 2 and a half tonne. Amazing! The sharp spikes on the bottom look pretty scary! The story of the little princes was sadder than James Scott (the Monmouth guy however you say it) of Jane Grey, just cause they were so little! I guess that Jane Grey was only 17 so that's pretty horrible too.

Left: the bloody tower and the spiky bottoms of the portcullis.

The White tower was in the very centre, and was the control booth, the nucleus of the island. The thickness of the walls is 15 feet at the bottom tapering to 11 feet at the top, and all stands on like 30 feet of concretey foundation. Four turret things on the corners, three square one round (I forget why!) all have a crown, then a weather vane, apparently so that we don't forget that although the royal family no longer reside here, this is still a royal palace. As if anyone could forget! Who else would charge that much for admission and then ask for donations in every room!! Inside this is mainly armour and weaponry from the ages. Pretty cool, rooms full of guns and swords and cannons, some horses even! It seems that each kings horse was modelled and they are all in a line together in there. Very strange! Every staircase in the place was a spiral, and I longed to have a sword fight up and down. How terribly romantic!!
In here there were loads of suits of armour, a couple which stood out and I photographed - Henry VIII because he had a massive metal protector for his crown jewels and Charles I because it was so much smaller than Henry VII (who must've been a fat fella) and looked so much older, made in a different metal I think. Here they are: Henry on the left, Charles right

Something else cool were the ravens. Sleek black birds, reeking of witchcraft, and evilness - used to fulfil some supersition from long ago. Rumour has it that if the ravens fly away, the kingdom will fall. So some law was passed hundreds of years ago decreeing that there always had to be 6 ravens at the White Tower. At the moment there are 8. In the wild, due to their use in witchcraft and other evilness they only live to about 10-12 years old, one at the Tower is now 18 and once they had one live to 44. They didn't fly around, they just hang out behind the fences around the White Tower, sitting on the walls, or on the lights, or on their cage. They were pretty neat.

Above left: two ravens on their cage. Above right: watch out for the black bird!

Left: the White Tower. Above: St John's Chapel in the White Tower, in the Royal Chapel I couldn't take photos

After reading V for Vendetta, Alan Moore's controversial graphic novel, and then seeing it on the plane, it was great to see a big display about it in the White tower, detailing this proto-War on Terrorism plan to blow up the Parliament in 1605. There was information, mini-videos and more to inform people about this. They seem to sensationalise it almost, with big signs and bright colours, which didn't happen anywhere else, other displays were quite sombre and serious. It was interesting, I didn't realise the whole motive behind it, now I do. It was an attempt to bring down the government, kill the King and Queen and reinstate their own people in power in an effort to bring the persecution of Catholics to an end. Protestant England, naughty.

Right: there was a picture of all the conspirators. I zoomed in on Guy (Guido) Fawkes, he's in the middle of this little trio.

Below: the wee rhyme

Left: this is ridiculous, on several fronts. The most important however, is this puts a real obstacle in me marrying Will.

So, years after religious, political and personal prisoners were kept here, and eventually killed, I wandered around, limping a little bit due to my blisters. It was a real eye opener, thanks to the Variah for mentioning I should go. With the Thames rolling by nearby, and the Tower Bridge near by, I found the Tower of London worth the cost and having to see it with heaps of other tourists. From the Spanish wood used in the roof of the Royal Chapel under the orders of Henry VIII so that his first wife Catherine of Aragon could pray underneath the trees of her homeland, to the funny toilets from medieval times, this was a great day!

Below left: prisoner scratchings in Beauchamp Tower. Below Right: it's translation

AND TO FINISH TODAY"S POST......a shot of the royal throne!!!