Wet shoes, Awed Voices, and Chicken Wire Animals

Today was the day I visited the Tower of London. Yeah I could have gone to Hampton Court or the Kew, but lets be honest, the Castle used as a prison, with all of its ghosts and ghoulies, was far more interesting. Oh, and it had the Crown Jewels. And Beef Eaters... Anyway, I did as the tour guide had suggested on Sunday, and came to the Tower of London early. Which is excellent advice for anyone wanting to visit any attraction in London. Come early, and bring a book. Though truth be told, the cues in London maybe some of the longest I have ever encountered, they are also some of the fastest moving and most entertaining. The Crown Jewels, its all on extremely long line up, you just don't notice it due to the displays they have you file through, and they ask that certain things (such as photos and video cameras) be turned off. I know they need things not in the public domain to not be photographed, but I also believe its done for areas of high concentration of tourists in order to keep things moving. The best part is you hardly notice it at all.

But enough of that, lets start the day off with a few pictures of the castle. You leave the Tube station to get this view of the Tower.

Pretty cool, eh? Well I have to admit I thought it was cool too, not as cool as this...

Which is modern ruins on top of a Roman wall, you can tell by the red spacers! A crumbling wall! Awesome huh?

No?

All right then, feast yer eyes on this baby!

MORE RUINS! This time of a ruined watch tower! Oh the things you get to see (when you don't have to pay for them). What? Still not cool enough for going to the Tower of London?! Fine! Take a gander over at this....

See  that! That's a man in a very funny hat! I am kidding, this is Beef Eater, one of the Yeoman guard that lives in the castle, and whose job it is to guard the crown jewels. He was a very nice guy, and though I think he was thankful someone was asking to take his picture for once. I also thought this was pretty cool, in a kind of weird, dark sort of way.

That is Traitors Gate, the gate that prisoners would have to pass through before being lead to their respective cells. Its like seeing a viper with its teeth removed, it was once scary and foreboding, but has kind of lost its bite. The pond around the gate is now used by tourists to fling coins into, and the money is used to charity.

They also had sculptures of the various animals that had once been kept at the tower up until the 1830's I think, when they finally figured out that having free roaming animals and allowing people to pet the paws of animals might not be such a good idea. Seriously, it took several deaths from lions, tigers and bears before someone thought maybe not letting people "pet their paws" was a good idea. But I digress, you could find them all over the Castle.

Here are the lions at the ruined Lions Tower near the entrance. It was torn down once some one realized that the animals would be better suited to the London Zoo and that maybe visitors would be far more safe. I wish I was making that part up. Apparently at one point you could bring a live dog or cat to feed to the animals, which is kind of interesting. But a big feature of the whole display was to emphasize that many of the animals were gifts to the monarch from far away lands, and despite the best of intentions of the care takers, people did not know how to properly and safely care for the creatures. So while I am poking fun at the fact people were surprised when a lion attacked some one, it is understandable. These were creatures very few people had ever seen, and many were at a loss as too their true natures.

There was also a display on torture and torture devices. Along the wall you can enter different towers and see the different carvings they had made in the tower. Carvings like these.

Next after the wall walk, you get to check out (some) of the White Tower.

Inside was the Armory and it had lots of displays of Henry VIII's armor (which was huge), and weapons from different eras.

Best part though was this dude.

Random Hot Guy in uniform. He was not even working there! He was visiting the place. Ah yes my day, she is complete!

Until next time faithful readers.