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Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 ENGLAND: LONDON
AND THE COTSWOLDS TOWER OF LONDON
Sunday, May 15.
When I got out of bed at 7:15, I
was so dizzy that I could not
stand up. It diminished gradually
over the next few hours.
(Eventually I concluded that it
was positional vertigo - BPPV.) By
noon I was feeling well enough to
go along on our planned visit to
the Tower of London. Already the
day was turning very warm.
We took the tube to London Bridge Station. Liz's job was at a huge gym nearby, and our first stop was to tour that. Then we walked along the Thames and crossed Tower Bridge to the Tower.
Despite its name, the Tower of London is not a tower, but a combination of buildings. It was started by William the Conqueror in 1072 and has constantly been improved and extended ever since, serving as a castle, fortress, prison, library, mint, treasury, bank, arsenal, palace, and now a museum. There are actually several towers within the Tower. The oldest and most prominent is the White Tower, originally the central keep begun by William the Conqueror. Its walls are 15 feet thick. It now houses an exhibition of arms, armor and torture instruments. We arrived at the Tower about 14:00 and bought tickets for the 14;30 tour. I was shocked to find that there were at least 100 people on our tour, compared to six when we were here in 1961. Our Beefeater guide was great and had a powerful voice, but outside it was hard to get close enough to hear him. When he led us into the Chapel Royal (1520), however, where we spent at least half of our 30-minute tour, his booming voice was more than adequate. Many famous prisoners executed at the Tower are buried under the Chapel floor, including Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, Lady Jane Grey, Thomas Cromwell, and Thomas More. The "scafold," or place of execution, was nearby. Just a patch of grass when we saw it before, it is now covered with bricks and sports a fancy circular monument completely out of keeping with the original site.
We had intended to visit the Jewel House next, but the line was much too long. So we all went into the White Tower instead. It was jammed with people. We had only covered one floor when the heat started getting to Jane. She and I went out and found a bench in the shade while Andy and Liz finished touring the White Tower exhibits.
They found us about 16:20 and we all walked around inside the Tower walls, stopping to visit the royal apartment near Traitor's Gate.
We were taking a rest around16:30
when
I suggested that we check the line
at the Jewel House. There was
none! We were able to walk right
in. There were so many (142) crowns,
scepters, orbs and other artifacts
crowded together that
it was hard to appreciate what we
were seeing.
A moving sidewalk has been installed on either side of the cases that whisks you by in less than a minute so you would not get a chance to read any labels if there were any, but I do not think there were. This new "revitalized display" was installed in 2012. Although I really do not remember how they were displayed when we saw them in 1961, I think we saw and appreciated much more. probably because we were able to spend much more time examining them back then. We left the Tower a few minutes before it closed at 17:30 and took the tube back to Andy's. Andy and Liz fixed a great dinner and we ate about 20:00.
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