2/6/12

Well good day chaps!! Today was yet another eventful Monday in London. I am very pleased to find that Mondays are much less disgusting when I know that I will be able to see beautiful sights in an amazing city!!

Lets start our blog with a nice picture of Andrew...

I could listen to this guy talk all day long!

Today started off with class, which once again I found to be too informal to count as an actual class, except that today we actually did review quite a bit of history about the middle ages and London, it was very fascinating! We talked about William the Conqueror, who started the construction of the Tower of London (with patience and a little more reading which you will see). We also discussed some of the other kings and their impact on London, some which had positive effects in England, others not so much. One king which I feel I will be able to remember forever due to the fact that my dad made me watch Braveheart about a thousand times as a kid (thank you daddy!!) is Edward I, also know as the Hammer of the Scots (Which if you have ever seen Braveheart you would know he was a [insert naughty word here] to the Scots). Another king whose history I find interesting is that of Charles I, who sadly for him was killed by the people of London in 1649 when he really ticked them off and, sadly for us, the people melted down the crown jewels in a symbolic gesture against the monarchy. For a time after this then the people were ruled by a republic known as the Commonwealth of England, only until 1660, however, when the monarchy was brought back and Charles I 's son, Charles II took power.

Whew, yupp that was another history lesson for all of you, sorry there was no warning to that one but I mean its all so interesting, who wouldn't want to know!?!

In the afternoon the whole group went on a little field trip and we were able to go inside and see the Tower of London (finally!!) and it was awesome! As mentioned early the Tower was initially started by William the Conqueror in 1066 when he took (and I mean literally took, as in killing people to get his way) power in London and made himself King, becoming the first Norman King of England. Now there is a lot to the Tower of London, the part which William had started is called the White Tower now, and it is called that because King Henry III decided to have it whitewashed when fortifications were being done to the tower in 1240.

White Tower: Not too white anymore

The tour of the Tower started in the White Tower, which has had many uses over the centuries, one of those uses being an armory and so today the tower holds a collection of armor throughout the time of different kings.

Armor of King Henry VIII. As you can see he thought pretty, ahem, largely... of himself.

Samuri armor, a gift to King James from Japan

A small child's armor

There is much more to see inside the White Tower. Such as....

The biggest book I have ever seen, actually only 914 pages long. It is a ledger of receipts, returns, and issues of the armory collection

This is Keeper. A sculpture which incorporates aspects of the armor over the centuries and of wartime materials.

A chair used in an execution in the Tower. You can see the chair is broken which is where the bullet went through the executed man and hit the chair.

Old coins of the Middle Ages

A lead cistern

There was much more to see at the Tower of London than just the White Tower. Many other towers combine to make up the entirety of the tower. Some of these towers were used as prisons and others were areas where a king could stay to watch over the city of London. There other towers which have more unfortunate stories, such as one which holds the torture devices used in different times in London (much of which was used by Queen Mary during her bloody reign), and another tower known as the Bloody Tower, called such because it held two princes (Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury, sons of King Edward IV) who were imprisoned by their uncle Richard (later crowned Richard III when the boys lost their legitimacy to the thrown since, you know, they were missing and locked in a friggen tower). So yea, some pretty gruesome stories go with the Tower!

A window in the prisoner's tower

Graffiti in the prisoners tower. This one is cool because you can read most of it

Skeleton graffiti

One of the really big ravens all over the tower

The torture tower

One of the torturing devices

A picture of someone being tortured

One of the king's thrones

Cage for the ravens

 I do not want to leave you all with a nasty taste in your mouths about the Tower of London, because seriously guys, it is fantastic, and not everything that went on here was bad! I mean, the crown jewels are housed here so the tower cannot be that bad. I am so sorry to tell you all that I was not allowed to take picture of the jewels and I wasn't about to argue because the guards were dressed all officially and sounded really mad when you asked them something stupid (which I would know because I do this often). I even tried to get a picture of one of these guys and he wasn't too happy about it.

Cranky guard man

 Lucky for me all he did was turn around and ignore me, but later on when we were all getting ready to leave I made way for the toilet since it took half an hour to get home and I kinda needed to use the loo, and while I was standing in line one of them came in the toilet to rush me out! These guys have no concept of a personal bubble, and when I am in the loo my personal bubble is much bigger than any other time!! Anyway getting off subject...

The tower is really beautiful and while I cannot show you the crown jewels rest assured they are there and they are gorgeous. Another beautiful aspect of the tower is religious. Now many of you know that I am a religion major and so I geek out at these times, but sadly we were not allowed into the chapel located in the tower, but that didn't stop me from finding religious influence within other sites in the tower :)

More graffiti from the prisoners tower. This is a huge passage from the English bible. These guys had a lot of free time on their hands!

So King Henry III was this really religious guy and this is one of the chapels him and his son Edward would have used. If you want to know how dedicated to Christianity Henry was, he was one of those guys who brought you such buildings as Westminster Abbey

This I found so cute! Its a portable Altarpiece!! So having a religious service was really important to these kings and would take place a couple times a day and they had quite a few of these little numbers made to honor the Virgin Mary.

Back to King Henry III, this is one of the Chalices he had made, many of which he would have given as gifts to some churches. This one is pretty fantastic as having a silver chalice is very rare since much of the silver had been melted down to make into coins.

The Tower of London was really cool and just beautiful! Right outside of the walls of the tower we also got to see many wonderful views of the Tower Bridge, one of the many bridges of London, but one which I find to be exceptionally beautiful.

Tower Bridge

My favorite picture I took of the bridge

And me with the bridge behind me

After our adventures at the tower we of course had to leave, the tower closes at 5 and some of us didn't realize exactly what time it was (yea that would mean Hanna and me). So as I said earlier when we were leaving Hannah and I decided to use the loo which for some reason we didn't understand upset some of the people who worked at the tower, which even meant one of those guards coming in to rush me out of the toilet. So finally when Hannah and I went back outside we had a few guards assisting us out of the tower, yea, for real. There were two guards who were walking very closely behind us making sure that we left the tower, as if we would try to lock ourselves in! One of the guards, however, had a bit of a sense of humor and yelled at us that it was too late and we were already locked in the tower. Thank God for him because I was getting a little intimidated by the guys herding me out of the gates like Hannah and I were a couple of sheep.

The rest of my night when peachily. Came back home to the flat for dinner (grilled cheese and soup courtesy of Charlotte and Kelsey), and went shopping with Jenna and Hannah since I am helping Jenna with dinner tomorrow. I can't wait! I miss cooking so much!!


Alright, well goodnight all!! Have sweet dreams and dream of me storming the London walls...

Devilishly good looking in my armor.