"Put him in the tower of London...make him part of the tour."

And indeed we did see the Tower. However, we'll start with Thursday night. Thursday night, being thoroughly exhausted (for whatever reason Ross couldn't actually sleep on the Eurostar on the way to London), we checked in to our hostel, had lunch at the Indian place I mentioned, and commenced wandering. We did a pretty good walk about, crossing an interesting bridge that Ross initially thought was the Millennium Bridge. Turns out it just looked cool. Then we stopped on the other side to see some street performers (one was extremely animated, had a gift for attracting a crowd and insulting various members of it, but had way too much build-up and an act that has definitely been done before). We stopped at the London Eye, another big-city construction for the World's Fair. This, however, is a giant ferris wheel that takes half an hour to go all the way round and gives you a fantastic view of the city. My camera was still dead at this point, so Ross has all the pictures from Thursday. Afterward, we strolled past a Dahli exhibit, down the Westminster Bridge (in the middle of which was a piper playing for money), and right to the statue of Boudica at the end. I wasn't expecting this at all, and had totally forgotten about the statue or that it was in London, and recognized it immediately. Boudica was a 1st century B.C.E. Celtic queen who led a revolt against the invading Roman armies after Rome ignored her right as a woman to be the leader of a tribe. She successfully mounted several assaults on the Romans, but was later defeated and made a martyr for the British Celts. I have a pretty good picture of me by the statue, but it's on Ross's card. I'll have a post dedicated to old pictures later on when I get access to the photos. The statue is also right next to Westminster Abbey, so we walked around that, Big Ben, the statues of British heros (among them the statue of Oliver Cromwell...hmm), and various other buildings of import that we couldn't actually identify at the time. It was getting late, we'd done a fair amount of walking, and being hungry and tired, we stopped at the first food place we came to and after a meal of all-you-can-eat Asian food trotted off back to the hostel for beddy-bye.

Friday was a bit more exciting, picture-wise, as I had time to charge my camera before we left. We really only had one day in London as far as actually doing things was concerned. We started off late, however, so first thing we did was get some lunch at a small doner kabob place, and we sat near a chapel to eat it (I forget which one...Southwick/wark or something). We decided which museums to try to make before they all close around 5:00pm, and set off to find the London Tower Bridge, and thence to the Tower of London. On the way, however, I spotted a bow...so we turned a bit astray to find:

The full-size reconstruction of Sir Francis Drake's galleon. I got the reader board in the picture purposely so you and I could read it later. We weren't allowed on, but it was pretty cool. Not as big as you'd think, either.

On our way to the bridge, there was this small water feature in the middle of the walkway. I'm not sure if it was actually a drain of some kind, or just a nice touch. Either way, it was kind of cool. Ross was afraid and wanted to find a bridge, so I explained:
I'm on the west bank...
I'm on the east bank...
This ain't exactly the Mississippi.

The Tower of London Bridge. Which I think they actually just call the Tower Bridge. More important (and exciting), however, is the Tower itself, just at the bottom left on the other side of the Thames (I've seen the River Thames--it's brown).

Traitor's Gate, in the Tower of London. I didn't take any pictures of the actual Tower from the outside, and I have no idea why...I was pretty preoccupied with just looking at it. It's everything a castle should be. And so much more.
Ross walking along with the tour. The tour guides are actually Tower guards, and are employed for life, and are very interesting, intelligent, informative people. Our guide was hilarious. Ross noticed that I really wanted to be a tour guide, but I told him the accent didn't come with the uniform, so I was probably a bit out of luck.

These guys were dressed up like Edward III and a bowman. This I could do.

Scottish swords and shield (targe) inside the Tower collection.

Ross was pretty impressed by Henry VIII.

This is a short informative video on Norman toilets. The women coming in after us found it pretty amusing. This was probably my first archaeological faux pas in England.


A bit of digression for real time information: I'm in my dorm room right now, in Aberdeen, blogging for you, eating "Scottish All Butter Shortbread" which I purchased at Lidl's, and someone outside just started playing bagpipes. He actually just started playing Happy Birthday. It all makes sense now. Bagpipes in the dorms would be a bit much to just be whimsically expressing your cultural pride...On we go then.

Rewind to a week and a half ago:

Norman fireplace. The Tower began construction under William the Conqueror, so in many places you can still see the Norman architecture, such as here, and in the toilets above. Many of the window sills as well were Norman.

Armour from the English Civil War (1640s).

Sabres.

Page from a book in the Tower apothecary, or the study...I don't remember which. This page is the start of the author's discourse on "mens," the Latin for "mind," and what it means to have "mens" and how that separates us from animals and whatnot. I took a picture mostly so I could read it later...

King's chambers in the Tower.

Lather, rinse, repeat. The building behind is where Anne Bolin et. al. were kept while they were held prisoners in the Tower. Speaking of Anne Bolin, I heard there was a pretty good movie that just came out about her...


Stained glass window in I think the chapel. This is where Edward III came to pray, I think. I was going to make a comment about how it was also where the royal janitor collected his royal mop, because the left the door open to the left and you could see a mop and a vacuum and all, but I couldn't get a good picture of it.

Ross on the battlements. 4:00, and all's well.

I kind of had to...

So did Ross. I think he looks good in a kettle hat. This is actually where the design for the British military helmets in World War I came from. The Germans got theirs from a Sallet.

That was pretty much it for the Tower. After the Tower we headed to the British Museum, which is one of the best collections of anything anywhere. Another huge museum and we had only about two hours by the time we got there. We had to bypass the Wallace Collection, unfortunately, which is one of the best collections of weapons and armour anywhere. I'll have to make a weekend trip back to London sometime, however.

Babylonian doors? I can't remember, but they're huge, and really old (the bronze metalwork, the wood is reconstructed).

And Pharaoh always looks like he's in trouble, sitting with his hands on his knees.

You don't talk about Pharoh that way. Especially when his arm is eighteen feet long.

The Rosetta Stone. Amazing. Bad picture, but simply amazing.

Totem Poles. The British certainly do get around.

Interesting statue of a Roman boy on horseback, in the gallery.Unwrapped mummy.

Mummy.

Not a mummy.

Rock 'em Sock 'em Mayans (look closely...click on the picture, it gets bigger).

The Lewis Chess Set. This is a Viking chess set made from ivory that was found by a Scottish farmer chasing a stray cow. We actually own a copy of this set.

Old violin. Probably out of tune now...probably out of tune then.

This is the oldest item in the museum. It is a rock that was cut to have a fine edge for cutting in the neolithic or the paleolithic era (I forget which "lithic" it's associated with--point is it's old...really old).

They also happen to have imported an entire temple. It's good to be the king.

And to be sure that we end on a good note, this is a poster in the London metro.
For dinner (we were starving), Ross and I found a fish n' chips place. It was great, but I think you'll find a place that doesn't serve fish n' chips before you find a place that serves bad ones in London. After dinner, we found the actual Millennium Bridge, and crossed it right to the Museum of Modern Art (it's open late), and wandered about the modern art exhibits for a good hour or two. Then it was back to the hostel, hanging out in the pub for a bit, Ross took a dip in the hot tub they had up top, and off to bed for an early rise.