Ha would you believe that after walking 1½ hours yesterday to get to the Tower of London, only to find out we forgot the tickets… that we’d walk there again today? Yup! London isn’t like Rome or Florence or any other city we’ve been to… when the city looks that big on a map, it really IS that big. The other cities looked HUGE on the maps, but were very walkable within an hour, if that.
On the way there, we saw the Golden Hinde, well, a reconstruction of it, anyway. Sir Francis Drake was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I abroad this ship. It became the first maritime museum, by the orders of Queen Elizabeth I.
We walked on the London Bridge:
We got to the Tower of London in time for the 10AM Yeoman’s tour (it runs for an hour, every half hour). There were so many people! I think at least 70 people were in our tour (Angel thinks it’s closer to 100). The Yeoman has a booming voice, so we were all able to hear his very humorous speech. If anything, go to the Tower to hear the Yeoman’s tour!
He walked us through the main sites in the Tower and the history of England intertwined with the Tower’s history. Originally built by William the Conqueror in 1038 after he successfully invaded England and was crowned the King of England, the Tower was meant to be a fortified palace. But over the years, it has become a fortress, a military encampment, and a prison. In times of Henry VIII, prisoners included his wives Anne Boleyn (the only prisoner to be executed by sword) and Catherine Howard. Lady Jane Grey was Queen of England for 9 days before imprisoned and later beheaded in the Tower. Sir Walter Ralegh, a pirate and a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I, was imprisoned here for 13 years by King James I. He lived as a prisoner in the Tower along with his wife, sons and 3 servants in a pretty nice apartment (his study is bigger than the two of our rooms combined). Prisoners’ wives could choose to live with their respective spouses in those days.
The Traitor’s gate is the gate that the prisoners came in through to be executed:
The scaffold sight is now a memorial:
Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, and 1000 other executed prisoners’ bodies are underneath the church behind the scaffold green.
Legend has it that King Charles II was told that if the ravens ever left the Tower, England would fall. There must be 6 ravens in the Tower at any given time. Today, there are seven ravens~ six, plus one for good measure. Their wings are clipped so they can’t fly away. The ravens' cage:
The Beauchamp Tower is where some of the more high-profile prisoners were kept. There are carvings all over the prison chamber, carved by various prisoners.
The White Tower is where the bodies of the two princes, Edward V and his brother, were found. Edward V was heir apparent to the throne when his father died. Instead of being crowned King, he and his brother were declared illegitimate and brought to the Tower by their uncle, the Duke of Gloucester. They ‘disappeared’ and the Duke became King Richard the Third. To this day, he is one of the leading suspects in their murder, along with King Henry VII.
The Bloody Tower is where scholars believe the two princes were killed via smothering. It is also the tower where Lord Overbury was murdered via poisoning for disapproving of his close friend’s upcoming marriage. Such a small thing to commit murder for! His murderers were later released, but the head guard was executed for failing to keep proper watch over the King’s prisoner. How unfair!
We saw the Crown Jewels, uninsured to this day, except these soldiers:
Colonel Blood was the only one to steal the Jewels in all of English history, but got caught fleeing the castle. He later persuaded the King to not only pardon him, but give him an annual pension of 500 pounds! That Irish charm… ~__^ Seeing the Crown Jewels makes Angel want to go to the diamond farm in Arkansas and mine for DIAMONDS. The largest diamond, Cullodan, ever found was in South Africa and was cut into 9 separate diamonds. The first three cuts are the biggest, and the second cut was presented from the Government of Transvaal to the King of England. It is now mounted on a lavish gold specter.
We spent a good five hours in the Tower and could have spent at least two more. But since we had bought the Grace Kelly exhibit tickets for today, we had to leave in order to be at the exhibit at the time specified on our ticket. The Tower Bridge, seen on the way to V&A:
The Grace Kelly exhibit highlights her career and how fashion played an integral part in cultivating her image.
Her Oscar gown:
She was photographed holding a large Hermes bag on at least three separate occasions, and although this bag had been sold in retail since the 1930s, she made the bag famous and it is now called the “Kelly” bag:
Grace Kelly modeled this dress for McCall’s Patterns:
She soon after had a photo shoot with her boyfriend, Prince Rainier. The hotel power went out and she couldn’t iron the dress she had planned to wear and this was the only dress in her wardrobe that wasn’t crinkled. The exhibit explains that while Grace Kelly is known for her simple, understated outfits, she also wore outfits that any homemaker could sew.
She valued quality in clothing, and often bought classy outfits that could be worn year after year or, in her case, event after event.
We browsed some other exhibits we didn’t see yesterday, and one exhibit displayed Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook:
He wrote backwards, and then reversed the notebook so he could draw on them (so when you look at the notebook, his pictures are upside-down). There was a touch-screen next to the notebook, as the museum has 3 of his notebooks and you can touch the screen to find out what he wrote on which notebook. He never meant for anybody to read his notebooks, so they are more scribblings, but it’s amazing how many things he was curious about and actually carried out experiments to find if his hypothesis was true or not.
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