Tower of London

Another wonderful and long day full of as much sightseeing as our 4 feet could handle. We woke up early and got out of the hotel as quick as we could. Our first stop was the Tower of London. A bit pricey admission almost made us reconsider going inside. We hemmed and hawed for a moment before just going ahead with our plans. Thank goodness we did. It was an amazing tour inside the old city walls.


The Tower of London first was a palace and was later used as a jail, and now hold the crown jewels. I didn’t think I really cared about seeing the crown jewels, but I have to admit, I was totally blown away by them. Even Bill thought they were impressive. There was a diamond the size of my fist. It looked like glass. It was hard to fathom that anything that giant was a treasured stone. The crowns adorned with their fur and rubies and emeralds and sapphires and diamonds and gold were very amazing. It also made me realize how incredibly useless those things are and how many people have wasted or lost their life in pursuit of them.

We didn’t want to walk around with a giant tour group on a yeoman’s tour. (We had definitely had our fill of big groups.) We simply wandered from room to room to see the sights and read the signs. Most rooms were not furnished with period furnishing, but one bedroom was sparsely furnished to show what it may have looked like. A number of the rooms were down to the timbers and some of the stone rooms of the tower still have graffiti from famous (and infamous) prisoners that were housed there.

There were a number of places where taking photos was not permitted. The crown jewels being one of those places unfortunately. Another one of those places was inside a room with the names of royals and their crests around the room. I am really good at following rules, but this was one that had to be broken for our William IV, who was very excited to find out he has a royal name. Bill pulled out his phone and made like he was making a call and snapped this one just for William off of the front of his iphone. Well done for not being able to see what he was shooting!


We spent at least 3 hours wandering and enjoying soaking in all the history. It still is overwhelming to think back to how many people have wandered those very halls and the impact they had on world history. At times it felt like a theme park and I had to keep reminding myself this was not the “disney” or “vegas” version, it was the real deal. I wanted to capture and savor every moment.