Sparkles at the Tower of London

The building that  houses the Crown Jewels

I'm not sure that this little fellow
will scare would be thieves away

A friendly Yoeman Warder (Beefeater). All retired from the armed forces
with at least 22yrs of service and the long service - good conduct medal.
Their costume is a Tudor design, this is not
their dress costume which has an Elizabethean ruff.
They act as guards, tour guides and one is the Ravenmaster! 

We drove down to London to see the Queen's Jewels. M found Minories council parking station only a block away from the Tower of London that wasn't going to cost a King's ransom. We got there just too late to see the Yoeman Warders performing the ceremony to unlock the gates for the day and decided not to stay for the closing at 5:30.

Edward I's bedroom in the Medieval Tower

The Crown Jewels are housed in the Waterloo barracks, in transparent boxes with a travelater running past the main collection, guards, cameras and pressure alarms no doubt - just like the Johnny English film suggests. Before this they were kept in a safe and guarded by the 'Keeper of the Crown Jewels' in a refurbished section of the Medieval Palace. In 1671 a thrill seeker called Thomas Blunt and his gang tried to steal the jewels after tying up the poor guard and stuffing a piece of wood in his mouth but luckily his son returned from his travels unexpectedly and raised the alarm. You would think these reckless thieves would have been hung drawn and quartered for their treason but Charles II pardoned them.

Not keen for a little needlework ladies?
A window bay in the Medieval throne room

Imperial Crown

CullinanI Diamond in scepter

 The Crown Jewels sparkle with brilliant stones collected from through out  the colonies. The largest top quality cut diamond in the world is the Star of Africa (Cullian I) which is set in the scepter with the cross (this apparently is to symbolise Christian rule), held by the Queen in the photo above from http://www.royal.gov.uk  The orb represents wordly power, it is a hollow golden sphere made for the coronation of Charles II. After Charles I's beheading, Oliver Cromwell had the royal jewels dismantled, sold off and melted down for coins. When the monarchy was restored after 11 years of parliamentary rule, many of the historically precious gems were sold back to the nation and Charles II had them made into the Coronation collection that have been used ever since.

The Imperial Crown has the Black Prince's Ruby at the front. Prince Edward (saved Heath Ledger's character in 'A Knight's Tale') took this in 1367 as payment for helping Don Pedro of Seville put down a civil uprising in Spain. It was originally owned by the Moorish Prince of Granada whom Don Pedro killed during the expulsion of the Jews and Moors from the Iberian peninsula. The Black Prince died a year before his father from an intestinal parasite and became the first ever Prince of Wales not to become King. Below the egg sized red gem is Cullinan II, another huge diamond from Africa. At the back of the crown is the Stuart Sapphire which was taken from the King of Scots in 1296 by Edward I when he also took the Stone of Scone, the place Scottish Kings are crowned. Hanging at the apex of the crossbars are four huge tear drop pearls. Two of these were earrings worn by Elizabeth I. The Imperial Crown celebrates the longest surviving monarchy in the world.

Willow would have loved to pose against this impressive collection of sparkles but the Yoeman guards jumped on anybody with a camera! We had to make do with a beaded lion rampant and unicorn to decorate the Christmas tree that were for sale in the Jewel House shop.

See the original paintings by Ivan Lapper at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings

The Tower of London has so many layers of history from the Romans till today. There are towers with torture devices though it would seem that torture wasn't often used in England. One exception is in the uncovering of treasonous plots. We read about one woman who was racked so much she couldn't walk to her own stake to be burnt. Anne Askew was one of the earliest English poets, she had to marry William Kyme because her older sister died just before the wedding but rebelled by refusing to take his surname. She was the first English woman to demand a divorce from her husband and the only woman to be tortured and executed at the Tower . The jailers were trying to get names of reformation extremists from her - Henry VIII didn't want things getting too out of hand, he liked the control and fear of the old church. Luckily for Katherine Parr, Henry's last wife and sympathetic to Anne's teachings,  Anne did not say a word.

There are towers where the aristocracy were imprisoned. Sir Walter Raleigh was locked up by James I because he was accused of spying for the Spanish, while here he wrote the Greek and Roman installment of 'The History of the World' (A copy of this very fat book is there to be seen).  The conditions weren't too bad though, his wife was allowed to visit and his second son conceived. They had both been in the Tower before but kept separated by the jealous Queen for getting married without her permission.

The White Tower has the original Norman Chapel, where William the Conqueror would have worshiped, restored.  It was an amazing feeling to be looking at masonry with simple but beautiful carvings that were nearly 1000 years old. The armory display is also here. The Duke of Wellington put his hand to the collection and display of military stuff after his success at Waterloo. The wooden horses carved to have examples of armour sitting on them are amazing. HenryVIII's armor is there from when he was a young and lithe sportsman. One set from Italy is covered with double headed dragons wearing crowns and was thought to be too intricate to be real until just recently. The canons, guns and hands on activities would thrill most young boys. Petal preferred the shop at the end that stocked a large variety of rock candy sticks.

Medieval Tower across the Raven run

Ghostly Willow in the Tower

M not moving fast enough along the
battlements above Traitors gate

A special wooden platform for fighting, perhaps Medieval
armies always attacked from NNE.  A 21st C tower behind

Royal residence built for Anne Boleyn
The Shard with the highest viewing
platform in London at 72 stories.

Yeoman residences - between the fighting platform
and the approach to Tower Bridge.

Morning tea - almond slice, Victoria sponge
Jam tart, scones, choc cookie with teas and
Hot Chocs. M keeping an eye out for arrows

Getting up and down the Towers

A tight squeeze in places

A treasure hunt for the most
rebellious carved prisoner calligraphy

The White Tower

Very few people were executed within the walls of the Tower
Anne Boleyn was executed here with a French sword, her
daughter Elizabeth was  2.5yrs old and declared illegitimate.

An archers peep

Traitors Gate - VIPs to be tried for treason entered here by boat
from the Thames.  Edward I palace rooms above, later where the guard
of the crown jewels and his family lived with the safe.

We left the Tower of London and walked across the Tower bridge.  Thanks to many children's book illustrators who used this bridge as a model for the nursery rhyme 'London Bridge is falling down', many people think it is London bridge which is actually one further up the river. It was designed so that pedestrians could cross the river even when the bridge was up for boats to pass. There are stair cases (300 stairs in each) in both towers and a walkway across the top between them. This practical design wasn't popular as most chose to wait for the bridge to lower and walk across.

Gold topped internal staircase

The TOWER Bridge

The Tower of London from across the Thames

We had lunch at a bistro beside the river so M could overlook the HMS Belfast anchored as a naval museum. After our meals had been served we were stunned to silence as the people at the table behind me loudly announced, "Jeez, you got a good city here mate, reminds me of Melbourne mate." When the waiter asked for their drink order we heard "VB or any other Aussie beer thanks mate". Soon there was talk of visiting 'Brisie' and when the waiter inquired if all was well with their meals he was treated to a "Sweet mate". As we rose to leave I expected to see a couple of blokes in boardies but no - pinstriped suit pants and tie less business shirts clothed those words which I truly have always thought were just the stuff of comedy.  Willow has been caught out at school with the "Yeah - nah." expression and the internationals just can't get their heads around sarcasm. I hear myself saying gidday and Petal's friends just call her the genius from Oz because she does her homework every night - she is beginning to realise that perhaps it is an option - help!

A baby Gherkin? - The pickle?
I wondered if this was the trial
for the 30 St Mary Axe building
(real name of the Gherkin) by
the architectural firm Foster and Partners

Booking Macbeth at the Globe - maybe a day off school!

St Peters across the Thames
from the Tate Modern

 Walking down the Thames there are so many new buildings mixed in with the very old.  Shops and eateries everywhere. M was keen for Petal to be able to have a look through the Tate Modern but Willow protested because she hadn't been able to mentally prepare herself for a gallery afternoon. We walked across the footbridge that used to swing until they attached stabilisers, the Millennium bridge, know world wide by Potter fans from the opening scenes of The Half Blood Prince. The side of St Paul's Cathedral sits right at the end, past a very fancy Salvation army headquarters.

As we stood at the crossing waiting for the walk sign a couple of cyclists zoomed through, a guy jay walking almost got collected and then the walk sign lit up and an older guy deliberately stepped in front of the second cyclist and shouldered him.  The cyclist regained his balance and swore at the old guy who was putting on a good display of righteous anger. A couple of tipsy Londoners ran at the cyclist, the woman swinging her hand bag with wild abandon.  They stood either side of the poor Kiwi(he had an All Black jumper on - great win against the Boks to keep them No.1) on his hired Barclay's bike and started shaking him around.  We had crossed the road by now and by the time a couple of double deckers had driven past he had gotten himself free. I must say I was considering going to assist my countryman if things were still going on because my bag was big and full of raincoats, guidebooks and souvenirs so could have done some proper damage!

After deciding not to pay 18GBP each to walk around inside Christopher Wren's amazing building we walked back out and caught a cab back to the Tower, bought some hot caramel peanuts and went back to the car.  It was Charlie's first ever day being left outside with us away all day so we wanted to be before dark.

Watch out for the Paparazzi - the doors automatically
locked when the cab stopped at lights.

So where is the red carpet?

 Just Read: More Than This by Patrick Ness Walker Books 2013
Patrick Ness has won every major prize in children's fiction and the Carnegie Medal twice. This novel tackles isolation v intimacy in a very Matrixesque plot whose main character sounds so real that you feel you are in conversation with him. Pain, hope, despair and purpose for being are shuffled around with skill and a few confronting moments for parents and teens (suicide). The burdens of intelligence, guilt, grief and betrayal are balanced with trust and understanding of what is important and of purpose.

"Here is the boy, drowning .... The sudden gasping horror of knowing this makes him panic even more." p9,10 (they are the first 2 pages of chapter one -not sure why they're numbered this way)

"I'm going to be killed, he thinks, by a PIG. In Hell. The thought was so stupidly outrageous, so insanely anfry-making, that he almost misses the chance to save himself."  p127

"... he thinks that what is forever certain is that there is always more. Always.....Love and care have all kinds of different faces, and within them, there's room for understanding, and for forgiveness, and for more." p479  Commas before 'and' really annoy me but it seems to be a definite trend.