spring
Before this trip I had visited England once before, when I was in fourth grade with my parents. I don’t remember much from the trip except that I was extremely bored at the Changing of the Guard, and that I absolutely loved the Tower of London. I wanted to go back to see the Tower on this trip, but it is prohibitively expensive—twelve pounds for a student admission! Hannah’s mother, though, told her that if she only saw one thing in London it had to be the Tower of London, so in the interest of being a good host I splurged and we went to the Tower together.
The Tower was every bit as fun as I remembered. It’s a twelfth century fort that was converted into a prison and has hosted some of England’s most famous prisoners, including Anne Bolyn and her daughter Queen Elizabeth (Ann lost her head in the tower, Elizabeth was a little more lucky). We had a really fun guide. He was dressed in the appropriate Beefeater regalia and was really campy. He got a kick out of putting on a show, pretending to be bloodthirsty and relishing the gory details of the executions and tortures that he described. At least I think he was pretending. Any way, I learned a lot of interesting and gruesome facts. Like for instance, I knew that the Tower of London was associated with ravens, and the legend has it that if the ravens that live at the Tower of London were ever to leave the tower would fall down. What I didn’t know was how the ravens got there. Apparently, after prisoners were executed their heads were put on pikes, and the ravens would come to feast on the flesh of the dead prisoners. Not the most appetizing thought.
No trip to the Tower would be complete without a visit to the crown jewels, which are kept under strict lock and key. There’s a ceremony to lock them in every night, which we missed, but we got to see the collection, which was fun. I liked seeing Queen Victoria’s small jewel crown, the one that she wears over her veil in all of her portraits. It’s surprisingly small in real life; it could easily have fit in the palm of my hand. Seeing the crowns in general was a bit of a drag. They’re so eager to keep the line moving that the only way to see the jewels is to stand on a moving sidewalk that takes you past the crowns so that you can’t stop to gawk. It makes you feel like you’re at the airport. I did like the non-moving sidewalk portion of the crown jewels, though. My favorite part was seeing the coronation dinnerware. I was just really amused by the fact that there’s a set of dishes that goes with being crowned ruler of Britain. They were all shiny gold with elaborate engravings on them. I liked the huge wine basin that was easily the size of a Jacuzzi, and came with a long spoon to ladle out the wine.
Other highlights of the Tower included a trip to the Bloody Tower, which housed the two princes who disappeared under the watch of Richard the III (though there is no conclusive evidence that he was implicated in the murders, it was just really convenient for him that they were found dead), and a visit to the White Tower, the oldest building at the Tower of London, which now houses the Tower armory. I like seeing the suits of armor that are my height (I’m five two in my stocking feet), and thinking I could’ve totally beat up many of the knights from that period. They also had a great exhibit on Guy Fawkes at the White Tower, who was kept and tortured there before his public execution. They had a fun video on what would have happened if the gunpowder plot had succeeded, which was done as a mock newscast. Hokey, sure, but fun.
It was a beautiful day when we left, and we walked back over Tower Bridge. I remembered the last time I had walked over that bridge it was cold and gray, but now the sun was shining and there was little more than a light breeze. Maybe, just maybe, spring was finally here.
