Tower of London

For the next month the family is in England as the start of a four month Europe “holiday”. We were in Southampton for a few days, before moving on to London. One of the first things, and also one of my favorite things we did in London was visit the Tower of London. We actually visited the tower twice. The first night we went there and saw the ceremony of the locking up of the tower. We had originally intended to go as a family, but Dad was very tired so only Mom, Aleah and I went. The second day everyone came and we saw the rest of the tower.

The locking up of the tower happens quite late, but even so, by the time we got there quite a crowd had assembled. Fortunately it didn’t cause any issues and I greatly enjoyed the ceremony. The first part wasn’t actually even a part of the ceremony, and mostly consisted of the yeoman warder or beefeater, leading us around and telling us about the tower’s history. I suppose people who didn’t know about it would be interested, but Mom has been reading us a huge book of English history, so we already knew almost everything he talked about. Once that was done he lead us over to a large gate and gave a brief summary of what was about to happen. Most of it wasn’t super cool, but I found the part where a guard, you know, one of the ones in the tall fuzzy hats, just totally loses his composure and yells “WHO GOES THERE!!!” After that the guard and the key bearer have a short rapport before the key bearer continues on his way and finishes the ceremony.

I found the second day at the Tower of London much more interesting than the previous night. The main reason was that everything was open, so everything that was accessible to the public was able to be viewed by us, unlike the key ceremony, where we only got to see a few gates and the walls. The absolute first thing we did when we got inside the tower was go to the Crown Jewels, because we heard that the line to see them gets very long very fast. The jewels were somewhat interesting to me, but not really the highlight of the visit, like I know they are for many people. I personally found the White Tower, the original fortification built by William the Bastard/Conquerer. Inside was a large collection of medieval weapons and armor, much of it from Henry VIII, although they had older and newer pieces. I particularly liked the various guns combined with melee weapons that they had.

The Tower of London was a very enjoyable experience, and definitely a must do for anyone visiting London. Although I was not enamored with it, the locking up of the tower was interesting and a fun way to spend the evening, and the tower during the day was even more enjoyable. From a royal palace, to a prison for high profile criminals, the Tower of London has a long and exciting history, which makes it probably my favorite thing we did while in London, and if you go I’m sure you’ll agree.