Tower of Easter

One of the things I do when I can't think of a title for a blog entry is replace one word with another which allows for more coverage of what happened that day, kind of like the Before and After puzzles on Wheel of Fortune but not really. This title is no exception. My mom and I went to the Tower of London on Easter. Thus the Tower of Easter. It doesn't really make sense but that's something you all will just have to deal with.

Since it was Sunday and I just about always go to church on Sunday, that's what I did in the morning. My Mom was maybe going to meet me and go with but we decided the night before that if she wasn't there before 9:30, I should just go on my own. She didn't show up so that's what I did. The walk to church was FREEZING. It was soooo windy and it was snowing! Snowing, on Easter! Crazy. The service was not that different from any other one (no special things, like the play on Palm Sunday). The pastor did his homily with the children sitting up front which was nice. There were so many kids there! Even more than usual I mean.

The best part of the mass by far was the little boy who sat in front of me. He reminded me SO MUCH of Sam. Not as cute but pretty darn close. He would stand up on his dad's lap and his dad would mak the biggest grin. While he leaned over their shoulder, I we sounds and he would break out intoould do peek-a-boo with my song book. It made my heart hurt a little to think of how long it had and has been since I saw Sam and Josh and Emily. At the same time, it seemed a little like an Easter gift from the Big Guy Upstairs that I got to see this child who was so much like Sam throughout the mass. That's why I don't really remember much else about what happened, I was too busy paying attention to the boy. After the mass, I told them how cute their baby was and about Sam. They said their son was 11 months old so a little older but still close.

The snow stopped while I walked back. I met up with my mom who apparently had an adventure of her own. She took the bus from her hotel to the Tate Britain but got a little off track along the way. That is totally understandable. London can be really confusing sometimes. Anyway, we met up and went to the Tower of London (picture 1). We took the Tube but had to wait in line to buy tickets unfortunately. It was cold but we survived. The Tower of London is a big tourist attraction (or trap, depending on your point of view). It all started with the White Tower which was a Norman tower built in 1097 and is 90 ft. tall. From there the complex get expanded more and more throughout the centuries until its current size. The Tower is known best of all as a place where lots of famous people have died. Most people were publicly executed on Tower Hill, outside the Tower walls in front of enormous crowds. The Tower is also known for holding the Crown Jewels.

So we walked in and went on a "Beefeater" tour. The "Beefeaters" are actually called Yeoman Warders and no one really knows why they are called that. They have lived and protect the Tower of London for many centuries. Now, instead of protecting the complex, they give very entertaining tours of it (picture 2). We started the tour talking about one of the 20 towers in the complex. We walked along and passed my the Traitor's Gate which was a gate that leads to the River Thames. Accused people would pass through the gate and into the Tower of London on their way to be executed or held there. We walked by and listened to the Beefeater talk about the White Tower. Just outside the tower are the Ravens of the Tower (picture 3). Legend has it that if the Ravens ever leave the Tower, the White Tower, the monarchy and all of the UK will fall. Needless to say, there is a cage. There were so many people following along on the tour that it was hard to hear him sometimes and kind of uncomfortable. It was only that busy because it was Easter and everyone was on holiday. Our next stop was the Tower Green which was the private execution area (picture 4). Only seven people were killed here, including Lady Jane Grey and Anne Boleyn, two of the wives of Henry VIII. Then we went into the Chapel of St. John which has quite a few famous people buried in it. That's where the tour ended.

After the tour we walked around and found the end of the line for viewing the Crown Jewels. It was so long. We had to wait for about 20 minutes or more, I can't remember. Then once inside, we had to shuffle around people to actually see anything. The Crown Jewels were really amazing though. The Imperial State Crown has over 2,800 diamonds and 273 pearls among other precious gems on it. The State Sword is one of if not the most expensive sword in the world. There are many other jewels and things like the Orb (symbolizing the power of Christ the Redeemer) and the Sceptre with the Cross which has the largest cut diamond in the world, 530-carat, in the middle of it. All the opulence and wealth kind of made me feel bad and that it was kind of a waste but what do I know. At least it looks cool I guess. I should mention that all of the jewels are super important in the coronation ceremony of a new monarch and are worn when the Queen opens Parliament each year. Lots of tradition and history involved in them.

After the Jewel House, we walked through the White Tower which has a bunch of exhibitions on armor and weaponry. This is because the White Tower served as an armory for about 700 years or more. The highlight of the whole collection of pikes, shotguns, muskets, swords, and armor (for horses and people) is the armor for Henry VIII. The armor is very nice looking but there might have been a little bit of exaggeration on a certain part of the armor (picture 5). From there we walked around part of the walls and into a room where they kept some of the old crowns (they make new ones when the stones start to fall out of the old ones). There was a kid in there that kept whistling the same tune over and over and over and over again. I seriously wanted to punch him in the throat. I hate people sometimes. We left there and walked around the inside some more. Finally the sun made an appearance. The White Tower looked awesome with the blue sky and white clouds (picture 7). We took some pictures of us with the Tower Bridge in the background (picture 8 and 9). We walked through one of the buildings that is actually inside the walls and it had windows over looking Tower Bridge (picture 10). After that we decided to leave.

We walked along the River Thames so that Mom could see some the South Bank sites from across the river. Plus it was still sunny and I wanted to savor it while we could. We walked until we got to St. Paul's Cathedral which we walked in a little bit (there was a service going on so it was free to go in but we couldn't walk in very far). Still just as spectacular as before. From there, we took the bus back and stopped at Tesco on the way. We got a ham sandwich, some pasta salad, and carrots sticks for our Easter Dinner. We ate it in the basement while we called people back home to wish them a Happy Easter (picture 11). It was a very different kind of Easter Dinner than I am used to but I still liked it. Better than spending it alone anyway. I had a very memorable Easter and couldn't wait to get ready to leave for Spain. That's all for today!

Happy Easter!