London: day 4

Today was iconic London landmarks day. First stop: Trafalgar Square. [Note, again, the gorgeous weather.]

We started off (after the obligatory, and entertaining, transportation) with a stroll around this wonderful urban space, skipping going inside anywhere, like the National Gallery in the background above...

...or the musically famous St. Martin in the Fields (maybe once it was in the fields?).

But the lions, Admiral Nelson, and all the steps and ramps, provided ample entertainment for our kid-centric morning.

Especially since we had more on our schedule and had to find a place for lunch. We hit upon another fantastic food court, 7 Dials Market in Covent Garden, to fill that need. Which it did, admirably [my choice of Nigerian cuisine, in honor of favorite fake soccer player Sam Obisanya, was particularly tasty].

The kids all found food to their liking, too...

...although one of our party found the whole affair rather exhausting...

Continuing on though the iconic Covent Garden, we happened upon a top-notch string quartet taking advantage of the main court's acoustics, and had to stop for a listen:

Then on to the main attraction of the day:

The grandchildren who've been studying up on their English history were particularly interested in seeing where all those people got beheaded. But the whole grounds are pretty entertaining, as well as some of the exhibits...

note the West Ham gear

And of course the grounds and buildings offer so many photo opps! Thanks to Henry for these well-composed shots:

White Tower through an arch

Crown Jewels tower from inside the White

However, partly since I'd seen it all before, partly because the Beefeaters are just a little too cheesy, partly because it was really hot (probably not more than 80° but it felt hotter), and partly because I was just about running on tourist fumes by this point in the vacation—well, I think I've seen enough of the Tower. But the kids enjoyed it.

Part-rest-day coming up next! And it was much needed. But I'll still have some stuff to show you.

Remembrance

I think I will always remember It comes to mind especially easily this year, since there is so much commemoration of the Great War's centenary.

This amazing memorial at the Tower of London surely made me wish I was back there more than anything I can remember.

What a wonderful, poignant, and moving tribute! I so wish I could have seen this in person.

We are doing a lot of World War I remembrance on our campus, too, though. Last week there was an interesting series of panel discussions on the War and literature, and students are being encouraged to read about the war through our community reading project. 

Plus, we now have a collection of patriotic posters on display in the Library, borrowed from our local public library's special collections:

Stop for a moment at 11:11 today and remember not only this horrible conflict (from which there are now no surviving veterans) but of the much too many that came after it, and those who fought for us in them. 

Favorite Fotos: Tower of London

I thought I'd make the next few blogs collections of photos of some of the most famous London landmarks, photos that I wasn't able to use in the original blog posts describing my visits to them. Starting with the Tower of London.

The iconic landmark at the left is the Tower Bridge, which the uninitiated (including myself, at one time) think is part of the Tower where the Crown Jewels are and where the little princes were. When, in fact, it's a much later (Victorian) construction that is called the Tower Bridge simply because of where it's located.

But it certainly is a gorgeous piece of civil engineering, and I found that whenever I was in its vicinity I felt compelled to take picture after picture of it. The one at the right happened to be taken during our visit to the Tower itself, as was the one below, where you can see one of the bridge's lovely Victorian towers looming over the medieval Tower's walls. Separated by 500 or 600 years in their construction, they still do seem to go together rather harmoniously, don't you think?


The Tower complex itself is a fascinating conglomeration of towers, walls, and separate buildings. Here's some of the walls, turrets and battlements, where England's government was situated long ago, contrasted with the modern seat of London's government, across the river.


One of the most compelling features of the place, I thought, was those intriguing slit windows, of which I'm finding that I took many pictures. Here's one of my favorites:


Maybe thinking about being an archer firing on enemies through the slits fired my imagination. Or, perhaps, I just thought they were attractive architectural features. Which they certainly are, I hope you agree.

The oldest structure in the complex, the White Tower, was begun by William the Conqueror himself. Its interior is primarily a museum now, but you can still get glimpses of what life was like there as a royal residence, a long, long, long time ago. It's a lovely building from the outside, too, currently undergoing something of a facelift, which precluded photos showing the entire structure. On the right is a close-up of one of its signature corner towers, and a bit more of one of the walls below:

You can really feel the age of place inside, especially here in the chapel:


And I'll close with this somewhat panoramic view of part of the complex, which gives you a good idea of the ratio of buildings to open space that exists within the Tower walls (and another look at that inescapable bridge):


Tomorrow: St. Paul's.

To the Tower!

This is what the south wall of the Tower of London looked like early last month when we strolled by. Most of those gorgeous red leaves are gone now, but I did spy one peeping through one of those really cool slit-windows. And, yes, this time I saw it from the inside.

We had a fun few hours listening to the cheesy (but still fairly informative) Beefeater tour that introduces you to the place, then exploring on our own. How exciting to be right where so much English history happened, and in buildings that have stood for so many (try 800 or so!) years.

Since it's right smack dab in the middle of super-urban 21st century London, there are many opportunities to cogitate on the contrast of old and new. Here is the super-slick London City Hall across the Thames, as seen through a Norman window. Or how about this hodge-podge of modern hotel, Victorian Tower Bridge, and 13th century ramparts?

The interior spaces of the buildings are as fascinating as the exterior is imposing, especially in the White Tower, not of Echthelion (sorry, another LOTR reference is irresistable), but of William the Conqueror and his progeny. Most of it is a sort of weapons museum, which is interesting, although a bit depressing as you see all the different ways people have developed for killing each other over the years. Here is an artfully-arranged column of pistols. We had learned at the Museum of London that it was very fortunate the great fire of 1666 stopped short of the Tower, as it was a huge gunpowder repository at the time. They had to keep the powder for all those pistols somewhere, I suppose.

What was even more interesting, I thought, were the little spaces that told you it was once, very, very, long ago, a residence. Here is a Norman loo—and we think indoor toilets are a relatively recent invention!

The most haunting aspect of the interiors of the other towers, though, were the inscriptions left behind by some of the many, many people imprisoned here over the ages. Some of the rooms that were very popular prison sites displayed scores of these sometimes quite elaborate graffiti-like mementos. Just think about how long you'd have to have been imprisoned here to be able to cut this much rock away!


Overall, we felt that touring the Tower was a worthwhile experience, and one that visitors to London really have to have, even though we also thought it was a bit over-priced. The early darkness of November cut short our exploring time a bit, but we did end up getting to see the Crown Jewels (no photos permitted in there, sorry) just before closing, which was perfect as the crowds had already departed. We weren't prepared to swap tower-exploring time for time spent in line waiting to see the Jewels. If you feel the same way, I'd recommend leaving them for last.

Next up: Scotland!