The Tower of London

The Tower of London

 

Entrance to the Tower of London

Had a great day at the Tower of London. Think I saw nearly  everything there was to see so was glad to sit down at the end, but really enjoyed the history of it all.

Started with the Beefeater tour - they're very colourful and give you a living history with lots of colourful stories...

Started with the Traitors Gate

... where people who were to be executed were brought to the  Tower of London via the River Thames...

Next we went to where Anne Boleyn was executed.... you had to be special to be executed within the Tower of London... the ordinary executions were held on Tower Hill, and the heads of those executed here were flaunted on Tower Bridge..

Place where Anne Boleyn was executed

Place where Anne Boleyn was executed

It's hard to believe this is the actual place where history has taken place...

Then we were taken to the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula. They were really strict about not taking photos in there as it is a Royal Chapel and apparently the Queen was in it just last week.

But he told us the story about where all the "traitors" were buried, including Anne Boleyn  and showed us the list of people who were buried there including Catherine Howard  - Henry VIII's wife number 5.

Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula

Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula

There's so much I could say about my day there... I spent about 4 hours just wandering around...

Will just add some of the highlights below..

Henry VIIIs armour

Kings' heads- Henry VIII in middle

Norman toilet!

Norman toilet!

Very English!

White Tower

One thing a few people had asked me to look out for was the poppy project. A poppy is being made for each soldier that died in the Great War... it looks fantastic but again reminds us all of how many people died in that war..

So that was it for a big day out.. bit weary tonight...  but very glad to have had the opportunity to experience so much English history.