This morning the girls and Dad caught the tube to the Tower Hill station and then walked down the hill to the waterfront where we could get a good view of the Tower Bridge. Ever since he was a little boy, Dad had thought this bridge was called the London Bridge and it was this bridge mentioned in the nursery rhyme - but he was wrong. The London Bridge is a little further along the Thames.
Just next to the Tower Bridge is the Tower of London. It is another castle which is a lot smaller the Windsor Castle but still very impressive. It was interesting to learn that past Kings had collected a lot of exotic animals and kept them inside the castle grounds. In some places you can see bricked areas which may have been used for animal enclosures. Apparently at one time there were lions, tigers, elephants and even a polar bear living inside the castle walls.
We saw most of the Crown Jewels which had been made since English Civil War. We were lucky Queen Elizabeth II's crown was there because she had worn it the previous day at the opening of parliament. We were not allowed to take any photos of the crown jewels, not even of the old rickety boxes that were built long ago to keep them in.
It was really cold the day we went to the Tower of London and there were long lines to get into each building so the girls quickly lost interest in going to see the gallows or places where people were executed. We did go and look at the exhibition about how the money was made and all the different types of weapons the royal soldiers have used over the centuries.
No comments:
Post a Comment