Some Pictures from my First Trip to London pt.2

Continuing with this I will show you some of the picks I got from the Tower of London. Sadly no pictures were allowed to be taken of the Crown Jewels, finest of all the things the UK ever took from elsewhere in the world to show who's navy was the biggest.

This is the front gate to the Tower of London. In case you don't know what it is for, you walk thru it to get into the Tower's walls. It is just that easy.

This is the Beefeater Barney a Marine who was full of personality and obviously skilled at giving vivid descriptions of the Tower. If you ever get the chance do get a tour with one of these guys, they have all served in the military, live in the Tower, and know a huge amount about the place, and their guide services are free.

This is the space between the outer and first wall. This alley used to be the mint if London where coins would be struck renaissance fair style, Issac Newton, while minister of the Treasury had an apartment in the Tower of London afforded by his office to over see this function.

This is the Tower of London proper, the original structure for which the rest of the walled in area is named. It has been home to many a treason plotter, and unfortunate potential heir. There are a lot of bones buried around this place. Especially under the chapel. See after you were beheaded, they would bury you under the floor of the church so you could feel the weight of the house of god on you forever, rather poetic.

This is one of the administrative buildings of the Tower. honestly every damn thing along the Thames looks nice and I could have spent a lot of time taking any number of pictures, this is just one that happened to be inside the walls of the Tower and so it got priority.

I believe this was the gift shop. See what I said about everything looking important?

Underneath the clock is the entrance to where they keep the crown jewels. Since I only had an hour left before closing I chose to look at them rather than tour the Tower proper, so I got to see the spoils, but not the atrocity of Divine Right Monarchy. Next Trip entry will be in Istanbul.

Some Pictures from my First Trip to London pt.1

Okay, so for the first time I will start posting some of the pictures I took while studying abroad. These will mostly just be scene shots, those with people in them will be on Facebook for people to tag and enjoy. Since I was by myself for the first leg of my trip more will be over here than over there initially though.

This first picture is of the Tower of London Exterior, I have two shots that if edited together would give me the whole thing, but I don't have the patience for that sort of thing. This is the Roman who built the London Wall. People forget that London was part of Rome and has a history that really stretches back through the civilized world.

A close up of his breast plate.

The Wall itself.

And the information about the wall. Goody, education!

Above is all that remains of a centuries old Gate House to London from the East.

These are representations of some of the animals that used to be kept in the tower of London. Yes, it apparently had a zoo portion. Who knew? Or am I maybe just making things up? Did you go to London?

This is a memorial for the Navy, as you can read in the next picture.

Tomorrow I will put up some pics from inside the Tower of London and maybe some other stuff.