This picture is from a postcard.  It's the aerial view of the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge on the Thames River.  The Tower of London was built in 1066 during the Norman invasion of Britain.  One bit of trivia:  Sir Thomas More was beheaded here by King Henry VIII in 1535.

 This picture shows an old Roman wall ("Londinium" was built by the Romans), an English wall with archways built in the 1100's, and the Tower Bridge in the background, built in the 1800's.

Many who come to the Tower of London often wait a long time to see the roadway raised to let ships pass.  It can be raised in under 2 minutes.  The Bridge was built between 1886 and 1894. One of our friendly costumed hosts in the Tower of London.
(left) One interesting thing about the Tower is that there is now a tennis court in the moat.  (right) Inside are some simple but beautiful stained glass windows in meeting rooms.
This is St. John's Chapel, located inside the Tower of London.   We liked its simple, fairly unadorned style.   John enjoyed seeing the British guards.  In fact, he can do imitations of their marching.  (Is he pretending to hold a bayonet here?)  This guard was standing outside the Crown Jewel display.  It is amazing how much wealth Britain's royal family have.
Here's a few examples of that royal wealth:  The Imperial State Crown was made for George VI in 1937and altered for Elizabeth II in 1953.  It has 2,868 diamonds, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, 5 rubies, and 273 pearls!   Here are the orbs and sceptres representing sovereign rule. 
The White Tower is the oldest medieval building in the Tower of London.  It was put up in approximately 1078 by William the Conqueror.  It was originally a fortress and an accommodation for the king himself.  

 

 

Now it is a museum of British military weapons, like this gun display.  It also had swords, knights' armor, horses' armor, cannons, etc.

"Wow, that thing is big!"  Here's a large, old cannon, with John nearby as a point of comparison. Another view of the interior of the Tower of London.
That afternoon, we visited the Tate Britain Museum.  The Museum houses a collection of works by British artists.  Most of our exposure to art has not included British artists, so we were very pleasantly surprised to walk through this museum.   "Hmmmm...what happens if I pull this?..."

There was a nice flower garden just outside the Tate Britain that drew John's attention

We ate our lunch on a bench in the small garden area. The flower garden where John pulled the flower.  The side of the Tate Britain is in the background.
Here are two paintings by John Martin (1789-1854) that Mako liked, pulled from the Tate Britain website.    Martin painted vivid biblical scenes like The Last Judgment (left) and The Plains of Heaven (right).  These were his last works before his death.  The former is perhaps a bit strict in its literalism to Revelation, but the latter makes the new creation very attractive.

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