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. |
![](images/London07_twr_booth.jpg) ![](images/London07_twr_window.jpg) ![](images/London07_twr_fireplace.jpg) |
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!
|
![](images/London14_twr_sceptres.jpg) 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. |