Day three: Friday 30th December, 2016: Concrete paths, cobblestone pathways, blocks and blocks of hard non-yielding concrete certainly do not help your body! Yes- I admit, my feet and back are extremely sore. London is full of concrete and my poor body, including my upper and lower back does not like walking on concrete all day… but when in London…I guess we do as the Londoners do! I don’t see anyone else complaining!

But today, our concrete paths took us today to an amazing icon……. The Tower of London and Tower Bridge.
No The Tower Bridge is not London Bridge…I certainly fell into that one. London bridge is simply a long wide four car bridge- over the Thames in the middle of London, but it is not the Tower bridge. The tower bridge is that icon you always see on the postcards or on the shows. Neither is it the bridge that they sing about in the nursery rhyme where London Bridge is falling down. (Oh I would hate for that to happen…tons of concrete splashing into the deep and murky waters of the Thames…) I had it all so wrong!
No, today we went to the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge!

Drawing closer to this huge expanse of stone and mortar with its many turrets and walls you can almost see the history rising from its walls. Sooo.. exciting .Turning the corner after a long 40 minute walk….( yes on concrete), there stood the Tower of London. It rose tall and strong, a mighty fortress above the mist which encircled its grey beauty. (Today was foggy by the way- what we expected from London!) But it was such an exhilarating sight to see!

This imposing structure is in the middle of London, right beside the River Thames. This grand castle with its ensemble of royal buildings from the 11th to 16th century, beckoned me as it opened its gates to bid me enter! And enter we did!
Walking through the grounds I could see and feel the procession of kings and queens on their barges making their way to this grand 900-year-old fortress built initially by William the Conqueror! I could feel the apprehension and the fear as Anne Boleyn entered the grounds to be imprisoned for treason and executed by the man she had married only three years before. Taken from her Hampton Court Palace to this cold stony stately structure where she lay her head on the stone and lost it with a two-edged sword.
As our guide informed us, the axeman was so swift that when he lifted her decapitated head to the assembled crowd, her eyes were open and her lips were still moving in prayer!

The Tower was a dynamic and changing project for many kings of England, as king after king built upon the White Tower adding walls and smaller towers (actually a total of thirteen inner and six outer) and finally encircling it with a moat whose water was delivered by the Thames River. Did you know that although Henry 8th used it as a prison, he continued to use it as a palace and entertained guests and many came with gifts of animals? These gifts were kept near the drawbridge where he built Lion Tower; a zoo where roaring beasts would greet visitors. Can you imagine that!

For me, just walking through that entrance and seeing the immense stonework and espying the venue where Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard were beheaded and where Edward and Richard the young princes were smothered in their sleep in one of the tower rooms to strengthen Richard the third claim to the throne….was all simply fascinating! So unnerving in a grim grotesque way. We crossed to look at the moat which opens to the Thames River by the Traitors gate, where many prisoners were bought in that way, on a barge, through the “traitors gate”. It is actually named that! As the cold fog and mist surrounded me, I could hear their voices praying silently and the weeping of their servants as they went to their imprisonment and eventual death. Such an eerie feeling enveloped me.

It was well worth traipsing around in a big group tour listening to our beefeater ( known as a Yeoman Warder), just for the history lesson as well as learning about their history as guards at the tower. Sitting in the church under which 1500 bodies have been exhumed and only 34 identified, including the bodies of Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard felt so real and all so very gruesome. While sitting here, I could not help thinking that we were in the ‘presence’ of Royalty….even if they were dead! Yes a grim and ghastly place to visit but it was so exciting for this amateur historian. Believe me! Oh but how I relished each room, each wall and each dark murky corner!

The Tower of London, today houses the Crown Jewels and of course we went to see them. Marc and I went straight to the queue to view the Crown Jewels having been forewarned that the queue can become VERY long as the day advances. We were early (having risen with the dark….the sun does not come up until about 7.30 am…..) and so we had to wind back and forth for only a total of 45 minutes – yes quite a short waiting time today- with the many others who intended seeing the jewel. Yes, they were spectacular and worth the 45minute wait – maybe not the wait those tourists who came later in the day had to endure! But this was worth it. By the time we left the tower after our many hours’ visit, the line queuing to see the crown jewels snaked everywhere and visitors were informed they had a two hour wait to see this sight. Happily, the Brits wait in line! Nothing unusual for them!
(I have to admit that so is the security!(Bag searches everywhere…, at every historical place we have been to, we have been searched! Just another typical day as it happens all the time!).

Oh we explored every niche of the Tower that we were allowed access to (except the torture rooms – to understand the reason why we omitted that area, read my account of experiences in a torture museum in Italy) and after four hours spent at the Tower –went on to explore history at the Tower bridge!

Well, I fell in love with this icon! The fog and mist created the atmosphere most entrancingly! To look at this stone-clad masterpiece so intrigued me. Looking towards the this icon, you were drawn into its suspense and mystery as it stood there in the swirling fog ! We walked to it, in it, up it and over it and even managed to walk on the glass bottom floor looking down at the expanse of roadway and water below us….quite a feat for me who hates looking down from any height….never mind straight down! After visiting the tourist aspects of the bridge with many others, we both agreed that it was definitely worth the fog, the cold and the walk to see this icon for ourselves! Many photos were taken of this relatively ‘modern day’ steel structure clad to blend with its’ neighbour, the Tower!

And to finish the day, we were now standing in more dramatic history! Shakespeare! “to be or not to be’…….at the Globe theatre where we were entertained by a tour guide who took us inside the breathtaking Globe theatre. Our guide bought history to life, assisting us to imagine the smells and the noise of the theatre and how the players and Shakespeare in his writings drew the crowd in. Natural lighting only was used as plays were produced in the afternoon. There was no heating in the Globe Theatre. ( I can understand what they only performed in summer being extremely cold where we were )and importantly, there were no toilets. People relieved themselves outside or simply where they sat, because no one left this amphitheatre….if you did , you lost your seat! I was sitting or standing where someone peed and pooed many times in history! Gross!

But a huge part of this London Town’s history as Shakespeare’s plays were for ‘hearing’ and not just for seeing. And yes, through the words and intonations of our guide – an actual play director at the Globe with a good understanding of what it meant to deliver theatre in that type of venue and with an actor’s voice that carried well and conveyed in words and intonations what it was like to be part of the audience then – we could really smell and see the crowds and visualise the players performing! Oh I so wanted to be up there on that amphitheatre stage……what a wonderful experience that would be.

A truly fascinating day immersed in history and tradition!
I loved absolutely every minute of it!
“ … and to all, a good night …”