I had a look at that, then climbed up the hill over the top of the station entrance, where there is a very nice view of the Tower of London. The Tower of London is a large complex of buildings, rather than a single tower.
When I first entered the Tower, I joined a tour by one of the Warders, (aka beefeaters). It gave a good general background of the tower's history.
This is a view of a section between the inner and outer walls.
These Tudor buildings were originally built for Anne Bolyn, before she got into trouble and had her head chopped off. They are not currently open to the public.
Most prisoners were dragged up to Tower Hill to be executed, in front of screaming crowds. However certain very favoured prisoners were executed in private, within the walls of the tower. This memorial statue marks the approximate spot where gallows were built for people who were executed inside the tower.
This building now contains the Crown Jewels, or, as the warder who originally pointed out the building to me and the rest of the crowd referred to them: Lizzie's Bling. I queued up to see them, and they really are quite spectacular. One of the crowns has the Koh-i-noor diamond on the front. I was suprised to see that this was significantly smaller than several other diamonds, including the Cullinor 1 diamond, which is on top of the royal sceptre.
The oldest part of the Tower of London is the White Tower, built by William the Conquerer. At the time I was there it had scaffolding over a large section of it, as part of maintenance works.
Inside the white tower, there was an exhibition of many suits of armour worn by English Royalty and nobility over the years. This suit of armour was worn by Henry VIII in his younger days.
This suit of ceremonial armour includes armour for the horse.
Past the exhibiton area there are a number of rooms in the White Tower open to the public. This is a section of the original Norman chapel.
This shot of London bridge is taken from the Tower walls, and shows the outer wall, then the bridge nearby.
This shot of the walls of the tower from the inside, shows the strange juxtaposition of old and new in London, with very modern looking buildings on the skyline.
After leaving the tower, I walked along the Themes a little, until I could get a good view of Tower Bridge.
I then headed back to E and A's flat. E and A then took me out to dinner at an old pub next to the river, called The Dove. It was a lovely evening.
A tour! Lovely! Just what I need - a nice trip to Somewhere Else.
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