The Tower of London

Theres quite a few London sights we will probably skip, as the price of entries and activities soon add up, and we run out of time,  but we were keen to go to the tower. While I thought this place was primarily a prison for royalty, it actually was a palace, and showpiece of power and wealth.
Built 1000 years ago by William the Conquerer, it initally stood alone on the bank of the river Thames, surrounded by marshes, and was designed to stand out to show the might and power of the ruler, as well as provide a great defense. Surrounded my a moat, and 15 feet thick walls, this placed has served many purposes over its history.
Seen as the center of power for the control of the country, it has been besieged several times, housed the royal mint, been the main armourary, served as a menagerie for the many animals and beasts gifted to royalties, and imprisioned those that offended, threatened, or plotted against the ruler of the day.

The tower, is actually a series of buildings and forts, but the centre piece is the white tower, a castle that was once  regularly whitewashed, making it stand out as a statement of power and dominance. 

Visitors have been coming here to see the sights for hundreds of years. At one point a large menagerie of exotic animals were housed here, but often didn't fare well as the environment wasn't suitable, or  thier keepers didn't understand thier needs. When an Indian elephant was gifted, the keeper fed it 20 gallons of wine a day to ward off the cold, and so as you can imagine, this animal didn't last long. 

The thing that surprised me most, was to learn that the guards and yeoman (also known as beefeaters) that colourfully adorn the place in red frocks and black capes are more than just ceremonial adornments of a time past. The young faces that stand sternly on guard, appearing at times barely able to see past the fringes of the ludicrous long black hat, are fully trained soldiers posted to this duty. The yeoman, are sargent majors that have served a minimum period of 22 years in HRH forces and have attained a good conduct medal. These officers then take up residence at the tower apartments, along with their family. 

While they all seem very friendly, and helpful with enquiries, some directing informative tours, others appearing happy to pose with people for photos, if you go where you shouldn't, as heather and I found out, trying to peer in an exit only site, they call out at full voice like a sergeant  the parade ground, leaving no doubt not to cross them. 

Today, it houses  the Crown Jewels, estimated to be worth 20 million pounds. We got to see some of the collection, along with a selection of crowns and orbs. I had always assumed there was just 1 royal crown, that maybe got resized for each new ruler, but in fact there are many. Queen Elizabeth I had a special miniature crown made to sit on top of her mourning veil.

A great feature of our visit was watching the actors in costume and role from parts of history walking amongst the crowd and interacting as though we were visitors to court, dramatising an event from history in a real time live show.

We didn't manage to see everything, but we opted for a slightly dearer ticket, which also gave entry to 5 other palaces, so Heather returned another day to see more of the place, along with the chapel, where it's thought many of its famous prisoners are buried beneath the floor, including the young Ann Bolyn.