Raining Beefeaters

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There is always this strange thing that happens when you make plans. You prepare everything you will need, you plan your routes, what time you will be where, etc. Then, you oversleep and all that work is for nothing. Lol That's how our day started today. Last night we sat down and made of list of all of the things that we were going to see today and promptly overslept until 11am. So, there went our plans for the day. It wasn't a total loss though. It turned out to be a pretty decent day.

We headed off to the Tower of London first, since we missed it the day before. We got there about noon and the crowds were huge. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait long. Probably the best part of touring the tower is the Beefeater guards. They were originally formed in 1078 by William the Conquerer and have been guarding the tower for over 200 years. To become a Beefeater one has to have served in the british armed forces for 20yrs and a whole list of other accomplishments that I can't remember. They are very personable and comical and make the tour very entertaining as they describe to you the bloody history of the tower. Many famous people have lost their heads at the tower including: Anne Boelyn, Jane Gray, Thomas Moore, etc. Interestingly, they have recorded that the tower has held some 3600 prisoners, of which, 350 (roughly) were put to death. The problem is that they have found the remains of over 1500 people within the tower chapel alone. After they were killed they were buried underneath the floor of the chapel. The bodies were discovered during Queen Victoria's reign in the mid 1880s. She decreed that all of the remains should be given a proper christian burial and that they should all be identified. Amazingly, nearly all of them were identified and entombed within the church unless the families requested otherwise.

After the tour we went in to see the crown jewels, the White Tower (the royal residence within the tower). It is called the “tower” but it is really a small castle surrounded by two ring walls (a 20ft and a 50ft), containing a total of 20 defensive towers. It better fits the definition of a castle than Leeds Castle did. Even though I had been there before it was cool to see it again.

Since we had gotten up so late the day was pretty much shot. We headed to Waterloo Station to buy train tickets for tomorrow for our trip back to Dover to see the castle there. I have no doubt it will be better than the Tower of London, weather permitted.

We tried to go to the oldest Masonic temple in Britain but when we go there it was closed. It wasn't until later that we discovered that it isn't open on saturdays. On our way there the English weather finally closed in and we got trapped under the entrance to a high rise for about 15-20 minutes. It was the first time that I had ever seen dime sized rain drops move horizontal to the ground. With nothing else to do we wandered thru Covent Garden which is a shopping/restaurant area on the edge of the theatre district. It has more varieties of food, cafes, and shops than I have ever seen. It is one of those districts that at one time was run down and now has been reborn, so to speak. We checked out a few of the shops and did some shopping in Piccadilly Circus. After the rain quit the crowds were almost unbearable. They have been pretty large so far but with today being saturday they were twice as large. I'm sure it will be this way thru the new year.

We ended up tiring of the crowd and headed back to our hotel. It wasn't the most eventful day but it did turn out to be a lot of fun. See ya'll tomorrow.

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Photos

Yeoman Warder of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Otherwise known as a "Beefeater"

Jewel House
Home of the royal family's Crown Jewels, crowns, scepters, etc.

Queen's Guard
Normally they wear the red coats, but in winter they wear the gray.