Words seem to be in short supply at the moment - so this is a rather picture heavy post of our lovely day out in London on Friday at the Tower of London. Because of the glorious blue sky I couldn't help but take rather a lot of photos.
The impressive White Tower with part of the original Roman wall in front.
Tower Bridge.
Window
I loved the way the vegetation was growing on this window and experimented with different settings.
Archers.
Courtyard
here were lots of animals dotted around the place....
For six hundred years, the Tower of London's most exotic prisoners were animals!
The elephant was sent to England in 1255 by the King of France - the only elephant ever seen in England at this time.
A 'School of Monkeys' first arrived around 1799, but were disbanded in when one of the monkeys 'tore a boy's leg'!
They certainly look like they are eyeing up the tourists!
A white bear (probably a Polar Bear) was given by the King of Norway in 1252 and was allowed to swim in the Thames at the end of a long leash to catch fish.
The only wild animals to remain today are the seven ravens (one spare) who are looked after by the Ravenmaster.
They eat at amazing 170g of raw meat a day, as well as bird biscuits soaked in blood. Yuck! Rather them than me. I don't even like soaking my biscuits in a cup of tea. They also enjoy an egg once a week, a rabbit complete with fur occasionally and scrapes of fried bread
We were fortunate enough to see the changing of the guard.
Arghh! Didn't know I'd been walking around all day with my hat pushed up like that!
Me, my eldest son and his girlfriend.
London from the Tower Wall
Old mixed with new...
I wonder what will still be standing in 100 - 1000 years time?! I can hazard a bet it will be the old!
It looks like the forgot to finish the top of this!
One of the castle courtyards.
The day draws to a close....
What seemed like too soon the day drew to a close. Six hours just wasn't enough time to see everything! We did two 'tours' the second of which started in the chapel in the White Tower; This was the most interesting as the guide was engaging and interesting and full of knowledge.
Definitely a good time of year to visit some of these places as it wasn't heaving with people like in the warmer months.
All in all a very good, if not tiring, day out.
That was a very good reminder of all the things I'd forgotten about it since we took the children there about 30 years ago!
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