Towering Achievement

My Tuesday in London began with a trip to the Tower of London, the famous castle built by William the Conqueror in the 11th century. (That's right, folks -- this building has been standing for nearly a thousand years.) It's been used as everything from a royal residence to a munitions depot to a prison over its long existence, and is now one of the more interesting tourist destinations in the city.

You pass through the castle wall over what was once a moat, but today is a green park area. You can wait for one of the Yeomen Warders or "Beefeaters" to take you on a tour of this place, but after listening to his spiel for over five minutes without moving from the spot we started at, we decided to strike out on our own.

The central feature of the place, literally and figuratively, is the White Tower:


The old palace proper, this castle has now been converted into a museum showcasing all sorts of weapons, armor, and other items from the reigns of famous kings and queens of England. You can see everything from the massive eight-foot tall sword of Henry V...


...to the implied massiveness (ahem) built into Henry VIII's armour (which I'm spelling with a "u" because that's the British thing to do).



There's even a dragon inside the Tower, made up of shields and weapons. I'm sure it has no actual historical significance, but was certainly cool to look at:


For those more interested in the darker side of the Tower's history, you can see some of the torture devices used on prisoners once held there. You can also see the very spot (give or take a few feet, I'd imagine) where Anne Boleyn was beheaded under the orders of Henry VIII, today marked with an interesting memorial marker.

If you prefer your monarchs to be more modern, then the Tower of London is also the place where the Crown Jewels are currently displayed. Ostentatious, yes. But amazing? Also yes. Crowns aplenty, scepters galore, and more precious gems than you could shake said scepters at.

This is going to sound like a too kitschy way of saying it, but the Tower of London is everything that I wish a trip to a Renaissance festival could be. It's as fantastical as something out of Dungeons & Dragons, but is the real thing. I found it a very fun stop on our tour. It would have been a highlight, in fact, if we hadn't had even more remarkable things to come.