Foyles Bookstore and Tower of London

This morning we hopped on the central line at Lancaster Gate to head toward the Tottenham Court Road station. Dave found a highly recommended book shop that he wanted to check out. The name of the store is Foyles and it’s BIG!!

It has a total of six stories. The first four stories are full of books, the fifth story is a cafe, and the sixth story is a conference center.

We shopped around and found a few things for the kids. I had to put half my stack back on the shelf, though, since all the books wouldn’t fit into my backpack on the way home.

We grabbed a latte on the fifth floor and debated over what our plan should be for the day. We settled on touring the Tower of London. So we took another tube ride to Tower Hill station and walked to the ticket booths where we picked up our tickets after buying them online.

As soon as we got in line, it started to rain a bit. This was definitely one of the colder days. Thankfully, we both had on lots of layers and our rain jackets. We were glad to get here at 11:30, because the crowds were already starting to line up.

The Tower of London was built as part of the Norman Conquest around 1066. It has been used as a castle, a prison, and a royal residence. We walked through the entrance and started by touring the medieval palace.

We were able to get a great view of Tower Bridge from the upper walkway of the castle. The two sides were raised to let river traffic come through.

We then walked down into the courtyard of the tower and visited the raven cages where they are fed.

At first the ravens were going to be exterminated from the Tower, but they have been protected ever since Charles II was warned, “If the ravens leave the Tower, the kingdom will fall.” Ever since, there have been six resident ravens, and today there are actually seven.

The Ravenmaster trims the feathers on one side of their wings to make it a bit more difficult for them to leave. This doesn’t hurt the birds but only causes their flight to be imbalanced. The ravens are fed twice a day, usually something like chicks, rats and mice and assorted raw meats. As a treat, they are given biscuits soaked in blood.

It’s quite a feeling to walk about a 1000-year-old structure where so much history has taken place.

Next we explored the White Tower, which hold loads of artillery and armor. This tower was built by William the Conqueror in 1078.

We came across this dragon that was built in the tradition of displaying military strength by creating trophies from masses of weapons.

After touring the White Tower, we walked over to gawk at the guards in their tall bearskin caps, stationed outside the Crown Jewels house.

We weren’t sure if they were just for show or actually for real. But we came across a sign reminding visitors to treat the soldiers with respect as they do their important job of guarding the Crown Jewels for the monarch.

By this time the rain had cleared up, so we stood in line for 45 minutes to see the Crown Jewels.

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures of the Crown Jewels, but you can be sure, they were dazzling. These are the crowns, scepters, swords and orbs that have been used at the kings’ and queens’ coronations for hundreds of years. The size of some of the jewels are enormous, including the biggest diamond in the world at 530.2 carats that was placed in The Sovereign’s Sceptre with Cross. My favorite piece was Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother’s Crown.

We finished off our exploration of the Tower by visiting the prison. Although many believe the prison to be a place of extreme torture and death, surprisingly there were only seven people executed there prior to WWII. Probably the most notable execution was that of Ann Boleyn by King Henry VIII when she failed to produce a son and, thus, lost her head.

After our tour of the Tower of London, we decided it was time to find supper. We decided it was time to visit an authentic English pub and settled on eating at The Mitre, which is in an 1850’s building just down the block from our hotel.

I was having a hankering for some fish and chips, and Dave ordered a beef pot pie. We were not disappointed by the food.

Somehow our server managed to twist our arm to order dessert. We had the best sticky toffee pudding cake and a warm apple cobbler. Good thing we do so much walking during the day and skip lunch!! Today we only put on a mere 5 miles, but we were on our feet most of the day.