Last words

fittingly, I think, my last stop in London was the Tower of London. famous last spot for the likes of Anne Boelyn, Sir Thomas More, and Lady Jane Grey. I however, am way cooler than them, and walked away with my head....on

The Tower of London is definitely my favorite attraction in the city of london. you get a guided tour by a Yeoman Warder AKA Beefeater and they wear the goofy outfit and everything, but get this...they live there! these guys get to live in the tower of london! that is too cool for words. Best tour guides ever. they infuse quite a bit of wit into their tours and are real characters. if you can only see a couple sites in London, this is one of them.

the Tower of London is also home to the crown jewels. aptly named because mostly...they are crowns! hahaha, bejeweled crowns no less. you go into one of the towers (there are 20 towers at the Tower of London) and walk into a vaulted room - as in, a giant safe - and you get on a slow moving people mover and pass by the various crowns and ooh and ahh and then go back around and get back on the people mover because you just didnt have enough time. hahah

there was a small torture exhibit as well. so I got to see the Scavenger's daughter, the rack, and manacles.

the armoury is also housed in the original Tower of London - the white tower, built by william the conquerer and completed by a monk named gandolf. for real! (tolkein couldn't be completely original all the time.) the white tower is dead center in the tower of london complex.
all the old armor is really fun to see. Henry VIII's armor is a crowd pleaser. and they had a display of the biggest and smallest armor (John of Gaunt and...Charles II ? as a child, respectively.)

I think the beefeater said that 1200 people had been killed at the Tower of London. only 6 were killed within the castle walls (5 women and a man), all the rest were killed at the public scaffold on Tower hill, just outside the walls.

so fun. Blogger is still being a wench when it comes to pics, so please check out my Tower of London Highlights at http://asu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2055771&l=350e4&id=10003217

I can't really believe my time here in London is really over. I am sure there is something I still need to buy.
and thank you for all your thoughts, but I started packing, and I think I am going to make it, free of a shipping charge home. I just can't buy anything big in Ireland or Scotland. three weeks to go, and still so much to see! I am ready for the change in scenery and the new experiences. bring it on Dublin!