The Dragon in the Tower

My feet hurt, but I shall take that as a sign of a day well spent.  I walked around a lot today!  It was another early morning sort of day as we all met up in the foyer so that we could journey out to see the Tower of London!  Traveling around the city has become much easier for all of us, so for the most part they just tell us where we are meeting and we all head out. The tube system is so convenient!  Our Oyster cards provided by BYU can get us all over the place!

We met up at the Tower and then received passes to go inside, and there were many cool things to see.  We went up and got to see the Royal Jewels.  They did not allow any photography inside the exhibit, so unfortunately I cannot share anything that we saw.  They had so many SHINY things in there!  Many of the items in the exhibit are still used, and are taken out of the exhibit for special ceremonies.  Some of those things have HUGE diamonds and jewels on them.  After the Crown Jewels we explored various different towers that have been changed into cool exhibits.  The White Tower now shows various weapons that the guards used, the Bloody Tower is an exhibit about royalty, the outside wall shows various different exhibits about the times then and the Torture Chamber......well, showed the old torture methods.  That one was....interesting.  We were at the Tower for about two hours trying to see everything that we could.  We broke up into smaller groups for these and my group was amazing.  We played our awesome game called “Pass the Pound”.  I may explain that one sometime later.  Just outside the Tower was the Tower Bridge, newly decorated with the Olympic Rings! We didn’t have time to cross the bridge, something I will have to remedy later.  

We then had our “London Walks” class which just consists of us walking around London (shocker) on particular routes.  Frank (professor) took us through the business district, which was so interesting.  This area has so many huge skyscrapers and business buildings, but then right next door to them there are little cathedrals or ruins from hundreds of years ago.  The combination of the old and the new of London continues to amaze me.  We also got to get up close to one of my favorite buildings, 30 St Mary Axe (more commonly known as the Gherkin).  Google it!  So cool! Frank then took us to a museum where they discovered part of a Roman structure underneath their foundation while doing construction.  Only in England I suppose.  We also went to the London Museum, another place that was not too fond of photos. Rude.

In the evening we celebrated a girl named Janie’s birthday buy getting her a piece of cake, had class with our visiting professor, Tim Slover who gave us many tips about seeing shows in London, and had ribs for dinner! So glad I am no longer on cleaning crew and won’t have to be cleaning THAT up.  I then went out to see if I could get some rush Phantom of the Opera tickets.  Nope.  Les Miserables? Nope.  Lion King? Couldn’t find the theater.  So instead I walked around Piccadilly Circus and found Buckingham Palace!  Now THAT was cool! The Queen was even there!  I didn’t see her, but her flag was raised.  So close to the queen!!! 

Tomorrow morning we are lining up early in the morning to see if we can get some student rush tickets to Les Miserables.  Crossing fingers!  Every day an adventure!

 The Tower of London

 The only photo allowed anywhere near the Crown Jewels.  

 The Tower's Dragon.  His name is Keeper.  Really. It says so on his plaque.  

 We don't quite know what this was......we liked his face.  

 Some knights are more "endowed" than others.

 These girls.  Oh dear.  

 The many hats of the British military.  (Forgot to mention we went to a military museum)

Group Awesome in front of the Tower Bridge.  Olympic-ified