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The Bloody Tower & Ghostly Walks- London, England

Becky| September 29, 2006 12:00 am

London has so much history. How do you fit it in in four days? Well you either have to move fast, or you pick your favorites. Chris had already been to London and had done the Tower of London, but I really wanted to go. As he was feeling under the weather with a cold, he graciously let me go by myself while he found a nice nook to read a book and sniffle. It was amazing. There it is this huge structure surrounded by a wide moat ( long ago filled in with dirt and grass). It looks deceiving from far away in that I thought that it was all one structure but in reality once I entered I saw that it was a series of walls that you pass through with smaller towers for defense and then in the center was the huge White Tower with the four pillars that was begun in 1066 with the reign of William the Conquerer. There are also other buildings around it like a chapel, Waterloo Block (which houses the very impressive crown jewels-they are so huge they look fake), and other armouries and dungeons! I of course took the free Beefeater Tour where very knowledgeable guides walk around with you for an hour and give you a bit of interesting and sometimes comical history, but mostly it is centered on all the folks that entered through trator’s gate and were held prisoners here (some for quite a long time) before being led up to tower hill for their beheading. Oh the british brutality, not much better than the french! (Oops, can they imprision me for that comment?)

After Chris had had a bit of a rest, we waited a bit and then since it was not raining (it of course rained alot while we were in Britain, so we always tried to run to do outside things when we had the chance) we decided to do a London Walks Ghost Tour. Our very proper petite british guide led us around the dark streets and alleys telling us the bloody history of this town and some of the ghost lore. It was quite fantastic, not because I saw any ghosts, but because of how the city shined at night. It’s starting to feel very fall here and very pretty. Our London hosts, Ryan and Natasha came with us and I think all had fun. Stopped by a Tapas bar on the way home for snacks to break up the spooky vibes. Good food and new good friends, I can’t think of any better end to an evening. :)