16th September - Tower of London, London Tower Bridge, London Dungeons

16.9.10 - Tower of London, London Tower Bridge, London Dungeons

Today we waked to Kensington underground and caught the train to Tower Hill, the train station right next to The Tower of London.  It was a bit cloudy today and chilly.  We walked up to the Tower of London and waited for a Yeoman (Beefeater) tour of the castle, there was about 40 people from all over the world in the group. Our Yeomans name was Peter, (Another pommy pete) and he was full of information about the tower and was very funny.  Tommy had to tell everyone where he was from and how old he was, from then on he was at the front of the tour and really enjoyed it. The Yeoman actually live in the Castles walls at the tower, there are 39 of them and their families that live there.  The only way they can become a Yeoman is if they have worked in the British Airforce, Navy or Army for 26 years and have reached the rank of Sargent Major. A very interesting place to live, they have their own shop, doctor and chaplain within the walls of the tower.  

We visited the Crown Jewels a building that has Queen Elizabeths crowns. It also has a diamond that is 590 carats (mum loved this one). Mum was a little disappointed when she looked down at her ring!! We then went through the building that housed all the armour from all the Kings of England.  Henry the VIII’s was massive, they even had armour for little princes!! There was heaps of swords and knives etc as well. It was really interesting.  We then went into the bloody tower, it was renamed the bloody tower because 2 princes were murdered here, they were only 9 and 11 years old and it is thought that Henry VII had them killed so that he would become King. We had lunch in the cafe and then left to walk over the Tower Bridge and onto the London Dungeons. This was a tour of the underground of london back when Jack the Ripper was around. It had live actors and we had to walk in the dark to different sections and it was quite scary.  We went on a boat ride and a free fall ride that was in the dark (you should see our faces in the photo!) my eyes are popping out of my head.  Luke was glad when we were out of there. When Jack the Riper came in through a secret door, Luke jumped about 10 foot in the air!! He was was so frightened. After to the Dungeons we caught a taxi to St Pauls Cathedral and had a quick look around as it was about to close, then we caught the metro back to Kensington. We walked down to Harrods to check out the massive toy floor, it had some great toys. Mum left us there playing with helicopters and went for a shop. We all met back at the Bunch of Grapes Pub for dinner where we were meeting up with Steve, the guy dad got the Liverpool game tickets from. We had a very hot dinner and walked home bloated. What a day!