Bloody London

It is so great to be in a country where the main language is English! It actually feels more like a vacation now because we don't have to stress out about the language barrier. It is also great because I, Allie, have been to London before so it is familiar territory. On our first full day in London, we set out to the London Tower, one of London's most popular sights.

The London Tower is situated next to the London Bridge and has been considered both a castle and fortress. Kings and Queens did live there, but it is mainly known to be a place where prisoners were help captured and were tortured and killed. The prisoners held at the Tower were usually high profile individuals as well as Kings, Queens and other royal family. Some of the prisoners that were executed at the tower include King Henry VI Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VII as well as his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, and two young princes, Edward and Richard, that disappeared in the towers in 1483 (in 1674 two young skeletons were found during some renovations).

Before we entered the Tower of London, I though it looked rather smaller than I had expected. Allison had been there before and assured me it was much bigger inside, so we bought our tickets and headed for the entrance. We entered the London Tower and decided not to follow the Yeoman Warder (a.k.a. Beefeater) tour guide through the Tower. The group surrounding the guide was so large that we were really unable to hear the commentary and stay out of the way of people who were trying to enter the Tower. We began by walking into some of the buildings and looking at how the old rooms looked. Most of the sites were restored which took away some of the historic sites we expected. For example, one room had a well decorated bed, chair and fireplace that was in too good of a condition to be as old as the castle. The White Tower was full of historic memorabilia, such as old torture devices and weapons. Maybe it is my psychology/anthropology background but I found the old torture devices very interesting, yet disturbing. The Towers each had their own different thing to offer about the history of the tower. Overall the Tower of London is really pretty big. In fact, some people still live in the Tower today, the Yeoman Warder and their families. The Yeoman is a team of 35 individuals that act as the traditional watchmen of the Tower of London. Their job includes guarding the tower and the crown jewels, locking the Tower of London at night, and they also give tours of the area.

The London Tower also holds the crown jewels of the royal family. We decided not to visit this exhibit because the line was very long, Allie had seen it many years ago, and Ryan of course had no interest in seeing it.

A table used to torture prisoners, it would stretch their arms and legs

Memorial where the the execution site was

Carvings on the walls made by prisoners

Yeoman Guards

On our first full day in London we decided to take a London walk. We wanted to take a ghost, haunted, or Jack the Ripper walk so we chose a Blood and Tears Walk. This walk took us through the eerie history of London. We visited an area where Sir Michael William Wallace (a.k.a. Braveheart) was hanged and quartered and a place where public executions were done. We learned of a the fire of 1666 which had burned a lot of London (apparently a lot of people thought it was a bad sign from God because it occurred in 1666, three 6's). We walked down a alleyway where a satanic devil worshipper used to live; this worshipper had placed a human skull, a statue of the devil, and a webcam (facing the street) in his window. Furthermore we went to Fleet Street where Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber had his Barber shop. Sweeney Todd would murder his victims in the barber chair and drop them into the river below the barber shop which would lead to his girlfriends bakery. His girlfriend was an accomplice in the murders and was suspected of putting meat from human bodies in her pies. Then we went down an alleyway to a dead end where a man was murdered and is said to still haunt the area. Many ghost sightings have still been recorded. We walked to an area where a suspect of Jack the Ripper lived, and learned about his crimes. We lastly learned about a serial killer who murdered about 16 people, and visited the pub where he picked up a Canadian victim. The Blood and Tears Walk was a creepy way of learning about the history of London.