Tower of London

Hi all. Today we saw one of London’s most popular tourist attractions – the Tower of London.

The kids have been excited for this one as they all had heard of the Tower through Paddington Bear books, and brushed they’ve had with it in books and movies growing up.

Well today was the day to see it up close. And of course we started with the crown jewels.

You aren’t allowed to take pictures of the crown jewels, but these are the jewels Queen Elizabeth, and every other King and Queen of England before here wore at their coronation.

They are truly some beautiful pieces in their, including a 550 Carat diamond in a sceptre.

Other that, it was off to get a tour of the tower with the Beef Eater!

This guy, Bob, was great. He had lots of wonderful stories about the history of the castle, what it was like to work & live there as a beef eater, along with how the beef eaters got their name.

They are called beef eaters because in the old days only the King and his knights got to eat red meat. It was expensive and they needed to be big and strong to fight.

Well the kings bodyguards, or wardens, got the scraps. They got to eat beef too. So they got a derogatory name from the peasants of beef eater. When then got turned into a positive when Beefeater gin came out in the 1800s.

Anyways, he was very good. And the rest of the afternoons was spent wondering around the castle, listening to our audio guides and watching the odd show.

No one knows where the ravens came from, or why they were started as a tradition, but now they are a permanent fixture at the tower, and they though is so long as the ravens never leave, the tower will never fall.

After that it was off for some fish and chips at Bailey’s (a place Tan and Elizabeth found on trip advisor).

Though it’s not my favourite, it was fun having some real english fish and chips.

And we walked home and crashed pretty hard after that. A good full day!