So London Does Get Sunlight…

Three days in, and guess who got sunburnt… in England. I didn’t think that was a possibility, but apparently it is lol. Today we went and saw Buckingham Palace briefly before a group of us walked down to an area where there were multiple flower displays outside of businesses. After that, we walked aimlessly for a while before deciding we needed to get food, which took us walking into a 21+ only Pub on accident and a different pub that wasn’t serving food. Once all of us were good and hangry, we finally found a pub for lunch. Why were we so focused on finding a pub you ask? I give you one answer: Fish and Chips. I got to enjoy the most British-type lunch I could think of, and it was absolutely fantastic. Not only was the food great, but our waiter was hilarious and made sure we were well taken care of. 10/10 would recommend, and I have a feeling we will be going back to that pub before this trip is over. (Side note- I finally finished my audiobook!) I also finally found a good cup of coffee this morning at a little café about a five-minute walk from our hotel called Casa Jardim.

In yesterday’s blog post, I mentioned how we went to the Tower of London. It was different than I was anticipating. I think I was expecting it to be a little taller, and I am beginning to realize that I have heard all the names of these different important places in London without actually knowing the history of the place or what the buildings look like. There were multiple different towers and exhibits throughout this important landmark in British history including the white tower and the room with the crown jewels (which we waited 45 minutes in line to see, but it was well worth it).

I think my favorite part of the building was walking through the white tower and seeing how many times the building had been built onto or remodeled. It supported many adjustments by multiple rulers, and it was honestly really well designed. Our tour guide on the bus tour mentioned that when the building was fully functional, it was surrounded by a moat (that is now a field of flowers), a barrier wall, and then the interior tower had special precautions like removable ladders so that if any enemies made it past the moat and the wall, the British soldiers could knock the ladder over in order to prevent the enemies from making it up into the tower.

I also really liked the Raven exhibit and the story about how if the ravens ever left then the monarchy would fall. I never heard that story, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a raven in person. They are HUGE.

We were asked to look into some of the people who were prisoners at the Tower of London, and I decided to look into Anne Boleyn mostly because I have heard about her before in other history classes and in SIX the musical (which I’m going to get to see on this trip!!!). When Anne came into King Henry VIII’s life, he was married to Catherine of Aragon. He fell in love (or lust?) with Anne and decided he wanted to divorce Catherine. Anne must have either been really beautiful or incredibly funny and intelligent because when Henry went to the Pope to have his marriage annulled and the Pope said nope, HE LEFT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND MADE UP HIS OWN CHURCH. Hence how we ended up with the Church of England. Unfortunately, Anne was only able to give birth to a single daughter instead of a son, so Henry decided to convict her of high treason and have her imprisoned in the white tower before having her beheaded because that was obviously the rational thing to do in the situation.

I think the Tower of London was beautiful, and it has a really rich history that I’m not used to seeing since the United States is so young, but I appreciate what I am learning, and it’s exciting to see buildings that have been around longer than my country has been a thing.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next time ❤