Conquering London

I am now in Dublin, so this post is slightly after the fact. However, London was amazing. I am just devastated I didn't get to spent more time (i.e. the next five years) there.

After so long in France, London felt just like home. If someone told me that this was the eight (and largest, richest and busiest state in Australia, I would believe you. The way the English welcome you is very different from the French.

France: Australie? Trop loin! Trop trop loin! (Tooo long!!!)

England: Oh, Australia. He's from Australia too. (Points to everyone else in the room.)

Highlights of my very (too) short trip to London were visiting the tower of London and the spots where Anne Boleyn, Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell breathed their last, eating Indian on Brick Lane, going on Katherine and Sara's unofficial cider pub crawl and discovering Aspell's Suffock Cyder and finally meeting a bunch of awesome awesome fellow travellers and having a bunch of strange, awesome and funny conversations with all of them.

Here are some pictures which as you will see don't necessarily represent everything I am claiming to have done.

 

Kings Cross Station. Like every other Tourist, I did the obligatory sweep for platform 9 and 3/4. No luck.

 

Mackie and I at the Tower of London. As you can see I am sporting my new glasses (which French lady said I need to wear all the time, but I think she has given me the wrong script!) and also my pasty pregnancy.

 

2nd Century Roman Wall. And Trajan.

 

The Bell Tower, where Thomas More was imprisoned.

 

The Queen's House. This was built as a wedding present for Anne Boleyn, but she was killed before it was finished. Awkward. Catherine Howard (Henry VIII's 5th wife) was imprisoned here!

 

White Tower. Built by William the Conqueror when he arrived in London.

 

This is the memorial to the six people who were given the honour of a private execution inside the Tower. They are: Anne Boleyn, Lady Salisbury (Margaret Pole), Catherine Howard, Jane Boleyn (Rochester), Jane Grey and her husband.

 

Graffiti inside one of the cells. The top right hand corner says: Lancaster Herald. Epic!

 

Okay. Nice armor. Look between the legs. No prizes for guessing who this belonged to. 

Henry VIII.

 

This is the Tower Bridge.

 

Tasteless, yet amusing pub name on the site of the old scaffold on Tower Hill.

 

The memorial on the spot where Cromwell, More and as you can see many many others lost their lives.