London Baby!! Part 2, London Eye

If you are in London, a must on the list of places to visit is the London Eye. 

I went on the giant ferris wheel the same day that I went to the Tower of London.  While they are both on the River Thames, it is a bit of a walk.  However, quick ride on the Underground will get you there much quicker.  And after spending most of the day walking around the Tower, the Underground was the way to go!

Some random facts about the Eye:

• It is 443 feet tall. 
• There are 32 heated & air conditioned passenger capsules. 
• Each capsule represents one of London Boroughs.  (A borough is similar to a township)
• Each capsule holds 25 people.
• It offers a 360 degree view of the city.
• Can see for about 25 miles on a clear day.
• It takes about 30 minutes to go around.
• It is visited by 3.5 million people annually.
• During the 2012 Summer Olympics, the Olympic emblem will be attached to the Eye.

It was dusk when we got on and by the time we got to the top it was pretty dark.  It was amazing seeing the city all lit up. 

I know the height of the Eye might be an issue.  I was a little nervous about it myself.  But it goes so slowly you almost don't notice when you have reached the top.  And the views are just to amazing to miss!  I can't wait to go back for a ride during the day.

London Baby!! Part 1, Tower of London

I finally made a trip into London.  Or as I should say "London Baby!" 

My friends and I are big Friends fans and ever since I found out that I was coming to England, "London Baby!" has been said a lot.

I am still looking for a Union Jack hat to bring home.  I also have to remember to get a picture of me "inside the map" while I am in London.  I forgot this trip, but will try to remember for the next one.  I found a clip of Joey wearing this hat the other day and I'm pretty sure that this was filmed near the Tower of London.  So I figured it was fitting since that is what this blog is about.

The Tower of London is located on the north bank of the River Thames in Central London.  The first part of it was built in 1066.  Since that time it has served as an armoury, a treasury, a menagerie, home of the Royal mint, a public records office and home of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.

The Tower has several actors around to help transport you back in time.  They interact with themselves as well as the visitors to the Tower.  One of them is a bishop.  I asked if I could have my photo taken with him and he agreed.

Before the picture was taken he blessed me. And as the picture was being taken he said, "unless you are from Scotland. Then may the devil vomit on your face!"  So if you are from Scotland and visiting the Tower, don't tell the bishop where you are from!

White Tower

White Tower is the first part of the the Tower that was built.  It is a keep, which is often the strongest structure in a medieval castle, containing lodgings suitable for the King.  It is where Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII, was imprisoned while she was on trail for incest and treason.

Today it holds the Royal Armory of the past Kings.  It also has displays of the horses the different Kings rode. This is Henry VIII's armor and horse.

There are spiral staircases all over the Tower of London.  In the White Tower there is a spiral staircase that you have to walk down from the top floor to the ground level.  It is just about the never-ending stair case!  I will be very happy if I never have to see another spiral staircase, however I don't think I will be that lucky.

Traitors Gate

Traitors Gate is part of the St. Thomas's Tower in the Tower of London.  It was built to be a water entrance into the Tower.  The name Traitors Gate came about in the 17th century.  Prisoners were brought by barge along the Thames under the London Bridge, where heads of recently executed were displayed on pikes.  This is where 2 of Henry VIII wives, Queen Anne Boleyn and Queen Catherine Howard, entered.

Only 7 people were actually executed in the Tower before the World Wars.  Both Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard were on that list of 7.  They have a monument where the executions were thought to have taken place.

Yeoman Warders

Yeoman Warders have been the Royal Body guard since at least 1509.  They are more commonly known as Beefeaters.  It's not certain where this term came from, but most likely it is because they once recieved payment in rations of beef.

They give tours of the Tower of London and they also will stop and take pictures and answer any questions about the Tower you might have.  One was kind enough to take a picture with me and my friend Christine.

To become a Beefeater you have to be retired from the Armed Forces of the Commonwealth realms and must be former senior non-commissioned officers with at least 22 years of service.  They get to live inside the fortress along with their famlies.  However, they must own a home outside for when they retire.  I kept thinking how cool it would be to say that you live in the Tower of London.  Not very many people get to say that.

The Ravens

There is always at least 7 common ravens living at the Tower.  It is traditioinally believed that they protect the Crown and the Tower.  A supersition suggests that "If the Tower of London ravens are lost or fly away, the Crown will fall and Britain with it."  They make sure that there are always ravens there...just to be on the safe side.

It is another job of the Beefeaters to look after the ravens.  They serve them 8oz of meat everyday.  Every other day they get a boiled egg.  The also eat chopped apples and grapes.  Apparently, the ravens love cheese.  They live on average, 40 years.

All in all, the ravens have it pretty good.  They can go where they want in the Tower.  They just can't go very far.  One of their wings are clipped to keep them from flying long distances.  They also all have names.  I think the Beefeaters cheat by putting color bands on them to tell them apart.  You can get very close to the ravens.  Although most people tend to stay away.  They are big birds, and as I heard several people say, with big beaks. 

The Crown Jewels

The Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom are kept here at the Tower.  They are housed in the Waterloo Barracks.  They don't allow you to take photos inside so I can't share any of what I saw with you.  I can tell you that there are a lot of sparkles in here!

If you noticed in the picture there is a long queue to get inside to see the jewels.  I haven't really figured out why.  We walked by once and the queue was long, so we decided to tour White Tower first.  When we got out of there, the queue was gone and we were able to walk right in.  They even have a moving sidewalk inside to keep people from looking for to long,  We walked back by later on in the day and the queue was long again.  It was the strangest thing. 

If you are in London, the Tower of London is a must.  Just beware of the queues...and the sprial staircases!  You need the better part of the day to see it all.  This was on my must see list before I came and it didn't disappoint!

Oxburgh Hall

Just 20 minutes outside of King's Lynn is a the village of Oxborough.  And it is in that village that you will find the moated manor house Oxburgh Hall.

Oxburgh Hall was built in around 1482 by Sir Edmund Bedingfeld.  It has stayed in the family ever since.  The Bedingfeld's played host to King Henry VII here in August of 1487.  The room where he stayed has been called the King's Room ever since.

The Bedingfeld's were of the Catholic faith.  And this was during the time when England had split and saw the King as the head of the church instead of the Pope.  Apparently the Bedingfeld's didn't agree with that and stuck with their faith.  It must have been for this reason that they had created what is known as a priest hole in the house.   In the event of a raid, the priest would access the hole via a trap door.  When the doors were shut it blends in with the tile on the floor.  These were pretty common back then.  It is one of the few priest hole that you can still crawl into.

There is also a collection of needlework hangings done by Mary, Queen of Scots.  She worked on these while she was in the custody of the Earl of Shrewsbury, following her escape to England.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to see any of this.  The house closes for 5 months during the winter.  And of course it doesn't open back up until April...when I will be back in the good ol' U.S. of A.  But I was still able to wander around the grounds.  The tea room and gift shops were open, which are both in house, so at least I got to see a little of the inside.

   

The house also has a private chapel on the grounds.  The Roman Catholic Chapel of the Immaculate Conception and St. Margaret was in 1836.  I'm not sure if it is open to the public and if it is, it was of course closed just as the house was.

 

Besides being a bit disappointed for not having the chance to tour the house itself, I still had a really nice time here.  I spent several hours just wondering around the grounds.  The estate has a number of woodland trails and several gardens.  A couple of the trails even have activities for kids to do along the way.  I was actually having fun myself trying to find all the different items that they had posted around the grounds.

One thing that I thought was really interesting was the sundial that is on the house.  I couldn't really find much information about it when I was writing this, but thought you might at least enjoy seeing a picture of it.

I highly recommend visiting here, even if it is during the winter months.  I hear that seeing it with snow on the ground is not to be missed.  If and when it does snow, I think I will make another visit!

Tea with the Queen

Not to far from King's Lynn is Sandringham Estate.  It is the much-loved country home of Her Majesty The Queen.  The "house" is set in 59 acres of gardens in the heart of 20,000 acres.  There have been 4 generations of British monarches living here since 1862.  HM The Queen opened the house to the public in her Silver Jubilee year in 1977.

A friend of mine and I took what turned out to be a really nice Saturday to tour the house and it's grounds.  And it just so happened that it was the last weekend that the house was opened before it closed to prepare for when The Queen comes.  She spends her Christmas here every year.

Walking up to the house we noticed that the shades were all pulled down.  At least they were on the side that we had walked up, which is the side in the picture above.  We started to wonder if the house was even open.  Thankfully it was.  This part of the house is where Prince Charles stays when he is here, so I'm sure that is the reason the shades were pulled.

You enter the house from the back...or the front.  Not really sure which side they would consider the front.  Front or back, the entrance is pictured above.  You actually only get to tour about 4 or so rooms.  And unfortunately, you are not allowed to take any pictures on the inside.  Of course the inside was gorgeous.  There was a lot of history in those rooms, as you can imagine.  What surprised me the most was there was a lot of Oriental items throughout the different rooms.

In honestly didn't take very long to go through all the rooms. But we were able to see the stairs in Prince Charles part of the house.  There were several pictures of horses on the wall heading up the stairs, but that's really all we could see.

The grounds around the house are amazing.  You could spend all day just walking around.  And I think that's what a lot of people do.  We walked around for awhile and then decided to head into museum.  You actually spend a lot more time in the museum then you do the house.  There were a lot of cars on displays and different things about the royal family and their time at Sandringham. 

There is one room in the museum that, well, to be honest, kind of freaked me out a little bit.  It was a room full of mounted animal heads.  You walk into the room and almost come eye to eye with a rhino head.  There were all sorts of different animal heads on all four of the walls.  Apparently they have all been shot by different members of the royal family throughout the 4 generations.

Next to the museum is a little tea shop where we stop to have a cup of tea and some cake.  So here I am having tea with the Queen!  Or at least that's what I'm going to tell people I did.

Just outside of the estate's miain grounds is the Church of St. Mary Magdalene.

I am told that the Queen walks here to celebrate Christmas every year.  You can tour the church, but again, you can't take pictures inside.  It is beautiful inside, but smaller than I thought it would be.  The chruch is only open in the winter months for service.

You can still visit the grounds of Sandringham outside of the 59 acres that the house is on all year long.  There is a country park with nature trials, as well as a restaurant, gift shop and plant centre.

If you are ever in the Norfolk area of England, I highly recommend coming here.  It is well worth the visit. And if you do come, make sure you stop by the main gates and get your picture taken out front!

Bonfire Night

Remember, Remember the fifth of November.

Every November the 5th is Bonfire Night in the UK.  Towns put on big bonfires and have firework displays.  In America, our big fireworks display is on July 4th where we celebrate our freedom and the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  In the UK, bonfire night is a celebration of an execution of a man who tried to blow up Parliament and King James I. 

For my first bonfire night I went up to Hunstanton, which is on the coast of the North Sea.  They were putting on a little festival for the occassion on the cliffs (which made for a chilly evening, but with a scarf and hat, it was fine).  They had a few rides and of course several food vendors.  However, this festival was about half the size of one you would find in America.

Normally, I don't do rides at these things.  When I was a kid, my Dad never let me go on the rides because he thought they were unsafe.  While I didn't understand that then, I totally agree now!  However, I love carosels, so since they had one, I had to ride it!

Off to the side of the rides and food they had a big area fenced off with a rather large pile of wood in the middle for the bonfire.  What I didn't notice until after the fire had been lit was that there was stuffed man on the pile.  Yes, every year the Birtish burn a man in effigy.  Here is one of the photos that I was able to get of the "guy" as the fire reached him.  Not the best photo, but hopefully you can make it out.

A bit of a history lesson as to why they do this every November 5th. 

After Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, English Catholics who had been persecuted hoped that her successor, Jame I, would be more tolerant of the religion.  That didn't happen.  And because that didn't happen, 13 young men thought a violent action would be the answer.

In what became known as the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, these 13 young men got ahold of 36 barrels of gunpowder and stored them in a cellar, just under the House of Lords.  Their plan was to kill the King, maybe the Prince of Wales and the Members of Parliament.

At some point, a few of the young men started having second thoughts about the plan.  They were worried about innocent people being hurt or killed.  Rumor has it that one of them wrote a letter to a friend, warning him to stay away from Parliament.  The warning letter some how reached the King.

The King sent his men out to stop this from happening.  In the early hours of November 5th, one of the young men, Guy Fawkes, was found in the cellar of the Parilament with the 36 barrels of gunpowder.  Guy was caught, tortured and executed.

When the Plot was foiled, bonfires were set alight to celebrate the safety of the King.

As a result of The Gunpowder Plot the reigning monarch only enters Parliament once a year on what is called "the State Opening of Parliament."  Prior to the Opening, the Yeomen of the Guard searches the cellars of the Palace of Westminster.  This is still praticed today.

Followed by the bonfire are the fireworks.  And of course the ooh's and aww's.

Castle Rising

I have finally been to my first castle! (Not counting the ones in Disney.)  Castle Rising is about 10, 15 minutes away from where I am staying.  I had actually driven by it once before and didn't realize it.  It is set back a little ways from the road and is surrounded by what use to be a defensive mound.  So, unless you know it's there, it's very easily missed.

I went on a really sunny Saturday, which is probably going to be much harder to come by here in the future.  It was a great day to just wonder around the castle and it's grounds.  There were only a handful of people there that day, so I was able to get a really good look at the place.  It was really neat to go around and think about all the things that had gone there in it's history (it was built around 1140).  And the grounds around the castle are beautiful.

Castle Rising isn't a very large castle...actually they describe it as a stone keep.   And the center of it no longer has a roof...or floors for that matter. When you are there you can make out where the floor use to be, although I don't know how clear that comes across in these pictures.

Now for a little information about Castle Rising.  The castle and defensive mound were originally half their current size.  The present appearence is the result of a major building program of the late 12th or 13th century.



As I said earlier, it was built around 1140.  In the more than 870 years since it has been built it has served as a hunting lodge, royal residence, a mint producing pennies for King Stephen and even housed a mental patient.

The famous period for the castle was when it came to the mother of Edward III, Queen Isabella, following her part in the murder of her husband Edward II.  She was not a prisoner here, but led life like a dowager Queen.  She is said to have died here.

There's not a whole lot more to talk about without sounding like a history book.  It's a great place to bring your family and lots of room for kids to run around.  While this was my first visit there, I'm sure it won't be my last.  Now for some more pictures.