We went to see the Tower of London today.
Tower of London, seen from the River Thames, with a view of Traitor's Gate, by Viki Male
The best parts were the crown jewels and the ravens.
The crown jewels include the 2 biggest pieces of the largest rough diamond ever found, the Cullinan diamond, otherwise known as the Star of Africa. Before it was cut, it was 3106.75 carats (621 grams). After it was cut the largest diamond from it is still 530 carats (106 grams). That diamond is in a sceptre, and the next largest diamond is in a crown. the area directly in front of all the crowns and jewels is one of those hizontal escalators, so you can’t stand and gawk for too long. The day we were there there weren’t too many people, so we got a pretty good look.
They also had a huge gold wine bowl that could hold 144 bottles of wine, and had a ladle that was made out of a big conch shell on the end of a big gold rod. Pretty classy stuff.
Here is a photo gallery of some of the crown jewels, cleverly photographed in such a way as to remove all sense of scale.
A flock of about 8 or 10 ravens are kept on the tower grounds. They are kept with one wing quite severly clipped, so they can’t fly away. They are very intelligent birds, and a lot of fun to watch as they hop around the lawns, scavenging and sharpening their beaks.
One came up about 50 cm away from me and stood looking at me for a few minutes, but eventually left since I wasn’t giving him any food.
Tickets were £16 each, but Sarah got in for free as she is a member of the British historic places trust.
I’d say it was a fun afternoon out, but I don’t think I need to go back again.