Tower of London

We have our nephew Dave with us from Australia for a few days before he heads off elsewhere in England and beyond, so we decided to play tourist yesterday and do something in central London. After some discussion, we decided on the Tower of London - Geoff and I and the kids have, both separately and together, done lots of London sightseeing, so we wanted something which wasn't too much of a repeat for some of us. The Tower fit the bill as neither our kids nor Dave had been there and Geoff and I hadn't been in probably 15 years or so. We also took an extra 12 year old (as one does), Sarah's friend Katharine - Kath and her dad take Sarah (and sometimes Olivia) lots of places, so it was nice to be able to return the favour.

So, here's the crew waiting outside the Tower for me to come back with tickets... They were demonstrating a Perrier (not sure that's spelled right) which is a type of catapult, essentially, specifically for throwing stones. I actually helped demonstrate it, as Olivia forced me to volunteer, but it was kind of fun - there were four people working it at a time, so I wasn't really that much on the spot...



Here's Tower Bridge, always a nice view.




Alex and Olivia with a large themed teddy bear.



This is the trial of Anne Boleyn, who later had her head chopped off (not really) - that's Thomas Cromwell there questioning her about her alleged treason and adultery.




And here's Dave and Sarah on a boat on the way home - we decided to do a little of the trip by boat as it wasn't very expensive and it was very scenic.

It was a good day out - the Tower is not a cheap attraction, but there's a lot to see - you can have a free guided tour if you want (we didn't because of the kids) and there are lots of re-enactments through the day - we watched part of another besides the Anne Boleyn one - so you do get your money's worth. We were all completely shattered by the end of the day, though - all that standing and walking really does you in after a while!