Tower of London

After we went to Borough Market we walked across the London Bridge and headed towards The Tower of London. I was cursing myself the whole walk for having forgotten my camera. I thought this was a nice picture of Tower Bridge in the back ground.

Here's another picture of the Shard. 

This is the monument to Great Fire of London built in the late 1600's to commemorate the fire of 1666, and the rebuilding of the city.

Just one year before the fire, the city had been a victim of the Great Plague and a lot of people had already fled the city and were just starting to come back when the fire began. The fire started on Pudding Lane in a baker's shop, the maid failed to put out the ovens at the end of the night and the heat caused the ovens to ignite. Almost all of the buildings were made of wood which fed the fire along with strong winds. The heat was so bad that it melted the lead on the top of St Paul's Cathedral.

Despite all that happened, one good thing that came out of the fire, it destroyed the filthy streets associated with the Great Plague. The fire destroyed and sanitized a tributary that was basically an open sewer which led into the Thames River and carried disease. Pretty Gross, I won't be going for a dip in the Thames River ever!

As a result of the fire, the city had to be rebuilt and re-planned by Sir Christopher Wren whose name you will see all over the city.

The monument sits 202 feet from where the fire began and the top is a cooper urn that looks like flames. It's 202 feet high and you can go to the top for very little money and look out in all directions.

The Tower of London, a must see if you are ever in London. It's a lot bigger than I thought it would be and the history here is amazing. 

Our tour started with our Yeoman Warder, they are like walking encyclopedias on the history of the tower And have been at the tower since King Henry VII and take part in royal ceremonies still today.

If you love Tudor history then you will love this place. These are houses that belonged to Anne Boleyn, before she was imprisoned and later killed here.

This is one of the raven's here on the property, they came up real close and  look so spooky, up close.

The day we went there was a wedding taking place and lots of tourist taking pictures of the happy couple, it was a little awkward.

Tower of London is famous for it's executions, probably the most famous was King Henry VIII second wife Anne Boleyn.
Most executions were done by beheading, which was considered the most humane and swiftest death. However if the axe was dull or the executioner was not experienced it might take more than one blow. Our tour guide told us about the Countess of Salisbury who had to be struck 11 times. The heads were then displayed on a spikes on London Bridge. It felt strange standing there knowing that people were executed right where your standing and that people came from all over to witness.

Anne Boleyn and others met there death near this spot.

 

We witnessed a London Guard uniform inspection, honestly I couldn't stand that hat on my head or the strap that goes practically in their mouths.

Right past this area is the crown jewels, you are not allowed to take photographs or film inside. I have never seen so many diamonds in all my life. The jewels are so old and it's amazing how the actual jewels you see on the queen are kept right here and has been for decades.

I take advantage of photos with the locals every chance I get! ha! There are always curious about where we are from, most of them know where New Orleans is. But most of them want to know if we are from California.

 

We hit up the gift shop for Brody's sword.

 

The horses armor is so large, and it's hard to believe that actually put these on themselves and their horses.

 

This is the torture room, it made my  whole body hurt just looking at some of these devices.

Tower of London was great and it was worth the money. My kids had a good time and we all learned a lot about the history of England and how this place ran, and why it was feared.

Borough Market

A couple weekends ago we took a day trip into London by ourselves. I forgot my camera so these are the not the best pictures, but they'll have to do. I wish I would have taken photos of the tube station and the train we rode. We got a little bit confused and got off on the wrong station, luckily we only had to wait a couple minutes for the next train to come and we were on our way. That was rookie mistake but if you saw the London Underground you'd understand how we got confused. We got off at Tower station and walked just a short way and we were at Borough Market. Some friends of ours had suggested that we check this place out because it's their favorite market in London. I was not disappointed! Boy, it was big and very crowed there was food everywhere you turned.

There must be at least a 100 stands selling meat, fish, cheese, flowers, drinks, sweets and ready to eat food. It was awesome, we walked all the way around but still missed some things, I'm sure. We couldn't make up our minds were to eat because there were so many choices.

Those giant round packages are cheese and it smelled so good!

I got a kick out this restaurant next to the market, because it looks nothing like the food chain back home.

Brody requested some of the biggest brownies he'd ever seen.

See his little devilish fingers and smile once daddy bought him that brownie.

We finally settled for this food stand near St Martin's church, which is just up those stairs and to the left. I had paella, the kids had hot dogs, and Micky had the skewered chicken. It was a lot of food we couldn't finish it all and there are no such thing as a doggy bag or tray in this area. 

I recommend this area to anyone who wants to literally sink there teeth into something different in London and not the usual tourist trap areas. Anyone who has a love of food and is willing to try something new then this is the place for you. This market has been around since the 1700's being so close to the water you can only imagine all the years of trading and selling that has gone on right here. I feel so blessed to have seen the things that we are seeing and doing the things we are doing.


As soon as you turn the corner you end up right in front of the Shard, it's the 2nd tallest structure in England and they just opened an observation tower earlier this year. I hope that next time we come perhaps we'll go up and enjoy the view. It's quite beautiful and it looks like a glass pyramid, it sits where London Bridge Tower once sat. It's owned partially by a development company and the state of Qatar. One would be amazed to know how much of London is owned by middle eastern countries.

Friends that are just like family

When you move around and you live hundreds of miles away from home, other people become like family. I'm pretty used to having friends that I treat like family. When I was about 5 years old we moved from Texas to Louisiana and left behind all our family. There were times when I really hated not having them nearby especially during the holidays. In our small town it seemed like everyone knew everyone, or they were related to one another. But I've made some great friends that are better than family. My husband and I spend time with them every time we go to Louisiana and they treat us like relatives and I love them and know I can count on them always.

So now that we are really far from home, we've met other military folk that are just like us. We now go to church, and spend one day a week going to bible study and sharing food and stories.  I also volunteer once a week to make food for new Airmen and their families. But most of all I can already tell that we have met friends that are going to be like family by the time we leave. The funny thing is that the first people I met and that made me feel at home were from Louisiana. One is from Shreveport, and the other is from Metairie what a small world, and how funny is it that God puts people in your life just when you need them.

Tonight we are going to game night, and I'm making a pot of chili to share. And tomorrow I'll be going with my new friend to Ikea to buy some stuff I need to make our little English home feel a little more like home. I feel really blessed to have the friends that I do and even more blessed to make friends along the way.

Here's some of the friends at a baby shower we threw for one of them. 

Reunited and it feels so good.

So, excited our dog arrived today from Washington DC. We had to leave him behind when we moved because he was a short nosed breed and they wouldn't allow him to fly. We were so upset to leave him and couldn't wait until September 15th when the embargo would be lifted to get him home. I couldn't wait to take him to the bus stop and let the kids see him. 

Louie has been with us for three years and has been the best dog. We paid a lot to get him shipped to us but he was totally worth it.

I wish I could turn back time to when they were both little. 

Norwich

On Labor Day we took a day trip to Norwich. It was perfect weather and not very busy which gave us a chance to look around and see some of the city. Pictures are not as clear because I forgot my camera, these were all taken with an iPhone and they're not that great.

This is the Royal Arcade it's a walkway between the Norwich Castle and it's so pretty with shops lining both sides.

The market in Norwich is opened everyday, and it's also one of the oldest. I believe that it's 900 years old. This market here is a lot different from the ones we've been to so far. They have rows and rows of permanent shops. There are about 2 aisles of just food. And I especially like that they are covered to keep you dry in this rainy England weather.

This is the Norwich Cathedral, as you can tell from all my other post there are a lot of cathedrals around England and almost every village has one.

This cathedral like many in England is old and has been through reconstruction several times. This building has been through a fire, riots, and abandoned. So even though it may be 900 years old, different parts of the church are newer, and by newer I mean like 17th, 18th and 19th century. There is no admission into the church they only ask for a donation to help with the upkeep.

I didn't get a picture, but just to left of the this photo is a large square and on the day we went, there was street performer singing. Just right of the kids sitting on the steps, was a TV and Movie store, it was awesome! They had Harry Potter, Dr. Who, Game of Thrones, Star Wars, and lots of other TV and movie merchandise.

This is Norwich Castle...
It was mostly used as a prison, and then a museum. But it started out being built as a castle for William the Conqueror. The area where the castle sits use to have about 100 homes and they were demolished, so the king could build his castle. Even though the castle was built as a home, no king has ever lived in it.

The museum received a large sum of money in 2000 and they have refurbished a lot of the exhibits.

Here's a display of the dinnerware that was used at that time.

The inside looked a scene from a movie like Game of Thrones or Elizabeth. It has big arches, and stairways that lead up to the second floor but really it's just a lot windows. In this room, there are two wells covered by glass so you can still look down and see them.

          We had to duck down to get through some of the walkways, maybe people were short back then. Or maybe I'm pretty tall... Not!

These were found buried in a large pottery jar in 1849. It's so interesting to me that in this country you could find treasure literally in your back yard. Even the local grocery store has a plaque outside with information about Anglo Saxon artifacts found when they built the store.

The museum had a large natural history display. Most of the large animals in the displays were shot and killed by former kings. That includes some of the tigers in this one.

Norwich is not as exciting as some of the cities we've been to so far but the shopping was great there's a two story mall right next to the castle. And then there's the market and some newer department stores towards the cathedral which was all very close and within walking distant.