Castle Week - Tower of London

Yes the Tower used to be a castle and people actually lived here! LOL... So as part of the Castle Week (which will last three days as it has to do with the Royal Wedding), let me show you some more of the Tower of London:

No this is not yet the Tower. One needs nourishment before a big visit ;) So we went to Le Pain Quotidien for a lovely Easter Monday breakfast :) Once we were all fed and nourished, we took the Tube to Tower Hill.

Behold the view of the Tower when coming from Tower Hill. I have seen it many times before but it continues to amaze me.

The first thing of interest you see when entering the Tower, is the Traitor Gate. This is where prisoners would arrive at the Tower but boat via the Thames. Really creepy, just imagine this when it's cold and dark and threatening...

My favourite building: the White Tower :) A pic was a must of course :)

The bf really wanted to see the Crown Jewels, having only seen them once many many years ago. As it was Easter Monday, it was a tad busy so we had to queue. Some people just ignorantly pushed their way forward through the queue but I really tried to not let it get to me. As you can see, the bf was not happy in the queue... But we know: live in London, live to queue!

Sadly we couldnt take pics in this section, but if you want to know more about them just click here. It's the official RHP site so with lots of cool sections to browse.

After seeing the Crown Jewels, I needed an ice cream... I couldnt decide which flavour so I had two scoops. Yay!

Sadly the two scoops didnt last long as one actually fell down! OMG I felt like I was 5...

While (somewhat mopingly) enjoying my remaining scoop, we walked around the main area and saw these cute little houses that are still being used by the Tower staff. You have to have served a certain amount of years in the army and be of a certain rank to be allowed to work here though so no chance of us ever moving here LOL

Once the ice cream was finished we went inside the White Tower where we could take as many pics as we wanted. None of the original rooms remained though and the whole thing was more of an exhibition but there were many cool things to see. One of them was this armour with original guns.

And this teeny tiny armour for kids (cant remember who for exactly) which was made seriously creepy by the wooden face that was put into the helmet with massive eyes.

Excuse me, I cant see where I'm aiming... LOL we entered the weapon bit. I just love this picture! I was just being silly and the bf totally caught this on camera hahaha...

We also saw this dragon made entirely out of weapons. Weapon art is very cool it seems. If you look closely, you can see that the wings are made out of old guns as well as the claws.

When we entered the 'hands on' part of the exhibition, the bf tried the archery part and of course got an excellent score :)

Near the exit was this model of the Tower. Look at it, it's huge!!

After having exited the White Tower, we walked along the castle walls where we had very cool views of London. I love this pic that the bf took, you can really see modern London in the background.

By then we kind of had enough though we didnt see the inside of the prison bit because I just couldnt find it anymore! LOL... but we had been here for a good few hours and we ready to go home. We exited the Tower and of course ended up right in front of the Tower Bridge.

OMG how touristy can we get? Hihi... but it was sunny and it was a holiday, it was lovely :)

I dragged the bf to Bea's of Bloomsbury to get the best cupcake in town, the Red Velvet Cupcake. Doesnt it look yummy?

We accidentally took a wrong turn after the cupcakes and had to walk all around St. Paul's Cathedral to reach the tube. I didnt mind, I got to take this great shot :)

And this one too ;)

Then we really went home where I continued to have a wonderful nap ;) LOL.

Now before I finish this post, I have something else I need to tell you about this visit and the last. As you may know, London is super expensive to visit and these places especially. So how about being frugal and all that? Well, there is a solution :) Should you not have one of those 2-for-1 tickets that they give out sometimes, there is an even better solution: become a member! We have a joint membership at Historic Royal Palaces for £63 per year. That entitles us to unlimited visits to 5 palaces in London! Hampton Court and the Tower cost about £20 each so just by visiting these two once means everything else will be free for the rest of the year AND we can go as often as we like :) So all in all it is really a steal and we already saved money as we would have had to pay £80 just for the two of us for these two castles. Much better this way :)

Ok, I will leave you to your day now. I have to bake for the Royal Wedding tomorrow. Just because I'm staying at home doesnt mean that I cant bake for it in my new oven ;) I will post my last post on Windsor Castle in time for the Royal Wedding also!