Tower of London

Last weekend I went with a couple friends to the Tower of London, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the city, but also one of the oldest and most famous structures here as well. Built and used by Kings Henry III and Edward II in the 13th century, the Tower certainly has a long and fascinating history.

We spent the majority of our visit exploring the numerous towers and rooms on the site and learning about the different events that took place within the castle walls. I hadn’t really thought about it before, but there was actually a lot of violence associated with the Tower of London and the various figures who resided in it. Some of the famous incidents that occurred included the execution of Anne Boleyn, the murder of the two princes (William and Edward I think?), and countless prisoners held for crimes ranging from adultery, to religious disobedience, to simply ticking off the King.

Although some of these prisoners led fairly comfortable lives while refined to the castle, others did not fair so well. While taking a tour at the end, it was explained that underneath the White Tower in the center of the castle was essentially a torture chamber. The tour guide proceeded to tell us – in gruesome detail – about the various ways in which prisoners were tortured and executed.

Above is a picture of the White Tower, looking exceptionally white with the protective covering around it at the moment. Periodically, they have to essentially scrub the entire tower of all the "pollution" particles that accumulate on the walls to keep them from deteriorating. This is evidently a long process, because the tower has been covered like every time I've passed it, at least as long as I've been here.

One of my favorite parts of the tour was the story of the ravens at the Tower of London. According to a tale, ravens have always lived at the castle, but during the 17th century the astronomers who resided at the Tower of London complained to the king that they were messing on their equipment. King Charles II was about to order the extermination of the ravens, when he was advised by someone that if the ravens left, the White Tower would crumble.

Being the superstitious man he was, the King immediately ordered that 6 ravens should be kept at the castle at all times. And now 400 years later, the tradition still holds strong (the English really are set in their ways!). It was fun to see the ravens there, especially after hearing the legend.

The man in the cage with the raven in the picture I'm guessing is one of the caretakers or "Raven Masters" who works with the birds. He was sitting in there with it for a long time scratching its head -- it was quite touching. :-)

I quite enjoyed the Tower of London, even though it was a little touristy. It’s one of those places you just have to see when you come to the city, and was definitely worth the afternoon trip.

Ireland, day 7

Our seventh day in Ireland was the busiest day I had the entire time I was there. I'll try to let my pictures do most of the talking so as not to make this too long (I think it's already too late to worry about length though!).

We rode the city bus to Cave Hill Country Park, on the outskirts of Belfast, much like Colin Glen (although fortunately this time we had a friendly bus driver who let us off at the street leading up to it and gave us good walking directions from there!). Belfast is situated in the Lagan Valley and surrounded by gigantic hills -- being from Florida, I thought they looked more like mountains, but everyone insisted they were hills. We were over 1,000 feet in altitude though, so whatever you want to call it, that's what we were hiking.

Belfast Castle stands about a third of the way up. It's a 19th century mansion that was owned by the third Marquis of Donegall (a family who owned/owns much of the land in Belfast).

It was open to the public, but there wasn't much inside. Apparently it's mostly used for weddings and rented out for private events. On the top floor, there were some really old informational displays, including the large taxidermy exhibit above.

This was the view of the city from the castle.

At the top of the hill is McArt's Fort, also known as Napoleon's Nose. It was really far up, but three of us decided to see how close we could get, which the fourth member of our group elected to stay behind at the castle. It turned out to be a long and strenuous hike, but I had an absolute blast.

It had been a couple hours and we were only about two thirds of the way to the top, so we decided just to hike back down so we wouldn't leave our other party member waiting too long. Just as we were about to turn around though, we spotted a clearing at the top of a sharp incline. With an exchange of glances, it was clear we were all in ageement: "Let's do it!"

It was SO worth it! Gasping for breath at the top, the trees gave way to a spectacular panorama of the entire city and countryside. Behind us, Cave Hill towered above (you could actually see all the caves from here) and in front was a glorious, grey, foggy vista.

Just as we were about to head back down, a couple of old Irishmen came up the path with their 5 dogs. After a few moments of small talk ("Lovely afternoon, innit? Are you Canadian?"), they suggested we go up a little farther to see the "big cave".

We took their advice and found the big cave just beyond a grassy ravine. It was a little farther than we had time to walk, but it was clear, even from that distance, how large it must have been inside.

Before we left, I wanted one last look at the great view. I scrambled up a steep outcropping that jutted up from the side of the hill. It was a great little adrenaline rush when I got to the peak and found myself balanced on what felt like the top of the world.

This was a map of the trails -- I highlighted our route in red. Needless to say, we were dead exhausted by the end!

But the day was far from over. We rode the bus back into Belfast and then got off at St. Anne's Cathedral. It was an interesting church, and quite beautiful inside, especially with the organ player practicing haunting hymns that echoed throughout the sanctuary.

When we got back to the hostel mid-afternoon, I fell sound asleep for a good hour or so before dinner. Afterwards, I had agreed to go with one of the girls to a photography club meeting for her research project.

We got a little lost getting there when we hopped off the bus, and realized it was not a great part of town. However, thanks to a friendly hairdresser who googled the place for us, we found it without much hassle.

I was quite exhausted by that point and felt very out of place among the dozen or so photographers with their big fancy DSLRs and studio equipment. It was interesting to watch though, and I actually learned a few new things about photography.

Getting back to the hostel was a little scary -- when we were walking back to the bus stop (in the rain and the dark), at one point we were followed by two men in a car who started get out and come towards us. However, we kept walking quickly and as soon as we got to the main road seconds later, they disappeared. It was extremely unnerving, but fortunately the only somewhat-dangerous situation I encountered on the entire trip.

It certainly didn't ruin the remarkable day it had been overall. I had climbed a thousand feet over the city, I had wandered down the aisle of a cathedral, and had spent the evening in the company of some brilliant photographers. What a day!

The White Cliffs of Dover

The National Express coach tore down the highway in the early morning, cutting through the dense fog and offering brief glimpses of the wintry English countryside. Three other students and I were on our way to the town of Dover on the southern coast of England to see the famed white cliffs and check out Dover Castle.

Upon arrival, the best word to describe the town was "quaint." It was an adorable, classic European town, guarded in the misty distance by a spectacular sprawling fortress of a castle. The coach let us off about a mile from where we wanted to be, so we set off into the town in search of a map so we could get our bearings.

We ended up walking around for a bit, but couldn't find the visitor's center (or any open/friendly looking hotels) so we just decided to work our way up the hill towads the castle.

It was an intense climb to the top, which we tried to make quickly because we passed an unfortunately very deranged-looking hobo on the way, heading in our same direction (4 girls + creepy man = not good). We made it to the top in record time, and paid the £11.40 admission fee to get in (heck, we'd climbed all the way up there, and there wasn't much to do in the town).

We had a picnic lunch by the entrance to the secret wartime tunnels, before taking a tour of them. The tour was really interesting, but didn't allow photography. Basically though, the tunnels were originally dug in the Napoleonic era, as a grid of underground passages carved into the chalky white cliffs. During WWII the tunnels were used in a 9-day mission to save France from German advancement in "Operation Dynamo," led by Admiral Ramsay. In the end, they actually saved most of the British and French troops that had been cornered on the beaches of Dunkirk in France.

Here I am in front of the breakwaters leading to the English Channel.

A bit of the white cliffs as seen from the entrance to the tunnels.

The town of Dover across the castle grounds

After the tour, we climbed further up the hill to see the castle. Having never seen a legit castle before, I wasn't sure to expect. I must say though, I was not disappointed.

The castle was enormous. The main chambers (throne room, drawing rooms, servants corridors, kitchens, etc.) were done up in period decor and narrow passages leading up and down spiral staircases led on and on to a seemingly endless number of rooms. One could easily get lost in the maze of passages going both vertically and horizontally through the stone fortress.

 A view out one of the windows

Eventually we found our way to the roof of the castle, which offered a dizzying view of the castle grounds, the distant countryside, and the town of Dover. The vista was breathtaking, to say the least.

Back down at ground level, there was plenty more to see, from a gigantic trebuchet, to canons positioned between turets, and dank, dark medieval tunnels leading to narrow peepholes in the stone walls. The place stirred the imagination like no other, making me think of all kinds of medieval fantasy stories.

Traveler chics :-) The girls were great travel companions!

Leaving the castle after a full day of climbing stairs and hills and tunnels and cliffs and passageways and... you get the point. Anywho, lot of cool archways and wooden bridges crossing the castle mote.

Another view leaving the castle, which, I forgot to mention before, was built as we know it today by William the Conquerer in 1066.

By the time we finished castle-exploring, it was pretty late in the afternoon and we had a 17:05 coach to catch. So, we hopped down to the Dover docks to see at least a little bit of the white cliffs before walking back to the station.

The stone walkway you can see built into the cliff above the trees and the building is the entrance to the secret wartime tunnels. It sort of gives you a sense of where we were. So that cliff is basically all carved out on the inside, and full of rooms and passageways!

As soon as about 4pm hit, the town got a little scary. There were strange people hanging out in the bathrooms, there was something weird going on with owners of the cafe where we stopped for a rest, and everyone seemed on edge -- something about the town seemed extremely unsafe as darkness fell, and we all felt it. Not wanting to wait on the street for our coach, we found a little bookstore to hang out in until our bus arrived, which was a good choice I think.

By the time we queued up for the coach, there were a couple other Americans also waiting and two adorable old British ladies with whom we chatted until they let us on board.

Overall it was a fantastic trip and I am so glad we went. It was yet another great growing experience and certainly one I will never forget. There is something so liberating about traveling on your own (well, in a small group of friends, at least!), just being able to go anywhere and do anything you want, and just being part of everything you're experiencing. Such an incredible day!