Embracing a Morbid Past
Bit of a crazy night. It was nice to head out into the city with everyone else, to see the Tower in the daytime. I knew the history of this site well enough--how the two princes were killed by Henry VII or their uncle Richard III (you can vote when you visit), how Mary put Elizabeth up there, how people like Anne Boleyn were killed within the fortress walls, rather than publicly like Thomas More, depending on how famous or infamous to the crown they were. There's a spot by the gate canal where ten such executions took place called the Tower Green. It's just a round marble dais with a glass pillow, inscribed with the words “Gentle visitor pause a while, Where you stand death cut away death cut away the light of many days. Here, jeweled names were broken from the vivid thread of life. May they rest in peace while we walk the generations around their strife and courage, Under these restless skies”. Anne Boleyn, three Scotsmen, Lady Jane Grey, and the Countess of Salisbury were among those who were not actually treasonous. Perhaps their private doing-away with sheds some light on what really happened. We paused a moment while the ravens crowed on the lawn behind us.
What all our girls were really excited to see, however, were the Crown Jewels. I actually didn't know that they were on display to look at. While the others oohed and ahhhed at the immense size of these diamonds, rubies, sapphires, gold plates and sterling snuffboxes, I was sad to see such wealth displayed so publicly and so utterly unuseful. It appears that my practicality remains, even to see such gorgeous objects as the Crown Jewels, but the Rose of India only invoked in me a sadness that children starve to death in India every year, and does one woman really need a fifteen-hundred-carat diamond? I was glad for the incredible security, which meant we were ushered out into the sunshine quickly.
The rest of the time was spent walking the walls, checking out the king's armor, learning about medieval London, and even seeing the instruments of torture used during that time period. The rack was the least of everyone's problems. The trouble was, the information given on pain of torture was utterly fallible and often impossible to disprove, hence the execution of Anne Boleyn due to infidelity. We enjoyed walking the little city-within-a-city, relaying the story that so long as the ravens stay near the Bloody Tower, it would never fall. Those who lived in that tower carved their own names or quotes in the wall, and it was amazing to see the word Jane near a window, carved over 400 years previous by a sixteen year old girl. It was a bleak place to live. But unlike us, the Britons seem to embrace their violent past, rather than reject it.
Rebels and Pork Sandwiches
Burrough Market was the next stop. We were starving and had some forty minutes still to walk. It was a day of blue sky and cheerful pedestrians anticipating the weekend. Nice of the locals to point us in the right direction, because we definitely didn't cross the right bridge and had to walk much further.
After Portobello Road, I expected another antique shop and wasn't altogether enthused. What we quickly learned was that Burrough Market is entirely food--brownies, pastries, falafel, fresh bread and fruit, cheeses, meats, couscous, garden vegetables--Annie and I ran into Dr. Tate, who pointed us to the best pork sandwiches in the place. The only downside to buying one so quickly was that my mouth was full whenever someone asked me what it was or where I'd gotten it. It was a crazy place, but I will definitely go back to buy a brownie again.
By evening, I was exhausted and surly due to home-based stress. Bless Nikki, she procured Harry Potter 6 and twenty of us had a rogue viewing in the classroom upstairs so I could unwind and figure out a plan of action. It was really cool to see Diagon Alley and other streets of London look so utterly familiar--I guess the squealing wasn't entirely for boys on the screen....we'll see if Ben's plan for a Potter Pilgrimage pans out. I'm game.
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