The last place we visited before we left London was the historic Tower of London (http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/) .   The Tower of London was once a royal palace and is the oldest royal palace open to visitors. This place dates back 1000 years to medieval England. It's not restored to its original glory but is more of a museum where some significant items are on display, like the Crown Jewels of England and ancient armor and weaponry.

The Tower is actually a complex of old stone buildings inside a stone wall that once enclosed a moat . It's very interesting because the Tower is built alongside the River Thames which feeds into the English Channel and is a tidal river. It was built 1000 years ago so that the high tides of the river would fill the moat.  Then at low tide, the water would wash away into the English Channel all the garbage, dead bodies, and excrement created by the Tower inhabitants, to land on the French beaches where it belonged (according to our Yeoman Warder tour guide). The moat is now dry because of a dam built to prevent the water from entering.  We stood in the now-dry moat and watched a funny retelling of Chaucer's Knight's Tale while waiting for our tour of the Tower.

The tour guides for the Tower are Yeoman Wardens who actually are members of the King's Guard and live at the Tower. They are very entertaining and knowledgeable about the history of their home. Ours took us through the grounds, explained each significant building and then took us into the Chapel where three of the Queens of England are buried as well as the other nobles who were executed at the Tower . Because the Tower was a royal jail for hundreds of years, it has a gruesome history and legends of hauntings. Three queens of England, Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard and Jane Grey, and the remains of two saints of the Roman Catholic Church, Sir Thomas More and John Fisher, are buried under the Chapel's stones. Additionally, we saw the memorial located where the scaffold stood that executed these young queens in the 1500's.

The Armory in the White Tower is exceptional. We saw suits of armor and horse armor mounted on carved wooden horses that have been displayed in this armory for hundreds of years. We also saw a display describing the wild animals various kings have kept in the menagerie on the Tower grounds. We visited the torture display showing torture instruments used in the medieval dungeons in the White Tower. Lastly, the Crown Jewels are on display here, but we passed on viewing them due to the long line. I figured I could see pictures of them on the web if I really wanted to view enormous jewels.