Ginger Without Borders

I don’t know if Lauren will make it through the entire 2 weeks she is here without her legs actually giving up on us. It is 11pm currently, and she has been asleep for 2 hours already. The second we got to Tringa’s house (where we are staying) Lauren laid in bed, attempted talking to us for about 30 minutes, then curled in a ball and fell fast asleep. (Tringa and I, on the other hand, are working side-by-side on our to-do list items until the wee hours of the morning).

Today we walked: from County Hill, along the Thames Riverbank, past Shakespeare’s Globe (where we stopped yesterday), down to Tower Bridge. We were planning on going up in the Tower Bridge experience, but the line was out the door so we chose to go to the Tower of London instead.

Y’all – did you know the Tower of London is essentially a mini-town in and of itself?? Like no joke – people LIVE in the Tower of London. Because it isn’t just a tower, its a fortress. With the Crown Jewels. And a shit ton of military personnel. Essentially there are 38-ish Yeoman Warders at the Tower of London (also known as Beefeaters) who are responsible for taking visitors on tours of the Tower each day and looking after the security of the Tower and its surrounding area. The Yeoman and their families all live inside the Tower of London – essentially making its population around 100 people.

The Tower is also residence of a group of Ravens. Legend has it that the kingdom and the Tower will fall if the six resident ravens even leave the fortress. Currently there are seven ravens in the Tower, and they are all taken care of by a Yeoman who is called the Ravenmaster. Y’all – these ravens get fed 170g of raw meat a day, plus bird biscuits soaked in blood. And still one of the resident Ravens stalked Lauren and I while we were eating lunch, staring me down and clearly eyeing my Sausage Rolls. Have you seen a Raven??? These birds are HUGE. And extremely cunning! I’m not planning on fighting one for a sausage roll; that bird would beat me and definitely leave a scar. Instead I chose to put my food away and advise Lauren to do the same. (Later I saw one raven who captured some poor soul’s lunch which was not guarded well enough. The poor woman was trying to steal back what remained of her food while the Raven was tearing her sandwich apart.)

The Tower was also the location of multiple public executions – including many Queens of England (Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, Jane Grey, to name a few) – and many of these poor souls are currently buried in the Tower’s grounds. When renovating one of the chapels, the workman found over 1,000 bodies buried underneath the church – many of whom had been beheaded. The Tower of London is said to be one of the most haunted places on earth – I can definitely see why.

There are so many stories to tell about the Tower; I would highly recommend attending a tour by one of the Yeoman should you ever be in London! It is free with entry! Or read a book about its bloody history. Totally worth it!

P.S. Dad – Still alive, and thankfully not haunted by any of the ghosts from the Tower (but let’s be honest, it’d be pretty cool to be haunted by a ghost of a queen though right?)