The Life of Diana

I had an absolutely wonderful day in London with Taty!!  We actually stayed on track all day... we left here at 8.30 am and got on the 9.15 train after biking like crazy hehe.  Our first stop was the Tower of London which was so amazing (hehe you can never see the crown jewles enough times)... and I got to go on the full tour of the entire tower and the complex this time.  I really am enjoying learning all of this crazy fun history lately.  Then we went to a little quaint pub where I had fish and chips for the first time in the UK!!! It was ok (although nothing to write home about honestly).  I was impressed how cruncy it was... but I got a couple bones which was sad.  Then Taty and I headed over to the Kensington Palace, but everything kept going wrong because they kept closing various tube lines... and then we got scared because TONS of vans with police started heading in the same direction super fast with their sirens on... we still do not know what that was all about.  Finally we found a tube line we could take and got on it.  We met a really nice guy from New Zealand on the tube who asked for our number... first mine... then taty's... hehe but he got none... we both felt flattered and super hot though after that.  Sad news though, was that when we reached the Kensington Palace at long last, it was closed for the day.... Sundays are such rubbish!!!  So we went shopping and hanging out in this cool part of town that I went to with my dad (and where I took that picture of that clown blowing up a "balloon" over his head).  Eventually we ended up eating at Wagamama and I had a chinese vegetarian dish that was pretty tasty.  Oh also, while we were walking around outside, we found this vendor who roasts chestnuts outside and sells them to you all warm and tasty.  This was my first time ever tasting freshly roasted chestnuts, and they were really wonderful.  Ok so thats enough chatting, here are some pictures...

This is the bell tower... which is the most strong tower at the Tower of London... hehe the day was so gloomy and rainy that the sky just appears white in the picture.

See the great thing about digital cameras is that pictures are free and unlimited basically, so you can take picture of signs and not have to remember what is what on your own ;)

This is the Bloody Tower... where it is suspected that the two young princes were killed... what is thought to have been their bodies (or bodies of a 10 and 12 year old) were found about 100 years after they disappered and now are burried in Westminster... isn't that so sad :(

This is the part of the tower with the crown jewels in it.  I LOVE the sceptor with the biggest diamond in the world in it (it is over 500 karats!!!)... hehe the diamond was of course from Africa.

This picture I took because we saw this cool looking building with a sculpture in front of it, but we did not know what it was at the time... we later found out but decided it wasn't that exciting sounding of a place.

This is Tower Bridge... apparently it was recently painted and hence its vivid colors :)

This is an example of a prisoner room... they actually had quite posh furniture.  Our tour guide said to think of prisoners at the Tower of London more as prisoner's of war than as hard criminals (which was why only about 5-10% of prisoners were ever executed).  In fact the guy that stayed in this room even got to have his wife and family stay with him... he had a baby or two while staying here.

This is the cool looking gate that is brought in and lowered through a rope.  Oh just for the record, all of the photos taken today were done with my Nikon d70... and I think they came out amazing... particularly this one.  It shows the lighting truly as it looked there without the false looking bright white flash that my Fuji has...

Here was a better shot of the Tower Bridge without the big tree in the way.

I was just testing out cool options on my camera... I LOOOOVE my camera :)

Here is an aerial overview of the Tower of London.

The armor looked pretty cool and shiny... although not as cool as the HUUUGE diamond :)

This is King Henry VIII's armour.... hehe this is such funny looking armour because he was actually huge (length wise... width wise.... even below the belt wise apparently hahahha).

This is Taty as a soldier...

hehe and this is me as Taty's baby soldier...

I thought this was interesting, how they turned guns into art and part of the architecture of the building.

These holes have a really cool story.   When enemies would try to get into the Tower of London (which no enemy was ever successful at doing), they had two options: to try and break down the door or to try and burn down the door.  So when they would try to burn down the door, the Englishmen inside would simply pour water through the holes which would fall onto the door and put out the flames.  And they got plenty of water from the moat surrounding the Tower of London.

Taty and I decided to walk over the Tower Bridge rather than to try and figure out how to deal with the tube that was having so many problems.

And here is me on the Tower Bridge...

Here we are in front of Kensington Palace gates... so sad that we got this far but didn't get to go inside... we will definitely have to come back!!!

The gold on the gates looked so sparky and magnificent as the sun was setting... hehe although nothing could compare to the sparkle of the huge diamond sceptor :)

This is a picture of the gardens with the flash on....

And the same shot again, but with the flash off...

hehe Taty reflecting on our wonderful day in London!!!

hehe look... I found my cafe in London :)

We definitely need to plan lots more trips... there is SOOOO much to see and do!!!  So if anyone is interested in going to London, or to Stonehenge, to Scotland, to Ireland, to anywhere at all hehe... I would love to come with you or help arrange a trip or something!!!

Cheers,

Diana :)

Posted by: Diana / 11/21/2004 08:55:00 PM