The final stop of our tour was the town of Bath, famous for its Roman baths, built on the site of the only natural hot water spring in England by the Roman soldiers who were stationed here in the 1st century ad. Now that was a fun place to see! Again, we were totally amazed by the technology used by people 2000 years ago to harness nature for their own use...
Plus I always find it really interesting to hear how the Romans believed in the importance of personal hygene and cleanliness... The time of their dominance of the known world was followed by AGES of dirt, filth, stench and diseases... If only the Europeans had learned from the Romans... we probably could have avoided many of the horrible plagues throughout the ages...
I still can't believe how lucky we got this time around in London. The weather was GORGEOUS! Warm and no rain, and on Sunday it was actually sunny all day. Pretty awesome for November anywhere, but especially for England.
Here are some shots from Bath.
On Sunday we visited the famous Tower of London. It was build in the 11th century by William the Conqueror after he won the Battle of Hastings and wanted to fortify himself against the newly conquered subjects. For over 500 years served as the primary residence of the English monarch, a prison and place of torture for high profile prisoners and it overall a really interesting place to see. When you visit you really get your money's worth for the ticket price. We caught 2 hour long (each) guided tours, one of the grounds and Chapel, and one of the castle. Really neat. We took lots of pictres - mostly on the outside.
We also visited the Crown Jewels Exhibition which was pretty amazing, not just because I am a woman and I love diamonds... haha... It is just insane to see how ornate the royal insignia are (the different crowns, sceptres and apples) and how huge all the jewels are! One of the items features the largest known diamond (131 carats if I remember correctly).
The tour of the grounds was led by one of the so-called Yeoman Wardens or Beefeaters, a member of a very exclusive group of 37 special guards of the Tower. To become a member you have to have served in a branch of British Military for over 20 years, achieved a rank of officer, have received some sort of a medal in recognition of your service and maybe a couple more requirements. And that just gives you the right to apply. Once appointed to the Order of Beefeaters, you and your family MOVE INTO the Tower grounds (there are 40 some families there, of the actual Guards, a Doctor, Chaplain etc). They are locked in the Tower complex at night (secutiry) and our Guide was joking that at least he knew every night where his 16-year-old son was... I would recommend the tour to everyone.
The Tower has seen some pretty gruesome events throughout the ages and it's really a very interesting place.
And ladies, DO go see the Crown jewels... They are amazing! Tourists are not allowed to take photos of them so I have nothing to show you, but they really were gorgeous. As an interesting tid bit - 2 of the crowns are still in normal use. One of them - the Coronation Crown - will be used for the next king (Charles of William... we'll see who) and the State Crown is used each year by the Queen to open the new session of the Parliament.
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