Redcoats and Crown Jewels

Sundays are my favorite days here, I think. Everything is a bit quieter, things are a bit slower, everything closes early. Which is inconvenient in some cases, but also nice, especially for those who have to work. Today, I got up early and met up with my friend Jessi so we could attend Mass. We went to Westminster Cathedral. Which is different from Westminster Abbey. The Abbey is Anglican, the Cathedral is Catholic. Which brings me to something I've noticed since coming here, and I wanted to mention it before moving on, and that is the English's respectful treatment and views on Catholics. In the U.S., it sometimes seems like Catholicism is viewed negatively, and treated as such in the media. Here in England, I have not heard anything negative. I've listened to quite a few accounts of British history by now, what with my Jane Austen tutor, and our various tour guides on our excursions. They always present a shockingly bipartisan account of the history of the Church of England with Henry VIII, Mary, and Elizabeth, etc., acknowledging the faults on both sides. It's quite refreshing. Anyway, this is where we attended Mass today:

After Mass, we hot-footed it over to Buckingham Palace, to see the 11:30 changing of the guards. We got there early to ensure good location, and so ended up waiting about an hour and a half, but I think it was worth it.

And, of course, all the horses were beautiful, but this one particularly, dark bays will always be my favorite, as you well know:

The crowds were immense at this thing, but we were lucky enough to get out just before it ended and just before it started pouring rain. This afternoon, ISA took us to the Tower of London. Awesome.

One of the first things we saw when we went through the gates were the ravens. They always have six ravens in residence, and each one has a wing that is clipped, so they can't fly away, although according to our tour guide, a couple years ago one did flap over the walls and ended up loitering around in front of a pub.

The first thing we saw were the Crown Jewels. No cameras were allowed, so no pictures, but they were absolutely stunning. We saw everything from Henry VIII's mace to Victoria's crown, and the fabled Koh-i-noor diamond set in Queen Elizabeth's crown. I remember that from Agatha Christie, The Secret of Chimneys, I think. So that was fun.

We also saw the area devoted to torture, which was surprisingly small. Only 48 of the 72-ish (can't remember the exact number) of the Tower's prisoners were actually tortured. But what there was was pretty brutal. The rack, of course, but then also a machine that was the opposite, they put the prisoner in it, and slowly made it smaller and smaller until the prisoner was completely doubled up. And, of course, the prisoners at the Tower were usually of more noble blood, traitors to the crown. Which meant that they probably weren't criminals, but just happened to disagree with the monarch of the time. St. Thomas More was one of these. I could go on and on about all the stuff I learned today, but I'm afraid it would make this far too long. In fact, that's pretty much been the story everyday, with Brighton, Canterbury, and Dover as well. So just make sure to ask me about it all when I return. 

And, to finish off the day, we got ice cream. Other than a chocolate bar and Nutella, this is the first dessert I've had here, so, of course, I had to take a picture.

I realized that yesterday marked the one-week anniversary of my being in London. All I can say is that I hope the next two go just as well, and I learn just as much, or more than I did this week. It's been an incredible adventure thus far, and I'm trying to take advantage of every opportunity for expanding my mind and experience. Basically, I'm having a blast. Ta ta for now!