The Tower of London is one tourist spot that most of us do visit while we are there. We decided to take the cruise on the Thames and finally got there. The famous Tower Bridge makes a beautiful backdrop to the Tower. The queues at the ticket counters were horribly long as it was the weekend. And by the time we bought the tickets we were ravenous and decided to skip the ubiquitous fish and chips and try chicken instead.
The trip through the Tower of London is guided by the Yeoman Warders, who are the official guardians of the Tower. They are often called Beef-eaters and no one knows the real reason why. We had the pleasure of being guided by a handsome Beef eater dressed in his smart red and gold uniform. His manner was enthusiastic and as he narrated the stories of treachery, treason and torture, you couldn’t but smile at his sense of humour. He kept threatening to go back to square one if we didn’t pay attention!
The historic tales of the Tower are gory and gruesome- full of episodes of executions, beheadings and murder. There are numerous tales of prisoners of the Tower and I couldn’t help but wonder if British history was all about blood and gore. I remember our guide talking of one particular chap who was beheaded (I’ve forgotten all the names, as I never did study British history), and they later realised that they needed to have a portrait made as he was royalty. So they sewed his head to his body and made him sit up. And well, if you take a look at the portrait, he still has a ‘detached’ look about him!
The Yeoman Warders are retired from the British Army, Royal Air Force or Royal Marines with at least 22 years of glorious service. But as our guide pointed out- the most essential criterion is that they have to be drop dead gorgeous. After seeing him, I had to agree with that one!
The legend about the tower went that if the ravens disappeared the Kingdom would fall. And even today you can see the ravens there. The Tower is surrounded by a moat which wasn’t very effective in warding away invaders. Until the sewage of the kingdom began pouring into it, and of course, the cesspool in the moat was more than effective in putting off potential swimmers!
I was more than keen to see the Crown Jewels. And couldn’t help feeling disgusted that India’s Koh-i-noor was unfairly kept here. But as we went through the drill of seeing the Sceptres and the Crowns of the monarchy- we almost missed the Koh-i-noor. And so we took a roundabout turn to ask the Warder where it was. And when we saw the Koh-i-noor it was rather disappointing. Maybe because it was divided into three parts- but the size doesn’t impress at all. Instead Africa’s Star of Africa and the Cullinan are far more beautiful. But the end of it, I did come back feeling rotten about the imperialists who had done their best to loot our wealth and were now showing them off.
