Tower of London, Olympic Site, Greenwich Village

Hello. I'm in Cornwall at the moment, the southwestern peninsula of Britain. I'll be here all weekend, but I managed to write alot on the bus, so this should cover the last couple of days, hopefully finishing with yesterday.
Note: I'm trying to get done before

Monday might've been the start of a new week, but the day actually began with a field trip instead. Our teacher decided to take take the class to the Tower of London.

The Tower of London is a huge castle built by William the Conquerer in 1066. The castle was a royal palace back in those days, and many kings and queens of Britain lived and died in these walls. But today it is better known for being the prison and final resting place of several traitors in British history like peoples Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey, William Wallace, and Guy Fawkes.
Entering the first gatehouse, we encountered a tour guide who had just begun with an entire flock of tourists following behind. Realizing the crowd was to big to even push though, we decided to wait until the next one began in twenty minutes. We waited on top of the bridge spanning the old moat. Back in it's prime, this moat was twenty deep. But it also served as the drainage for all the sewage in the castle, and after several centuries it began to stink. So the Duke of Wellington ordered it to be drained and filled, and it was later turned into both grazing land for cattle and a vegetable farm.
After twenty minutes, our guide arrived. He was a member of the guard of this castle, a Yeomen Warder, though they are commonly known as Beefeaters.

Historically they are responsible for guarding prisoners and protecting the Crown Jewels, but today they function more as tour guides and attractions in their own right. Dressed in dark blue and light red, he was a somewhat comical sight, but one had to remember that these people were actually trained soldiers.
With a booming voice, he lead us through the gates. One of our first stops was the Traitor's Gates.

 This entrance on the River Thames was used to transport prisoners safely to the fort, and up those steps walked up some people like Anne Boleyn.
Continuing past the entrance to the Inner Wall, we got our first good look at the Tower of London.

It was an impressive square keep, punctuated by several square turrets and one round one, upon which the Royal Observatory used to sit.
We also got our first good look at the Ravens of the Tower of London. According to legend, the day that there was no Ravens left in the Tower, the Tower of London would crumble and the monarchy would fall. So for the last several centuries, Ravens have always been kept here.

These giant crows hopped along the ground inside the walls, their wings clipped to ensure they would stay. And just to be extra careful, a cage with a raven was kept along the base on another wall, tended by the Ravenkeeper.

The Ravenkeeper on the right.

The tour also took us by the execution site. Although only a small memorial remains now, it was at this point that people were killed. Here, they were typically beheaded. Beheading could be quick, as with one of King Henry VIII's wives, who died with a single chop, or much more painful. One victim took five chops of an axe, before it became stuck and the head remained by a strip of sinew, requiring the executioner to finish with his knife.After beheading, the head would be placed on a pike and left outside the entrance to London as a warning, as the body was buried in a unmarked grave.

This memorial marks the execution site.

Once the tour was finished we decided to go to see the Crown Jewels. After a long wait, we feasted our eyes upon some of the most lavish items ever to be made. Although the items were beautiful, it was a bit annoying to be here on the 4th of July and imagine that these items could have been paid for by colonial work. And even more disgusting was the thought that these items were the ones the Queen liked the least.

Our next place made me much happier though; the Tower of London itself was filled with armor and weaponry from the medieval times up to the gunpowder age. The keep had also been a weapons storehouse, so all manner of arms was stored here. Full suits of amor, built for a king were here, as well as warhorse armor, swords, maces, glaives.

There was even a couple of interesting ideas for early guns. One such fearsome idea was a mace built with a gun in the handle. There was also some early muskets, as well as some cannons and mortars. One cannon was even tri-barreled, demonstrating again the creative ideas that these inventors came up with.
Our last stop in the castle was the Torture Room and the Bloody Tower. The torture room was small, but had some interesting artifacts, such as the stretching rack.

The Bloody Tower was also the site of one of the great unsolved mysteries of history. Here, two young princes went missing, both in line to be king. Centuries later their bodies were found, but the murderer was never caught (though many like myself believe the next king probably did it.)

That night I decided to celebrate Independence Day by cooking burgers and buying some apple pie, what seems to me like a classic American meal. I had planned to go to the Benjamin Franklin museum, setup in his old house, but didn't end up having time to do that, since we had a meeting for our Cornwall trip.
And now for anyone interested, I shall end my post today with a small interesting story in celebration of our Independence, on the story of the song "Yankee Doodle." If anyone isn't interested, just go ahead and stop reading and skip to the next day.

Yankee Doodle was a song first invented by the British during the French and Indian War. It was intended to mock the colonists, as can be seen by the lyrics.

Yankee Doodle went to town
Riding on a Pony
Stuck a feather in his cap
and called it Macaroni

Doodle is thought to come from the German word dudle, which means fool or idiot. Macaroni was a style of French fashion. So the idea was that this idiot thinks that sticking a feather into his hat was fashionable.
Strangely enough, this song actually became popular in the colonies, and they began to adapt new lines to add for themselves. Infact, this song would be sung in both the start and finish of this war.

As the minutemen routed the redcoats during the Battles of Lexington and Concord, they sent the British troops into a full retreat, and as they chased, they sung this song to the British. After resting, one british officer reportedly asked the other quote.

 This song was also sung after the Battle of Yorktown. As the British were finally defeated by the combined American and French forces, they left the keep and surrendered their arms to the French. This symbolically showed that they believed France defeated them; not the colonists. The French would not let this insult stick though; as they surrendered their arms, the French army began to play Yankee Doodle as a gesture to the Americans.

Hope this brief story was interesting. Tomorrow is the Olympic Park and Greenwich.


The morning began with a trip to Greenwich, the site of the Olympic Games next year in London. After another hour of traveling along the metro, we reached our stop.
Stepping out of the underground opened us up to a bleak scene. We were on the edge of a motorway, with trucks blasting by. Buildings looked rundown, with barbed wire topping the fences. It looked like a pretty beat-up side of town. Our tour guides explained some of the background of this place. The site of the Olympic Grounds had some bad history. During the Industrial Revolution, this had been a dumping ground for pollution from this industry heavy area. As time went on, many of the places around here became vacant and left to crumble. One reason why the games were actually chosen to be hosted here was the promises that Britain made concerning these problems; they promised to clean the pollution, restore the enviroment, tear down old buildings and create better ones, and provide new jobs for the area. As we first walked along a walkway, he explained to us how much work had gone into it. Many small waterways slice through this area; thin rivers, just big enough for a small boat to navigate through them. These had proven to be a benefit to construction of the buildings; using these, as well as the new train system that had been built, they were able to ship materials in a much more efficient way, cutting thousand of lorry jobs with higher CO2 emissions. But the waterways themselves had been a mess. The water was filled with high levels of arsenic, lead, oil, and other dangerous pollutants. They had to clean them, and dredge the waters of trash. Among the trash collected were shopping carts, tires, cars, and even some unexploded ordiance left over from World War II. Afterwards they restored native wildlife, as well as a marshy area as a wildlife reserve.

Moving closer, we finally got a good view of the site. The Olympic Stadium was the main highlight; on the outside, one  could see the steel ribbing crisscrossing, while steel and glass "shards" cut the air on the ceiling. The stadium at it's peak could hold 80,000 people, but could be dismantled later to 25,000, allowing the materials to be recycled once again. Recycling was a huge theme of this venture; while tearing down the old buildings, the committee decided to set a goal of recycling 95% of the materials. They ended up recycling 98%. One could also see the aquatic center nearby. Two triangular prisms, their points facing each other, supported a giant grey blob. It was meant to look like a Stingeray, but many people have nicknamed it the Whale's Tounge.

This picture is the closest one I could find to what I saw. The Stadium is on the top, and the Whale's Tongue/Stingray is on the bottom.

These audience seats in the prisms were also meant to be dismantable. Many of the other smaller buildings also could be taken down; infact, one was scheduled to move towards the site of the 2016 games, to be used there. Everything was intended to be reusable and recycable. The apartments of Olympic Village would be turned into both housing, and a school, whose emphasis on sports would fit the nearby sports venues that would be vacated once the games were over. And the games also showed that other buisnesses were picking up as well; nearby, skyscrapers were being built. It seems like the games had had a positive effect on the entire community here.

After taking the train to Greenwich, we were left to our own devices. Greenwich is the site of one of the Prime Meridians, diving the earth into two hemispheres. This also makes it a prime location because of the time change; in the morning they can trade with Japan, and in the evening they can trade with the U.S. Our big goal here was to visit the Prime Merdian and straddle it so we were in two hemispheres. However, finding it was a tricky buisness. There was a fancier site where one could take a picture for 10 pounds, or a simple free one. We also had to climb a hill, and the direct path there was blocked by a Pre-Olympic equestrian event. After finally navigating our way through, we found the small, free line denoting the Meridian, took our picture, and left.

The girls, hungry and tired, decided to go off, while I visited the Maritime Museum.

 Dedicated to Britain's nautical history, it covered various periods of the beginnings of sailing in Europe, the exploration of the Americas, the slave trade, and the search for the South Pole. It was a very well done museum, but many many exhibits were closed at once for renovations, so I saw probably about half of what it normally offered. After finishing, I jumped on a train and headed home.

Sorry for all the text and few pictures, it was difficult to find good pictures of Olympic Site, and I'm in a rush. We are leaving for the day soon and I won't have internet until tonight. More tonight/tomorrow hopefully.