Tower of London (11 July)

After class today we all headed to the Tower of London. In a book I was reading about English history, I learned about many of the people who were imprisoned in the Tower and was excited to see it. I was surprised to find out that it’s not really a tower . . . it’s a castle with two layers of walls around it. The inner wall has various towers in it, and they were all used as prisons. In one of the towers, I saw where Sir Walter Raleigh had been imprisoned. I also saw a display on methods of torture—always an uplifting sight.

The highlight of the Tower of London, however, is the fact that the crown jewels are there. The crown jewels include various crowns, scepters, and swords belonging to many of the kings, queens, princes, and princesses of England. Needless to say, this place was under high security. There was an insane amount of jewels there. In one scepter was a diamond nearly the size of a small fist. It was cut from the world’s largest uncut diamond, which was 3,025.75 carats. Yikes!

I found it interesting to learn more about the coronation ceremony. I realized how much of it connects back to Biblical times. In fact, I found many connections into the covenants web chart I was making for the past few months for work. Here are some of the items I saw: robes, amulet, scepter, crown, sash, anointing oil, altar dishes (for communion), salts, fountain (water), punch bowl (wine), christening fonts. I’d say that all of these items relate to covenants.

The Tower Bridge across the Thames

Okay, now you can be jealous. At night I went to the musical Wicked. It was wonderful! I’ve known the music forever, but didn’t even know the complete story. It was very well done and I enjoyed it so much.