My folks spent the day with us yesterday, and we all took the train in to London and visited the Tower of London.





You'd think that the children would have been completely awestruck by the view of the Tower from across the Thames; however, they were more impressed by the resemblance of the orange buoys to sausages. They claimed this was because they were starving to death and said that if they were better fed they'd probably have more appreciation for history. Bobby was rather unimpressed, since he had made everyone crepes for breakfast not two hours before.

It still amazes me that there are so many incredibly old buildings here. And what I find even more amazing is that they are still being used. In this picture, you can see the White Tower, which was built by William the Conqueror about 900 years ago. And way across the green (site of beheadings of people such as poor Lady Jane Grey) you can see some Tudor cottages; our guide told us that the Yeoman Warders actually live in those cottages today. Talk about jobs with great perks.





I like this picture because of the odd juxtaposition of old and new. You can see part of the Tower buildings, with a very ugly modern glass building behind them. My mom says that the modern building is generally known as the Gherkin, for obvious reasons.

And this one too - taken from the battlements; a view of someone's laundry hanging up on one of the tower roofs, traffic going by outside the walls.

A few more pictures ...

Outside the Tower walls
Tower Bridge from the battlements of the Tower of London
Boats on the Thames at dusk

So yesterday was fun.

Today has been a lot less enjoyable. Cleaning, laundry, and errand-running. I needed to buy Emily a new pair of school trousers, as hers are getting too small, but do you think I could find a single pair of black pants of any description within a ten mile radius of our house? Pffft.

Bobby had cooked lunch while we were out, though, so - after three hours of fruitless searching and consequent massive irritation - I did get to come home to a nice meal and a glass of wine, which went a long way to taking the annoying edge off the day.

And tonight we're going to watch Lewis on TV. Apparently it's Inspector Morse without John Thaw. Which means that, while it probably won't be very good, it may be the soothing sort of entertainment I want this evening.