Suz's Intense Vacation: Miles is here!!

Wednesday morning Miles got here! I missed him so much and it's so good to get to see him! Thankfully he was smart and took the tube to get here in time to drop off his stuff and then come to the Tower of London with us. Plus it was lucky because there were 2 extra spots on our private tour part so he got to come with us for that too! The Tower really was so amazing. We got to see all kinds of armor that the kings of England wore. A lot of it was Henry VIII's. It was pretty funny because we got to see the progression in his armor of how fat he eventually got. We also went into 2 private areas, a tower where prisoner's were held attached to the Warden's house which was the second oldest building on site! The other place we went was the gate tower. There was a painting in the gate keeper's room that was painted in the 1300s! It was really cool but we couldn't take pictures so I don't have a picture for you. But the tile that they found on the floor of that room during Henry VIII's time was quote "acid yellow and purple." Wow. But it was really awesome because they only can let a certain number of people in there every few weeks or months because the dampness in our breath will erode away the paint. It was my favorite part of the trip to the tower definitely.

Outside the Tower of London.

Inside the gates

The White Tower. Built by William the Conqueror, maybe in 1066 or close to it?

Henry VIII's armor before he got fat.


The Warden's house.

Oh yeah and that night Miles and I had some amazing fish and chips...

yum :)

So the next day my English class went to Canterbury to see the cathedral there because we just finished reading Muder in the Cathedral about Thomas A. Becket who was the archbishop of Canterbury in 1170 and was murdered by the king and then made a saint. It was incredible! The cathedral was GORGEOUS. In the middle ages there was a giant shrine to St. Thomas in the cathedral that people would travel to from all over England, but when Henry VIII decided he wanted to be head of the church he went around and destroyed a lot of the catholic icons, relics, and even churches. That was was one of the ones he destroyed but he didn't get rid of the cathedral!