The Tower "Blocks"...Day 5b

Although the Tower of London was next to the Tower Bridge, it was going to be quite a hike (several blocks) (hence the title of this post) to arrive at the actual entrance so we  stopped at a convenient Starbucks to fortify ourselves for the hike. Actually, we just needed access to the internet so we grabbed some coffee or tea or juice or pastries in order to justify our presence in the coffee shop. And actually it wasn't just any Starbucks but a Starbucks nestled at the foot of a swanky 4 star hotel. Nice.  (a 4 star hotel is swanky, right?) The name of the hotel was (what else) the Tower Hotel. Looking out the window we could see St. Katherine's Dock, the Thames River and, of course, the Tower Bridge. And we all very much enjoyed our coffee, tea, juice and/or pastries. And did what we had to do on the internet...

The Tower side of the Thames River. I am not quite sure what the significance of the cannons was. Although you can be sure that if we were a group of males, we would  be able to answer that question and any other questions that might arise about ballistics, range, when they were used, whether they were moved on caissons or if they were stationary munitions. However, being females, we were satisfied just knowing they were cannons. And then we moved on to the next important thing...which was taking pictures of each other.

                                              

                                                                          

                    The sun shares its glory with Rachel. Not sure which one is more radiant...

                                                                             

                                                 Sara, beautiful Sara, looking like a model
 

                                                                   Heather and Sara
      (I don't why sweet Heather didn't rate a solo picture. She is just so lovely and undemanding.)
           (she also has an endearing motherly way about her...and an alarming sense of humor)

                                                       Me, the quintessential tourist
            raincoat, warm sweater, camera in hand and London pass hanging around my neck
                                           Obviously, I didn't care if I looked like a tourist.

                                           These girls, on the other hand, were stylin' all the way.

                                   From Bridge to Tower, we walked on this cobblestone road.

                                                   

Traitor's Gate from the outside wall. Back in the day, the wall was right next to the river and boats were able to row right up to and then through the Traitor's Gate.
                                         More about this later...

                   

                                                    Pansies, sweet and fresh as spring (or fall)

                                      The first one of many Tower of London souvenir shops...
They wanted to make sure that we didn't miss the chance to get raven keychains or beefeater teddy bears or pretend crowns or Tower of London souvenir spoons or chopping block pencil sharpeners... 
                                                       (sorry for the gallows humor)

                              Group tour of the complex with tour guide in full beefeater regalia. 

   Trebuchet...otherwise known as a catapult. It was just outside the walls of the complex. Too bad they didn't have a demonstration...that would have been pretty cool. If we were guys...which we weren't. So I took a picture...and we moved on to more important things...like taking pictures of each other...