1 post tagged “trebuchet”
On Saturday we were up early to meet the 9 am checkout, and then drove to a tube (subway) station at Greenwich for the ride into London. Little did we realize that weekends are repair times for transit. We had quite an adventure changing buses and tubes both going and coming from the Tower of London. Our ambitious itinerary was pared down for the several hours of transit, so we were satisfied to just see the Tower. Actually, the Tower of London is about 20 acres of walls with towers, fortresses, a moat and church and the original White Tower which is roughly the size and shape of the Salt Lake City Temple.
After viewing the Crown Jewels (including the famous Koh-I-Noor diamond - 105.60 carats), orbs, septers, swords, etc. we spent the balance of our time in the original tower, called the White Tower, constructed by William the Conqueror starting in 1066. We took quite a few pictures of the armor, some of which looked just like pieces Brad has made. We were impressed! It was interesting to see Norman architecture up close, including their method of building fireplaces without chimneys, and the garderobes made us truly appreciate indoor plumbing. We got used to climbing innumerable steps in the circular staircases, which the caretakers make you climb all the way to the top floor and then all the way to the basement where the gift shop is located, and back up another flight to ground level in order to exit. This is not for the faint of heart.
The White Tower (not pictured) stands alone in the center of the fortress, surrounded by two sets of walls, each with rooms and towers built in. We viewed the rest of them from the outside, including the Bloody Tower where King Henry the VIII's sons were killed, the Queen's House, where unfortunately Anne Boleyn never lived to inhabit, but Sir Walter Raleigh was imprisoned for 13 years, and the tower where Henry More was incarcerated.
It was especially fun to see the armour (British spelling) and to recognize how similar is was what Brad and his sons are building.
Parked in the plaza (the filled in moat) surrounding the fortress was this large trebuchet. Our grandson Jacob built a model of one of these and entered it into a science fair in Tucson. This one is probably large enough to throw him over one of these walls.
One of the most interesting parts of this entire day was the sheer "reality" of the history of this great nation which has become the mother and father of the United State of America. It was difficult to absorb the fact that we were walking where ancient kings and queens had walked, worried, rejoiced, ate, slept and died. Yet it gave us a thrill to know that it is actually and finally real.
