Sister Visit!

Alrighty! So I know it's been a while, but I was being lazy because this next one is a doozy! Liss came to visit me in London, and we had adventures! Which of course means I have bunches of pictures of them. Liss arrived bright and early and we started off on a day of London explorations.

First we took a bus! And drove by this. (Which I still can't identify... but it looks cool!)

That was on our way towards the Tower of London. We arrived to find that there was an art exhibit scattered about, which consisted of some fun wild animals who all seemed to be made of wire mesh. These lions were hanging out right by the entrance.

A pretty impressive entrance, at that!

Some bits of the castle along the walls are refurbished to look like they would have when occupied by the royalty who dwelt there.

And there are lots of fun little stairways.

Along with splendid glimpses of the Tower Bridge which is right nearby. 

This is the tiny little chapel where, according to legend, King Henry VI died in 1471.

More awesome stairs!

And a brief stroll along the wall grants a lovely view of the river and Southbank on the other side.

They also have a little museum section, yay old things! This was a beautifully carved little ivory, that wasn't that much taller than one's hand.

The Tower is, by reputation, where all the prisoners ended up, and many left behind graffiti to mark their stay in the infamous tower.

Some people had nicer handwriting...

This is actually a traditional sign of protection to ward off evil and such things.

And some people had more time than others for their work...

Along the walls were these fun little statues of what life would have been like when it was a functioning fortress and home to royalty.

Liss and I thought this guy might have been demonstrating how the ancient lack of plumbing worked... but don't worry. He's just reloading a crossbow.

More animal art! Someone let baboons out in the castle! 

Since the crown jewels and other such shinies are located here still, there is an active guard on site at all times, and a number of guardsmen and women who live on the grounds.

And some older forms of protection, too.

And not to worry, the crows are still there! The monarchy should stick around for a while yet.

The tower building itself is full of interesting armor of all sorts.

And some more modern artsy displays. These are guns decorated and displayed with Swarovski crystals.

Armor looks a bit cooler in the movies somehow... can you imagine actually going out in all that?

Displays also include gifts of weaponry or armor given to the monarchy by various countries.

A window affords a nice view across the courtyard!

Lion...

And more art! This time a bear.

Traitor's Gate, where the infamous prisoners arrived by boat.

One last glimpse and then we wandered off to see other bits of London.

Lovely monument. (Which you can walk up for a nominal fee!)

We stopped in a pub to have some late but delicious lunch.

And saw the early Christmas decorations starting to go up.

And this fun statue which I dragged Liss across a park to take a picture of.

Before we had a lovely evening cocktail in a teapot!

A ride on a bus...

... where we passed a Rainforest Cafe! Who knew that was here.

Liss and I headed out to see Harrod's in search of giant red shoes which happened to not be there are all this year. It was a nice bus ride all the same!

We popped in to have dinner at a place with some hilarious bathroom doors.

Before wandering out to have an evening out in Camden with a pub crawl.

The first bar had this most entertaining sign at the bar.

And then we wandered elsewhere.

This was a nice place in a fun-shaped building.

With some fancy art across the street.

And on the other side of the bar!

The last place we went to had an -actual- hot tub in it. How one plans for that at a bar... I just don't even know. But it made for quite the fun evening all together.

On our last day we took a day trip out of London. The first stop was at Leeds Castle. (Which is actually in Kent.) But It was a rainy day, so this was the best picture one could get of the whole complex. 

The most recent coat of arms for the castle.

We took a brief tour around the inside of the castle, which had been occupied up until the 80s or so, I think, by a woman who had updated it and used it. Today it is still used for a variety of functions.

Some rooms show the historical aspects, from when this castle belonged to the women of the ruling family.

A bathroom before there were modern bathrooms...

And the great hall, which was being set up to host a wedding later that afternoon.

The tiny chapel (not where the wedding was happening).

A lovely inner courtyard.

Bedrooms...

A more modern bedroom, used by the lady of the house before she gave it over to public use.

This awesome old lion from Venice. It's good luck to rub his mane!

The sitting room.

And another...

A portrait of the lady who donated the house and her daughters.

From the outside, once the rain had let up a bit.

The gatehouse, leading into the yard in front of the castle.

Just outside the gate, there's a little mill that has fallen into ruin.

But still looks pretty cool.

And has this awesome gate.

We wandered past the black swans paddling around on the lake, which are part of the current coat of arms of the castle.

We had limited time, but... THERE'S A GARDEN MAZE. Which we didn't have time to run through, but the lady keeping watch outside it kindly gave us the shortcut to the middle so we could at least see it.

If you were to go through the maze the right way, you'd wander around until you found the middle where there's a hill and then exit through an underground tunnel. So we just went the opposite way.

Maze! 

I really want to go back and give it a proper go.

The tunnel out was like something straight out of the Labyrinth. With fancy sculpture.

Scary faces...

Trick doors! Or broom closets.

And fancy carved rock work!

Vaguely hand looking faces and all.

The castle also had some very nice gardens that were much harder to get lost in, though we only had a brief look at those as well.

One last peek...

And then it was back to the bus. Bye castle!

Our next stop was to see the Cliffs of Dover.

Where there was 'sand' on the beach. And by sand they meant big ol' pebbles. Our guide explained that this was Texan sand... 'cause everything's bigger in Texas, of course.

Us!

A castle upon a hill! Which... I sort of heard the name of and have now forgotten.

We went from there to Canterbury. This lovely clock tower was to be our guide back to the bus.

This fountain sat right outside the gates into the famous cathedral.

And impressive gates they were, at that.

Ta-da! Cathedral! It was currently under a bit of reconstruction and refurbishing but was definitely still an impressive sight. The Canterbury Cathedral, of course, is made famous by the Canterbury Tales, as the crew in the story was headed here to a shrine in the Cathedral.

The doorway is framed by a number of these lovely carvings.

And the inside is some seriously awesome architecture.

And lots of stained glass that was beautiful even on a somewhat greyish day.

Plus, of course, more beautifully elaborate carving.

This, if I recall correct, is the shrine of the swords, which marks the place where four guards killed the archbishop of the cathedral, mistakenly believing that the king wished it to be done.

This nifty clock is really rather large, and still ticking away up on the wall.

This candle marks the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury (which is the shrine the pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales were coming to), which was dismantled by King Henry VIII, but is still remembered today.

The floor itself has this beautiful mosaic on it. 

The tomb of the Black Prince, Edward IV.

And of the King (Edward the V? I think) and his wife.

This stone seat dates back a forever, and is where the archbishop is enthroned.

And because Liss and I are the awesome people we are, while everyone else had a wander around the town, we scurried off to the Roman museum, which is underground and shows some of the finds from the Roman Canterbury which is beneath the modern town. Lookit that shovel!

And some bits and pieces of painted plaster and mosaic.

Religious figurines.

And some seriously impressive if very fragile looking swords.

They've also a pretty wide selection of beautiful and mostly complete glass vessels.

This doesn't look like much, but it is actually the bottom hinge of the main gate into the Roman city, which is an incredibly rare find.

More little bits!

And this cute lion. 

But this was the coolest part of the museum. Aside from holding the things they've uncovered, they have a peek into the Roman ruins which while still underground have been excavated. Including this hypocaust (the underground heating system) for a Roman bath.

And on the floors of the bath (or perhaps even on a street?) are more complete mosaics left right where they were found.

(This one's on a wall, not actually on the floor.)

It was a neat little museum. And a sign in there helpfully informed us that a nearby bookshop also had a glimpse into part of the Roman bath. So we walked over to see that, too. (And also some cool pottery.)

Because of the glass, the books reflected and looked like they were inside with the bath, which was super cool, too.

This castle lay just outside the old walls of Canterbury, but had been left to fall into ruin.

Our last stop was Greenwich. We took a stroll past the nautically affiliated museum buildings here.

And out to the waterside, where we had a peek at the Cutty Sark. Which is a real, still extant and originally super-fast ship.

From there it was onto a water ferry for a wander down the Thames. We did pass by the Tower Bridge just as the lights were coming on for the night, and then it was time for dinner and a last bit of hanging out before Liss had to head off again. A fun trip for sure!