L U N A T A L K with Eva Moon

Slogging Onward

October 7, 2007 on 11:46 am | In General Musing, Travel |

Today is our last day in London before winging homeward. We’d saved the Tower for last. It was impressive - crown jewels, armor and all that - but I found myself wishing I’d seen it earlier in the trip. At this point, I’m a bit overloaded on antique architecture and I’m afraid it made it seem just a tad less special. Still, it was an absorbing three and a half hours of wandering through history. One of the highlights was the graffiti carved into the walls by prisoners held in the towers - dating back to the 1600s. They must have had a lot of time on their hands. Some of the graffiti is quite elaborate and skilled.

There was very little on display from the era we are researching (1200). I did get a chance to pull a longbow. I can pull it well enough two or three times, but the thought of doing it for the length of a battle is humbling. I also tried on a gauntlet (more flexible and comfortable than I expected, but heavy) and hefted a few swords (a well-balanced medieval sword was not as heavy as I expected - only about two pounds) Those big lances from the lists aren’t as heavy as you think either. They were hollow and weighed about 20 pounds (after all, the lists were games - better to shatter a hollow lance than a trained knight).

After the Tower we grabbed some absolutely dreadful fish and chips on the street (never again!) and headed for the Tate Britain for a final dollop of art. It’s a great museum with an impressive collection. I especially liked the portraiture. I’m convinced that history will not look back so kindly on 20th century art - at least on what I saw there (the Tate modern collection was excellent). I can’t imagine how future art historians could see them as anything other than charlatans or deeply disturbed.

Deeply weary now and ready for the slog home tomorrow morning. The trip was the perfect length. If it had been shorter we couldn’t have seen all we wanted to see, another day and we’d fail to enjoy ourselves. Today would have been close if the sights had been less special.

Ta ta!

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