The Tower of London

We had a slow start this morning, I had grand plans to do more exploring then we did but all the girls really wanted to do is go to Kensington Park or Peter Pans Park as they have begun to call it.  How could I say no, the place truly is magical and every time we go I feel like I to should own a St. Bernard and sit down on a bench with a pad of paper and pen to write.  Instead I have two five year olds and a heavy backpack full of umbrellas, coats, snacks and a camera, I gladly let them write the stories of life for me.

Eventually we set off on another "Katie in London" adventure as we went to The Tower of London.

They brought their flat Stanley cousins to the castle.

I knew that the Crown Jewels were here and that prisoners had been tortured here but really that was all I knew and I thought this would just be quick trip to look at the Crowns.  What we got was a mid-evil castle!  The girls really didn't have any interest in me reading every historical detail what they really wanted to do was explore and we did for three hours.

 
We ended up showing up just in time for The Word which is the changing of the password.

We had fun playing the guards protecting the castle.

Turns out the girls weren't all that interested in the crown jewels they all started to look the same.  Although Coppélia thought the royal orb was a royal bomb...this is why it's important to actually read the information.

The only room where the girls wanted me to read and explain things to them was room that held the items from the torture chamber.  We ended up becoming the entertainment of the room as the girls kept asking what the items were used for, all eyes were on me as adults wondered how this was going to go down.

"What is that, read it to me."
"Um...give me a minute, I want to read it and then I'll decide what I'm going to tell you."

"These are manacles, they would hang your hands above your head for like 5-6 hours."
"Thats not so bad."
(ok I'll make it sound more horrible)
"what if there was like razor sharp edges that were cutting into your wrist."
"Not that big of a a deal."

"This is the Scaverger's Daughter it would force you to be all scrunched up for a long period of time."
"Easy"

"That's the rack, they would tie your legs to one side and your arms to the other and then they would stretch you."
"That sounds relaxing."
"What if they stretched you so far your arms were going to rip off?"
(shoulder shrug) "I could handle it."

The other room that freakishly fascinated them was the tower were the two princes were held and then vanished then Richard the III was crowned king.  I tried to avoid telling them the story but there was a video playing and Coppie kept asking.  I ended up telling them the story and a few of the theories.  As we continued on our journey we came to a stairwell where they discover two bodies of young boys (possibly the young princess) and of course they asked.  I could tell the wheels were turning in Coppie's head, eventually on the way home she said, "I think it was Richard the III, their uncle that became King that killed them."