The Globe Theater and the Tower of London

The first site on our FSU guided tour was of the Globe Theater. Known for being the center for entertainment at the time, the Globe was Shakespeare's theater and inspiration that influenced the way that he wrote and directed the majority of his plays. The most important thing that I learned was that this was not actually the Globe Theater. The real Globe burned down many years ago when they were using a cannon for a sound affect and it caught the thatched roof on fire. Now because of all of the fire regualtions in London after the great fire that they had in 1666, there were a couple skeptics who didn't like the idea of putting a giant wooden/thatch buldings in the center of London, but it was really neat to get a general idea of what the building would have looked like in the day even though this building was built in 1996.

Next we went to the Tower of London which ended up being my favorite tour and site that we have seen this far in London. I was surprised that the Tower was not actually a very large tower, but the building was made to be a fortress for the city of London. It was designed to be used as not only a prison but also a home for some of the Royals up until the 13th century, but also as a site for a lot of beheadings of very influential members in the British history.

Besides the history of the Tower, we were able to see all of the Crowned Jewels. Many of these had been used in coronations, but they included crowns and septors that had the largest hand cut diamonds in the world. There was also a large exhibit in the White Tower, where the Royal guests stayed because it was built in order to be a fortress in itself, of the armor that was worn by the kings and princes.

I feel like the sites that I saw today are some of the most influential sites in the historical makeup of London and I know that I would have never gone and done these to this extent by myself. I just know that there are so many more of these throughout the city, and of these I am hoping to make it to Parliament and attend services and tours of the major Cathedrals within the next couple of months.