Tower of London and The Shard

From London Liverpool Street, we passed by 30 St Mary Axe known as the Gherkin, walked toward the Tower of London.

 

 

Rubbish, rubbish, rubbish! This is London!

 

 

I'd seen this view several times, but never been to the Tower of London. Since I've studied history of England, I wanted to visit there.

 

 

We queued up to buy tickets and I couldn't believe my eyes. To say nothing of expensive ticket, but did you notice? The admission prices were shown in big letters, but that is the price including voluntary donation. And another price excluding donation was shown in small letters... I think "donation" means an act or instance of presenting a gift or contribution by "the will of contributors". If you say "Two adults, please", ticket officer say the total price including voluntary donation without asking. At this point, it's not a "voluntary" nor "donation" anymore. Then, why do they need to show both prices? It's confusing. If they want to money for maintenance and preservation, they don't need to show the price excluding donation. Just say £2 of this price is used for our maintenances of historical buildings, thank you for your corporation. On the other hand, if they prefer to say "donation", they don't need to show the price including voluntary donation, and just install donation boxes somewhere. Whatever the case, I found some donation boxes in the buildings though... Anyway, we paid £42.90 for 2 adults INCLUDING VOLUNTARY DONATION BY OUR WILL.

 

 

Well, well, well, I tend to write passionately about complaining matters... In fact, I got a good score about complaint letter in English test... Let's calm down...

 

 

I expected the bloody dark place, but there was completely touristy place. The buildings and objects are real but I felt as if I was in the Disney World.  To be honest, that was a shame. But the site is big and I think it was worth watching at least once. Especially Wall Walks was nice.

 

 

Inside the White Tower is exhibition hall, you can see many valuable objects. Many objects caught my eye, and I forgot to think of actual spaces of this building and real people there.

 

 

 

This is the room George, Duke of Clarence was murdered by drowning in a barrel of wine. The room is located on lonely edge of the exhibit buildings. Unfortunately, now it's next to toilet for visitors...

 

 

After we left the Tower of London, we went to the Shard, the highest building in London, and also Europe. There is the observation deck that offers a great view of London, but we went to a restaurant on 31 floor to have a cup of coffee. Yes, I came back with one-pieced dress:) 
(see previous article; Wander-around-London)

 

It was not busy and we could have seat by the window. The view was wonderful. We enjoyed the nice coffee and the great view all together.