Day 14: London's Last Moments

Posted on July 10, 2011 by mreece85

Today we went to the Tower of London.  As I walked through to see the Crown of Jewels, I couldn’t help feeling that this was wrong.  The monarch is royalty because of their divine right appointed by God.  I don’t actually believe this, but if they were, they break all of the rules.  I am not speaking of the modern royal family as much, but those that have lived a little more extravagantly with their many mistresses, wars, and greed.  Why do they need jewels and all of the money spent on them?  Why wouldn’t they be in the mindset that they are chosen for greater deeds?  Charity, kindness, helping others, basically, a more selfless life.  I struggled to enjoy the jewels knowing all that have suffered under the reign of these individuals.  It seems wrong.

After the Tower of London, we grabbed some lunch on our way to St. Paul’s.  This church was interesting because they had a nice exhibition on the being untouchable.  It was about this lower caste group called the Dalits.  They are from India and their stories are quite tragic.  They are plagued with leprosy and poverty.  One story was of a woman (technically girl) that was married at the age of 13.  Her husband did not take very good care of her, so she returned home.  Her family needed money, so they sold her for 120 pounds to be used as a prostitute.  In the caption, there was a question that asked if she would ever like to be married again.  She simply said that no one will want to marry her because no one will want someone that is used.  When I read about the mistreatment, I wish that I could simply remove them from their situation.  So much of it seems to be a matter of place.  If they were born somewhere else, this wouldn’t have happened.  I lit a candle to show my thoughts and prayers for these people.  Here is the website if you want to get a little more information.  http://archive.marcusperkins.com/page1
While at the church the audio guide also mentioned that St. Paul’s was a gathering location for those that needed a place to pray and think during the 9/11 attacks.  A parishioner discusses opening the west gate and seeing over 10,000 people.  He commented on how they were all just heads in the large sea of people.  I think that provides interesting imagery.  Lost faces, disconnected.
After St. Paul’s, we journeyed to St. Pancras to see Platform 9 ¾.  After much searching, I was very disappointed to see the “platform.”  The wall was simply covered with a poster to represent the brick wall.  The cart had garbage in it and there was a woman smoking to the right and a man in the way to the left.  It was very disappointing.

We then felt the need to move along to get our boarding pass and pack.  We went to dinner at a nice restaurant in our area.  It always seemed to be busy when we passed it, so we thought it would be a good choice.  I had mussels in a white wine and cream sauce.  It was a great meal to end our stay in London.