TRAVEL. ENGLAND. SCOTLAND
Tower of London and St Paul’s Cathedral
There is nothing bloody about the Bloody Tower.
The first few days in a new place are fascinating. You are enchanted by everything — a bookstore, a flower shop, a street sign, a tree, a flower — anything slightly different, and you are mesmerized. A writer’s curiosity takes over, and you want to know more. Writing helps to document all the interesting things you discover during your travels. Give it a few days, and novelty becomes the norm.
The trees lining the streets of London (the one which gives Hay Fever to the friendly taxi driver I wrote about in my previous article, London — The First Impression ) are called the London plane (Platanus x hispanica). It was brought here from Spain in the 17th century and was planted for its ability to thrive in urban conditions (thanks to its bark, which sheds in large flakes, preventing the tree from suffocating under sulphurous grime). It has ball-shaped male and female flowers on the same tree, which get pollinated by wind (hence the hay fever) and develop into bristly fruits.
It was a perfect sunny day today, and we decided to use the weather to see the darkest place in London — the Tower of London.
