Camden Market Fashion!

Once again, sorry for the long post gap. I've got a new computer, since returning from England, so I had to set things up, transfer pictures, and so forth. Camden market is a neighborhood in Soho, London, which is basically full of random market stalls, selling clothing, souvenirs, and just about everything else ever. I was only able to explore a small bit of the region, but what I did see was and alt fashion extravaganza!!

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While I was there, I bought this dress! Isn't it pretty?

Ok, I cheated. This one's from Glastonbury, but I thought I'd put it in while we were talking about fashion.

The Tower of London

ROYALTY! MURDER! TORTURE! EXECUTION! AND SHINY THINGS!!! This is the Tower of London. Once a palace, then a prison, now a museum, this impressive compound is now open to the public and dripping with history!

Back in its day, the Tower of London was a prison for fancy convicts, not ordinary street criminals. Traitors, royalty, royal traitors, and so forth. Of course, it was still a prison. Rank doesn't mean much if your head's just been chopped off.

This is the gate through which new prisoners would be taken by boat. 

Inside the walls was a sort of citadel, which multiple buildings and even more tourists. 

The inside of the Traitor's Gate.

And of course, no tour of the Tower of London would be complete without those fancy hat guys!

This was in the armory exhibition. A robotic dragon made almost entirely out of Medieval weaponry. I don't know why it was there or where it came from, but I want one as a pet. Please, Mom? 

This is Perkin's Steam Gun. A steam-powered gun. Let that sink in for a minute. Epic, no?
It never caught on because of the whole little waiting-for-the-boiler thing, but it would make a pretty epic addition to a steampunky story, 

If I remember correctly, this is where the crown jewels are kept. I think. But then, that had a longer line. 

I totally thought this guy was a statue. And then he blinked.

Sights Along the Thames River

So, just how did I get from Westminster to the Tower of London? By a boat ride down the Thames! *epic geek out* Without further ado, here are some of the sights I saw along the river.

The Globe Theater. I'll get up a post of my full tour of that later on. 

Tower Bridge! *squee* So pretty!

Here was a fun bit of goings-on: since it was the Queen's birthday, there was a  gun salute (below) going on right where the boat normally docked. Therefore, we ended up on a tour boat in the middle of the Themes, by the Tower of London, while a gun salute was going on shore, air flyovers were going on overhead, and general pomp and circumstance abounded. Incredible!

Up next, my tour of the Tower itself!

Shakespeare wuz Here: Stratford upon Avon

As you ought to know, before it hit the fashion and aestetic world, steampunk began as a literary tradition. While Shakespeare lived long before steampunk, or even steam power, was a "thing," I thought a few pictures of his hometown would be a worthy homage.

This here is his place. I showed up in the evening, after the tours had closed, so I didn't get to see inside. :(

Local business, of course, has been capitalizing well on the town's most famous resident.

A Few Scenes of the English Countryside

Three words: Sheep, sheep, and sheep. 

Most of these pictures were taken in the Cotswold region, near-ish to Chipping Camden. Beautiful, pastoral area. Also, lots of cute sheep and ponies. 

CASTLEZ!

Day two of my epic journey! Today I time traveled back even farther than my usual Victorian destination and into the remnants of a Medieval castle! Corfe Castle was built by William the Conqueror in the 11th Century, and even ten hundred years later, it looks spectacular.

LET THE PICTURE SPAMMING BEGIN!

Up next, how I got a tan in England!