Submitted by Anna Reynolds on the 2022 spring semester program in London, England…
This past week, I visited the Tower of London with my flat-mate Maria. The entire time we were there, we kept talking about how surreal it was that we were walking in the same place that significant historical figures walked hundreds of years before. It got me thinking about London as a whole. While in London, you are walking down streets where history took place. Well, maybe not the same streets, but the history in the city is all around, and the architecture just shows it.
You have parts of the city that show advancement with modern architecture, but more than a few times on your walk, you will you see the city’s beauty through architecture. This is especially clear when you are at places like the Tower of London where you are in this amazing piece of history with extremely modern buildings all around you. Little moments like this truly make me stop and enjoy where I am. The Tower of London is such a beautiful piece of history, and as I walked around, I kept thinking about how people built it. It was something I didn’t necessarily think I’d be thinking about before I went. Still, I felt like I had so many questions about how they built everything, like what were the conditions like when they built this both in a weather sense and a workplace environment sense? What were the different techniques they used back then? I’m sure that they are somewhat the same as the techniques we use today, just with different materials and technology. This was a trip where I enjoyed learning about the history while I was there instead of being in a classroom.
