Day 3, Part 5: Monday, November 5, 2001

The Tower Bridge

After we came out of the Tower of London, we stayed around in the area. I took the first picture of the Tower Bridge from the side of the Tower of London. Then we shopped, and ate dinner. We had made arrangements to take a night walking tour with a Jack the Ripper theme. Just before we went up to the area where we were to join the group, I took the second picture while resting the camera on a fence on the edge of the River Thames. It turned out better than I could have hoped.

The Jack the Ripper walking tour was very interesting. The woman who led our group was very well informed. The murders were so horrific, and the type of abuse that occurred to the women was unheard of at the time in London. We were taken to as many of the related sites as possible. Some places in London had not changed much, and some places no longer exist. The police forces of the time did not have tools available to them that are available now. Some evidence was destroyed before anyone even at the time could look at it. There are many ideas about who Jack was. Volumes have been written, and many movies have been created. One view is that it was a member of the royal family. Another is that it was a travelling salesman who went to London at the end of each month, since the murders took place during the week surrounding the beginning of a month. On theory was that he was a Freemason because of the way certain words were spelled in a chalked message on a doorpost near one of the victim's bodies. There is the theory that the real Jack did all but the last murder. On and on and on. Anyway -- we were thoroughly entertained and thoroughly grossed out -- if that is possible.

London and Cotswold pictures you have seen