As a class assignment for my Criminology class we went on the "Jack the Ripper" tour. It started around 7pm at night so it would give the tour a different feeling. We learned about how and why people think that he killed the prostitutes. It wasn't so much "scary" it was more disturbing. I didn't really know the story before but the tour guide took us to every single place where the killings took place and he described everything in detail but he talked allot about what London was like during that time. He told us that the London wall would separate the poor and the wealthy and how the people that would have children on the poor side of the wall would only survive until they were 5 years old because the water was so bad and hygiene was horrible with people just going to the bathroom any where because they didn't have a sewage system. These people lived in complete squalor. Any way allot of the ways that women would even be able to even feed them selves was through prostitution and they would sleep in shelter things for 2 pence a night. They would sleep with a rope strung across the wall and the would drape their arms over the rope and sleep standing up. (sounds comfortable huh) We also learned that Jack the Ripper was just a name that one of the journalist gave him during that time. No body really knows who he was or what happened to him. It will be a mystery forever. 
The trip today started at 9am, when we had to meet in the class room to get our tickets for the Tower of London Tour. Joe Ostraff (my professor) gave us each a ticket and told us that we had till' 1:30pm to meet them in Greenwich at the Prime meridian line. This is where we were planning on taking our group picture.
We started our journey getting on the tube at Notting hill gate tube station and going to Tower Hill Station. As you exit the station there is an incredible view of the tower of London. We tagged onto one of the groups inside the tower where a Beef Eater showed us around. He took us to a church in the tower where Anne and Kathrine are buried (Henry the 8Th's wives). He also told us that there are 125 people that live in the tower. The man giving us the tour said that he raised all of his children in the tower. He also said that it was a great way to raise a teenage because at 10pm they lock up the tower and have a key ceremony. After the tour we went into the tower where the crown jewels are, and it was amazing! The doors into the room are huge bullet proof doors and there was just a ton of stuff (Like the Largest cut diamond!) And most all of the crowns from previous kings and queens. We then moved on to see the Torture instruments of Spain! I thought it was going to be allot more intense then it actually was but I still cant imagine having my thumbs in screws...ouch!
We were ready to go to Greenwich around 12pm and look at some of the shops. This is a small town and it is a long walk through a park and up a hill to get to the Meridian Line so we thought that we would get a head start. When we first got there, we were starving so we found this little organic sandwich shop and I ordered a smoke salmon sandwich...after Alaska I never thought that I would eat fish again but I decided that I should give it another chance. I mean it has been a few months since I have ripped the guts out of a salmon. Well I should have gone with my instincts. They brought me raw fish with no smoked brine on it. One look at that sandwich and I said to my self "There is no way that I am going to eat that, I refuse!" So I took my plate back to the manager and told her that I mis understood that it was going to be raw fish, and so she replaced it with a tuna sandwich. It wasn't the best I have had either considering that it was 75% olives and I don't eat those either. So I had to pick them off. I am not a picky eater but there are 2 things that I absolutely will not eat, raw fish and olives. I got both of those for lunch that day.
We made it just in time to the Meridian line and the view was incredible! You could see London from way up high and I hadn't done that yet. We took allot of pictures and walked around in this astronomy center before we left for home. It was a good way to end our day.
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