Sooo, I woke up, ate breakfast, went to class. It's a "Fine Arts" class, which basically means it's a "go out and look at neat things" class. I'm excited - most of the things I wanted to see most of all are on the required list, so I have a good excuse to go!
Today, for example, we went to Westminster Abbey. I've wanted to go there since I knew I was actually coming to London!
We started out with probably fifteen girls and the teacher's wife. She showed us around through some winding back streets, and I saw a used book store that I really want to go back to.
Bluebells next to an old church. They were just growing there, not in a flower bed or anything. They have old churches all over the place, just tucked in between houses and streets and stores and random dead ends.
Then we went to a cookie place, and I got one with cranberries and white chocolate. Everyone raves over how good they are, but I think they taste a lot like homemade cookies. I don't know - might just be me.
This is the train station, right before we go down the elevators (not shown). The train stations here are a really odd mix of old and new, and older and newer. Everything is sort of built over everything else - it's fascinating.
After we got off the train, a bunch of girls went to get fish and chips, but we chose to go straight to Westminster. I wasn't very hungry after my cookie, because it was bigger than my palm. Besides, I had survival rations in my bag (granola bars and fruit snacks), just in case.
Here is Westminster Abbey! We turned a corner and came upon it suddenly.
Now, you're wondering: "What's the big deal? It's a big fancy building, so what?
I'll tell you so what.
There has been a religious site of some sort on this ground for over a thousand years. In 1066, William the Conqueror was crowned here, and ever since, Kings and Queens of this country have been crowned, married and buried here.
Of course, it hasn't looked the same this whole time - like I said about the train station, they kind of build over and on top of everything else. Each king or queen or generation seems to have left its mark here in some way or another. That holds true for this next picture.
This is outside the west gate, and shows martyrs to the cause of justice. Including Martin Luther King and Elizabeth of Russia and a whole bunch of other people I can't remember. I know it looks old, but it was actually added in the 1990's. That's why MLK shows up in it.
Above the martyrs, here is detail from the building - the lion and unicorn of England, flanking the coat of arms, I think.
This is us by the west side. The two blonde girls at the beginning are fellow students Anna and Shelby.
And this is us going around from the west side to the north side, where we went in. I'm not an accomplished video-eer, but it's better than a picture.
Once we went inside, we couldn't take pictures. SADLY. I wanted to take pictures so badly! I think I'm an obvious tourist. I was gawking at the ceiling as we stood in line for the audio tour.
"Oh, you four are Americans. Don't even try to hide it," said the audio tour giver-outer man with a grin. "You were looking up at the ceiling."
Guilty as charged.
For fans of the movie Amazing Grace, we walked right in and the first grave we saw was the grave of William Wilberforce, with a very touching epitaph and statue. It said a lot about how he helped free England from the tyrrany of slavery, or something like that.
As we came in, they were just finishing holding Communion. It was rather odd - tourists were trailing around the middle, while the priest and worshipers were in the middle praying. I tried to be reverent and respectful, because that's got to be distracting for them.
We ended up spending four hours in Westminster Abbey, and totally ditched everything else we'd planned on doing. The entry fee was hefty, but I feel like we really got our moneys worth.
One of the supervisors was very friendly and answered a lot of questions. Over 3,000 people are buried in there, and the last body was the Unknown Soldier. Since then, they've just buried ashes.
There were tons of graves of famous people: King Edward I, II, Henry I, II, III, their wives, Captain Cook, Robert Burns, Edward Elgar, Rudyard Kipling (!!!), Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Charlotte, Anne and Emily Bronte, Mary Queen of Scots, etc. We were literally walking over headstones, because they're part of the paving on the floor.
Some of the most fascinating graves:
* Queen Elizabeth. Yes, the Queen Elizabeth. Elizabeth I. That was surreal. She was buried in this beautiful little chapel off to the side, with a ceiling that looked like lace. The grave was surrounded by wrought iron, so you could hardly see it, and it was super crowded, but it had a carving of her lying on her back with her hands pressed together. She and her half-sister Queen Mary are buried in the same tomb, and the inscription on the end says something along the lines of "two sisters, lying in hope of one resurrection."
I'm so glad my sister and I didn't have such a hard relationship.
This grave I don't remember the name on it. He was a servant. While helping his master into a fresh horse on the battlefield, he was hit in the head with a cannonball and killed. His "loving and grieving wife" had the memorial stone erected.
* I don't remember the name of this other grave either, but it was from the 1500's. The woman carved lying on the stone was carved with incredible detail! You could see the tassels on her dress, the very pattern of the fabric, the seams on her shoes, the detail of her ruff - a costume designer could have made an exact duplicate!
* Do you remember the story of Benedict Arnold? No, he's not in Westminster, but his co-conspirator is! Major John Andre, a dashing young officer, was caught with papers in his stockings that proved Benedict Arnold's duplicity, and brought about his own death by hanging. I've read his story since I was a little girl, but never ever expected to find a monument extolling him as a hero, beloved by both sides. Apparently in the 1800's, his body was returned to England and buried there. It was interesting to read the inscription and realize it was from the opposite side.
* There was another rather striking one - it featured a skeleton Death climbing out of the bottom of the monument, aiming a spear at a fainting woman whose husband was trying to shield her.
* Handel! Handel's grave was there, and was my second favorite. He is carved standing, with musical harps and clouds and horns around him. In his hand was a scroll of music from the Messiah - "I know that my Redeemer liveth."
I saw it before Miriam and Anna did.
"Turn around, music geeks."
They turned around and stared, and I got to watch huge matching grins spread across their faces.
That was priceless.
*Thomas Parr. No, you don't know who he is. He was one of the stones on the floor that everybody walks over, but I stopped to read it.
(I did not take this picture. I looked it up on the Westminster Abbey website.)
I read it several times to make sure I was reading it right, and I grabbed Miriam and Anna to read it too. Yes, Tho. Parr lived to 152 years of age, through ten rulers of England. Boy.
Later I found out his picture is in the National Gallery here in London. I'll have to look it up!
Then we went out into the Monk's Room. It's a beautiful domed room, with the arches of the ceiling reaching up the sides and coming down into one thin pillar in the center, so the floor space was kind of doughnut shaped. If there hadn't been ropes, I think I could almost have reached my arms around it. It looked very delicate.
On the walls were paintings from the middle ages depicting John and the book of Revelations. Most of them are gone or obscured almost completely, but there were a few still visible.
Also, we saw the oldest door in England. Miriam threw herself at it and kissed it, and I thought for a moment that its life might be over, but fear not, it still stands. It's just this plain wooden door with metal bands and a sign dating it to sometime in the 1100's. Later we saw some similar doors, and they were as thick as my palm is wide.
We examined the gardens, and here I decided it was safe to take out my camera again.
These are tulips. They were higher than my knees. I didn't know tulips could look like this.
They were gorgeous. And - we heard the tower bells strike and realized three things.
1. It was closing time!
2. We were required to check in at the center in 55 minutes for meeting and dinner.
3. We still hadn't seen the best of all!
So we hurried in, and were walking quickly down the hall when Miriam looked at her feet and squealed "I'm standing on Clementi!"
She was, indeed, standing on the headstone of Muzio Clementi. Since we were in an outdoorsish walkway, and there weren't any "no photography" signs in sight, so I took a photo.
Anna is a piano performance major, and Miriam is a choral conducting major, so it seemed appropriate to take their picture with the "father of the pianoforte."
Then we stepped briskly to the exit, and got to see what I'd been waiting for the whole time - the coronation chair!
This chair was built by Edward I, whose personal life I admire, and whose politics I don't. He conquered Scotland, and took the Stone of Scone, the rock every Scottish monarch had been crowned on. Bringing it back to England, he inserted it into the seat of the wooden throne he'd made, and sat in it to be crowned, effectively declaring himself sole king of England and Scotland through that act. The stone stayed in England for hundreds of years before being returned to them in 1997, on the condition that it be brought back to England for coronations. We will see it when we go to Edinbrugh Castle. (!!!)
The chair itself isn't exactly huge - you can see pictures by googling it - but I was thrilled at seeing it, because I have wanted to see it for ages and ages.
As we left the cathedral, we could hear the organist practicing on the organ, which took me right back to Washington DC a few years ago, where our family did the exact same thing! The organ was beautiful - I hadn't expected to hear it at all.
Then we ran to the station, missed our train just barely, caught the next one, and made it just in time by running all the way.
So, there lies my day! Sorry so few pictures. I see why they didn't allow photography. They need to sell postcards, and also everything would get completely jammed, because everyone would keep stopping. It was crowded enough as it was.
Bye, folks! 'Till next time!
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