London: Day 7

On our way to the British Museum today, we came across a bookshop with £1 books out the front. Christian understood the bookshop faster than I. It's a play on words. When I walked inside I wondered why there were so many busts of Lenin and Marx. Didn't stop and stay.

I was just a bit excited to see the actual Rosetta Stone! This one is for you Joybug!

Today we took in the British Museum. The Museum is FAR too big. There is not enough time to see even the bits you want to see. In the end, we had to decide what bits would give us the most joy. My choice after seeing the Minoans, and Mycenae and the Greeks and the Persians and Asian history was British history...this of course means I missed Rosebud's favourites: The Romans (because they wear red). But then early Britain had the Romans here too.

This mosaic has a bunch of blokes up the top in the pose that pastors still use for blessing, from an early British mosaic - around AD400

Christ in a mosaic from a British floor.

What a cash horde!

We were both quite interested by the section they had on Christian history in Britain and Europe. Quite interested of course, in the interpretation of this by the Museum. Mostly they were pretty good...but then they portrayed some heresies as things that Christian's believe: purgatory, superstitions, works-righteousness. It occurs to me that heresies hang around much longer than we think, get renamed, redressed and rehashed.

Skipper we found some roosters for you...I think these were in with the Persian artefacts.

Look carefully...at the top here here are blokes swimming...with air bags!

Books...The Reading Room at the British Museum (it will be gone soon)

Chinese assistant to the judge of hell...carrying a very THICK scroll with all the names of those who have done evil.

Chinese assistant to the judge of hell with the slim scroll of all those who have done good in their lives.

A shop for umbrellas and canes...only in the UK.

London city is incredibly busy! Every time we have been in the city the crowds have been intense. The noise - overwhelming. At times the Tube trains have been packed! Tomorrow it's time for a change of pace...we're off to York.

London: Day 6

Today we headed to The Tower.

Behind is the building that holds the Crown Jewels

The view of Tower Bridge from London Bridge

Christian's highlight was the talk given by Yeoman Simon. He had a fantastic booming voice, which was a good thing, since he was speaking to a crowd of around 50 to 70 people. He told us some great stories relating to the Tower. I stood in the front at one point, and my ears regretted it...very loud voice!

Older King Henry VIII's armour.

Armour that would fit our Skipper

My favourite part was the Chapel where the bodies of Queen Anne Boleyn, and Queen Jane are interred. There was the lovely story in there of a missing baptismal font (huge sandstone font). It went missing sometime, perhaps in the time of Cromwell. But it was found 150 years ago when it was decided to move an "empty" tomb. The tomb had been prepared for a particular noble, his image put on the top with his wife, but then remained unused, and stayed in the chapel. When they opened it to move it, they discovered the baptismal font. It is now out and in use again.

Chapel of St John the Evangelist in the White Tower - still in use by the families living on site.
This chapel was built for William the Conquerer

Organ in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vencula, where Queen Anne and Queen Jane are interred

Front of the chapel of St Peter ad Vencula

I also enjoyed the palace, seeing how the building was made, the king's bedroom, with his mini chapel. Then the King's audience chamber in the Wakefield Tower, with its mini chapel where Henry VI was killed. I really appreciated the little evidences that some of the kings of England were quite serious about their faith.

The King's private chapel, just off his bedroom.

A private devotional piece

This was most evident in the display of the Crown Jewels. Initially we thought we would skip this, because the line was SO long. But we stopped for a coffee and tea and scones, and the place was so busy I couldn't find a place to sit. Eventually, a lovely English lady pointed to the chairs in front of her and said they were all free. So since I was opposite her, and the coffee making was taking a long time, we chatted. She made it clear that the Crown Jewels are worth the line...and that the line we saw was nothing to when she was last here. When we exited the cafe, the line was so much smaller we decided to give it a go. Only 13 minutes later we were inside. 

That is one MASSIVE book!

I have been disappointed by some other places we have been that seem to be apologising for their history. And with the "uproar" before the coronation about the queen using the crown that had the Koh i noor Diamond, I was expecting some sort of politically correct, apologising here too. Instead, I was quite impressed.

The King's bedroom

The Crown Jewels display had the two "disputed" jewels in the same room, with a great video type display on the wall. This expressed quite clearly that the diamond in question was found, taken by this ruler, taken by that ruler, taken by another ruler, taken by the East India Company in treaty, and given to Queen Victoria. If one is to be truly correct, who does one give the diamond back to?

Loads of stairs today

Tower bridge

Love that British humour!

The display of the Crown Jewels unapologetically spoke of the Christian rite of coronation. Quoted parts of the rite, often the Christian oaths made by the King. It was very well put together. No pictures of the jewels...not allowed.

We had arrived at the Tower just before 10am, and were ushered out (it is actually home to 37 families) around 4:30. We did not see it all! This really is a place you could come to again and again.

London: Day 5

Busy, busy day sightseeing, mostly by foot, occasional help from the Tube.

Let's see there was Buckingham Palace.

Which is right next the to Queen Victoria Memorial

Past the Royal Horse Guards...at just the right time...

And then around the other side of the "block"...

As close as we could get to Number 10 Downing Street...

Had lunch in a park then across Westminster Bridge looking back at the Palace of Westminster...

So that we could get to Lambeth Palace - the home of the Archbishop of Canterbury

Where we found a short door...

And squirrel number 38 for the day...

Who thought Christian's legs were a tree trunk!

At this point we stopped in at the Lambeth Palace Library...the gem of the day. Free to enter. However, for us bookophiles, you can't get in to the place where all the books are, you have to book ahead and they bring out what you want to see. But they had a brilliant exhibition called: Her Booke: Early Modern Women and Their Books in Lambeth Palace. We both enjoyed the Jane Austen reference, but mostly, I enjoyed a wonderful exhibit  that was allowed to speak for itself, with no unnecessary modern interpretation and patronising assumptions. 

Then down stairs...many stairs to this platform and that...and what goes down must go back up again too. 

Finishing the day with evensong at Westminster Cathedral. We appreciated the real effort by staff to ensure that this an actual worship service, people were warned "it's an hour, and you must not leave". We passed by the memorial to William Wilberforce (the powerhouse, Christian politician behind the abolition of slavery in the UK and her dominions), and on the way out the memorial to missionary David Livingstone. No photography inside...so this is us on our way out.

Definitely keeping to a walking holiday...today we maxed out at 24 167 steps!

London: Day 4

 Christian is quite crook and has decided to spend the day in bed.

What to do in a big, new city all by yourself? I decided to head for The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew.

I had a delightful day wandering around. It's a confusing thing, my watch and step timer is on NSW time, so my step counter starts again just before midday...But in that time after midday to 9pm I managed well over 12 000 steps. I guess that gives you an idea of how many steps we are getting in a day...there is a lot of walking going on. 

SO many salvias! I need more!!

And it seems Britons like stairs...6 flights of stairs to our little flat, multiple flights of stairs to get on and off platforms for trains, stairs on buses (but there's nothing quite like sitting up top on a double decker bus, takes me back to being a kid when we had a double decker bus).

The bubble bees are HUGE!!

This evening we found a delightful, little Indian restaurant. And better yet, there were no screens! We had a delicious, spicy meal to blow away Christian's cold. Very enjoyable, and left overs for tomorrow night.

Today's squirrel count: 12 and some very friendly birds.

London: Day 3

I think being a Tube train driver would be awfully fun. We caught a VERY full Tube train this afternoon in order to get away from an extremely crowded Camden Town. I do remember watching a video explaining how busy Camden Town is on a Sunday…but I forgot it until we got there! This Tube train had the nicest driver/announcer, making very polite requests to travellers. I think such polite requests possibly keeps everyone calmer and more likely to be polite to others. One unwell lady asked for a seat, two gentlemen rose quickly to offer theirs.

Even better on our Tube back at the end of the evening the driver/announcer spoke again...this time instead of a smooth, gentle tone, it was a gruff, gravelly voice with a strong British accent. We both thought he was putting on at first, but his voice was so good Christian even suggested doing something to get him to speak again!

We went to church at Luther-Tyndale Lutheran church. A lovely bunch of diverse people, great organ playing and good preaching.

Following church we went via Camden Town to the National Gallery. There may be nonsense art there (or fart as we call it), but for the first time ever on a visit to a gallery, I saw none! The British government has great taste in art. So many beautiful pieces of art reflecting on biblical stories.

I just love Jesus affection and delight in His mother Mary

The incredulous face of Thomas checking out Jesus really is alive.

One very unhappy Martha, you can see Mary at Jesus feet in the other room.

With super tired feet we stopped into St Martins-on-the-Field for an evensong choral service. Beautiful music. Beautiful ceiling. Disappointing front window. Minimalist altar area. Ugly processional cross.

Not particularly impressed with anything but the Georgian ceiling!

They had a mighty, beautiful organ.