Great day in London. We got brave and ventured out on our own. Went by “Tube” (their subway) to a park near Buckingham Palace and got to the gates in time for great position to watch the changing of the guard. It actually was way cooler than I had anticipated. Very exciting. We then wandered towards the River Thames and crossed over to ride, yep, the London Eye! If you don’t know it’s an enormous ferris wheel on the river bank that gives you incredible views of the city. If any of you were at Keble College you heard me talk about my fear of ferris wheels in my sermon. This was way more bigger than any I had ever seen. But it’s a smooth ride and no chance for anyone to “rock the seat”, LOL.
We then ventured back across the river to Westminster Abbey. What a beautiful and holy and amazing place. We spent an hour or so inside gawking at everything (incredible the number of famous people buried there, tombs everywhere. Met a Priest of the Church of England and had a great chat with him. He works one month out of the year at the Abbey as a chaplain, but the rest of the year he has 6 churches that serve 5 villages and 3 hamlets. He told me a village has its own church, a hamlet doesn’t have a church. He was very curious about my sabbatical.
We were there late enough to attend Choral Evensong. Thanks to Jennifer’s line-busting powers we made it to the front of the line and actually got to sit in the choir section for Evensong. It was beautiful and amazing, hearing their lovely voices offer sung prayer as it has been done in that space since the 1200’s! What a thrill!
After Evensong, it was raining so we dashed back to the Tube and headed back to the hotel, stopping for dinner at a Pizza place right by the hotel.
Tomorrow I think we are seeing some more London city sites. The rest of the week will be day trips to outlying areas, including Wimbledon!
Sorry, no pics allowed in the Abbey, but here are some others from London. CHEERIO!