Ridgeway Trip XVI: To Westminster!

 Teresa had to go home, which was a bummer.  Her flight was pretty early and she intelligently decided to get an Uber at 5:00 am rather than try to take the Tube on her own with a heavy suitcase and a bum ankle.   She got there and her plane was canceled or something, but she got a non-stop flight home and only had to sit around for 4 hours or so, so not bad.

We were up early to get to Westminster Abbey as soon as possible.  Kim had not been since she was a little girl, so she wanted to see it, and I wanted to see the new triforium gallery, and of course to say hi to my floor.*  There were hordes of people, but we had tickets and so got in pretty easily.**  Goodness but Westminster is packed full of monuments.  It's so full of monuments you can't see the actual church.  You spend all your time looking at the floor or at the statues all around.  The first thing we saw was the scientist section, with Newton, Kepler, and Hawking, plus many others.  

Jean geeks out over floor

This guy had adorable monks at his feet

Edward the Confessor, a small peek

Restorers at work!

A tiny memorial!  I need a banana for scale
but they were only a couple feet long.

They send you on a very specific trail, much like being in an Ikea; no wandering off the path!  This takes you down the nave (but not to to the Coronation Chair in the corner; that comes last), up to the center to see the quire and the Great Pavement (I made myself fully obnoxious by standing in the middle of the steps and talking about it for a long time), then to a side and around the back to the Henry VII era Lady Chapel, where all the royals are buried.  You can't see old Edward the Confessor at all, which is a bummer.  He is all blocked off unless you want to go pray there, and I figured they'd look at me funny if I said I did.  

We got around to Poet's Corner -- Caedmon has a tile now -- and that's the entrance to the new triforium gallery that just opened up a few years ago, so we went up lots of stairs to see that.  It was great; not crowded at all, and full of interesting bits and bobs.  There are a lot of funeral effigies that they would parade through town for funeral processions -- bizarre things -- wood at first, and then with wax faces.  Mostly royals, but there was one of Nelson, who looked likable, and a lady who had a parrot that was the oldest stuffed parrot in England, and looked it.  There were books, bits of stone and glass and fabric, some tapestries and some fabulous little children's folding tunnel books about Victoria's coronation, documents, all sorts of things.  The best part was that you can look straight down over the wall to the abbey floor, and right down onto the Pavement, and straight across to the huge stained glass window over the entrance.

Jane Austen gets dissed

After that you go out to the cloisters (say hi to Aphra Behn), peek in the chapter house and the pyx chamber (once a stronghold), and go around to see the Coronation chair, which is pretty beat up these days .  Then it's into the shop, where I actually found a floor-related item that I wanted, a little pin.  They finally came out with a really excellent book on the Great Pavement and it's huge, hardbound, and 65 pounds.  Argh.

Chapter house art

Dream job

These just made me laugh a lot

I wanted to walk along the Embankment, which I visualized as pleasant, find some lunch, and end up at the Temple.  Well, it wasn't really a pleasant walk at all but we did pop into Somerset House to use the restrooms and eventually found a Pret a Manger and a bench in a nice park.  Otherwise, not so great.  

Entering the City again

Camels holding up benches, ahaha

We finally did get to the Temple.  You can't get into the Inner Temple garden, which is too bad, so I just announced that Shakespeare had set his scene of the rival roses there and we moved on.  We walked through lots of law office buildings and found the Temple Church, which is round at one end opposite the altar, symbolizing Jerusalem.    This church used to belong to the Knights Templar and a bunch of them are buried here.  We walked around, admiring old tombs and the church, which is lovely and has been partially rebuilt.  Wren classicized it in his day, and I'm not sure what else happened.  We also went up a spiral staircase (left-handed, I think) to visit the triforium above the round part, which was nice.  I asked about knights with their ankles crossed having gone on crusade and that's a myth!  They used to think so but apparently it's a symbol of still being spiritually alive and ready for action.  One knight was practically doing the twist, he was so ready.  I had wondered if maybe he had gone on crusade three times or something, which didn't seem possible unless he lived over 100 years; that's why I asked.

Grotesque heads line the round end of the church

Gilbert Marshal is ready to go

Fun tiles

A few blocks up from the Temple Church is St Dunstan in the West, and I wanted a peek.  Inside it is octagonal, and highly Orthodox in decor, with lots of icons and such, because they share with the Romanian Orthodox folks.  And, I only learned later, Donne served as rector here for several years, and Tyndale preached here as well.  But what I wanted was outside in a side courtyard; the statue of Elizabeth I that used to stand above Aldgate - the only one made in her lifetime, though it's a pretty generic face.  And!  14th century statues of Lud, the completely legendary founder of London, and his two sons, looking highly Saxon.  And!  On the outside, two wild man 'jacks' that would strike the bells every quarter.  I think they're Gog and Magog, the giants that used to be symbols of London.  They were a big deal in their day and we waited for them to strike, since the paper in the church said they did, but they stayed still.  Fooey.  A good visit though.  

Octagonal chapel with large Orthodox screen to the left

Lud and his sons

First minute hand in London, and Gog and Magog to strike the time

Elizabeth stood over Ludgate until like 1762

Next door

Another dragon guarding the City

Quite a few Tube stations have labyrinth art in them.  

We walked past the Courts of Justice and over to the National Portrait Gallery, which is stuffed with centuries of portraits.  We saw Tudors and Stuarts and Georgians, and lots of famous paintings and not-so-famous paintings.  Somewhere around WWII we kind of pooped out; museums are exhausting.  Mom went home to grab dinner from Tesco and do laundry at the laundrette, and Kim and I went to get dinner and kill some time before going to a show.  

We ended up at a trendy Mexican place called Wahaca (get it??) and had delicious, elaborate, slightly British nachos and tacos.  That's not a complaint; after all, I eat slightly California-ized Mexican food all the time, and it was a lot of fun to try a new version.  We got friendly with the people next to us after I nearly sat on the lady when I lost my balance trying to stand up, who were a mother and son having a night out.  Turned out he worked at the Temple courts as a legal clerk, which is different than our idea of a legal clerk.  Much refreshed, we walked down the road to the Vaudeville theater to see Six, where we had nosebleed seats near the ceiling, but better than the worst ones.  Actually, we could still see really well and we had a fantastic time.  Great show, very fun and clever.  By the time we got home we were so tired!

These curtains were purple.  I don't know why the camera made them blue.

Our heads were basically scraping the ceiling

**I have an inordinate fondness for the Great Pavement, and someday I will make a quilt inspired by it.  Yes I will.

*Pro tip for visiting London: you must reserve tickets ahead of time for pretty much everything.  This will save you a lot of waiting around!  It is incredibly crowded these days.