While planning this trip I thought maybe we would skip London. We’d been there before. In order to cross the channel to the European continent, though, we needed to get on a train in London. And, honestly, our prior London trip had been more years ago than I’d like to count.

That trip was a gray and gloomy Thanksgiving weekend on one of those hulking tour buses that I keep talking about. We got on the bus way back in Germany, where we were living. Crazy, but we used to do stuff like that on our weekends back then. On that tour, we saw all the highlights like the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London, as well as things that weren’t, like a Beefeater medieval dinner complete with singing madrigals.

One thing I wanted to redo from that trip was Westminster Abbey. I hardly remembered our tour through it, and over the years since then I’ve heard many things about the church that I wanted to see. We didn’t visit St. Paul’s cathedral that time, either. I decided that a walking jaunt from one to the other was doable. And Cal, in his affable way, thought that anything we did would be just fine.

To get from our AirBnB, we needed to hop on one of those double decker buses that London is famous for. We were able to get a coveted front-row seat on the top level for our own personal London street tour.

Looking up as we went into Westminster Abbey, I was surprised to see statues of people I recognized. These are martyrs from every continent who represent all who were oppressed or persecuted for their faith in the 20th century. Very modern, for an old cathedral.

The two I recognized were Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., fifth from left, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer of Germany, second to the right from him, killed by the Nazis in 1945. Niches for the statues were completed in the 15th century but never added until 1995.

We chose to be part of a 90 minute Verger-guided tour, which is a great way to learn the history of this Anglican church.

Forty monarchs have been crowned here since the year 1066. We saw the uncomfortable-looking chair that every monarch has sat in for their coronation, and sure enough, when King Charles II was recently crowned, there he was in that chair.

So many tombs! 3,000 people are buried within Westminster’s walls. That includes all of the royals until George II in 1760, because of space restraints. There is Mary Queen of Scots and her son, whose home I saw at Edinburgh Castle. In the scientists’ area are Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, and a new grave: Steven Hawking.

The cherubs in the memorial in their honor are so cute:

There is also a poets and musicians corner, where Chaucer, Kipling, Dickens, Handel and others are buried. I was pleased to see a memorial to the Bronte sisters, even though they are not buried here.

Outside again to exit, we walked through the cloisters of the abbey that was once here. Westminster Abbey received incendiary cluster bombing by the Nazis in 1941 and the cloisters sustained heavy damage. It has been reconstructed, like many other areas of the church.

Back out into the bright sunshine, we walked near Parliament and admired the statues. I had just finished reading Erick Larson’s “The Splendid and the Vile”, about the early days of Winston Churchill’s time as prime minister, and was pleased to see his statue.

I’m always happy to see women honored, because there aren’t as many statues of them. Here is Millicent Garret Fawcett, a politician and champion for women’s rights around the turn of the century.

We walked over the Thames and got a view of Big Ben. I was more excited than I thought I would be to see both again.

Then, over the river to an exceptionally crowded and touristy area for a view of the London Eye, which we did not ride.

By now, we’d had lunch, crossed back over the river, and were walking towards St. Paul’s Cathedral in earnest. Twining’s Tea is along the way, and since that is one of my favorite brand of teas, a stop was obligatory. The shop has been in this location since 1706! You have to excuse the Chinamen on top of their facade. It’s an old stereotype, but they have only been there for a few centuries.

Although it was a pleasure to go inside, I was actually a little disappointed in their selection. Still, I was able to purchase individual tea bags in several flavors. Cal waited patiently outside for me and rested his tired feet.

Twinings is on an old thoroughfare called “The Strand”, and I admired the architecture in the buildings and monuments that we saw as we walked. The Temple Bar monument with its statue of Queen Victoria and the spiky dragon, symbol of London, marks the end of the Strand. It sits next to the corner of the Royal Courts of Justice.

Some fortification was needed before entering St. Paul’s Cathedral, and that came in the form of a shared sticky toffee pudding.

St. Paul’s is another Anglican cathedral, the first to be built after the Reformation. We were so amazed at the splendid mosaics in the ceiling and on the walls. There are mosaics everywhere. They are made of colored glass and gold leaf. These were done at the request of Queen Victoria, who thought the cathedral was looking too drab. The mosaics glitter and sparkle and make a person wonder exactly how anyone could create something so magnificent.

There are painted scenes of the life of Paul up in the lofty dome.

At St. Paul’s, there is almost more than the eye could take in.

As we were walking about, the choir started practicing. The music was so lovely that we decided to stay and wait for the evensong service. While we waited, we wandered below the cathedral, where the crypts are. Among others, there is the tomb of the Duke of Wellington, Napoleon’s conqueror, and also Florence Nightingale. Christopher Wren, the builder of St. Paul’s is buried here as well.

The evensong service capped off this first day in London. There were two more to come, and ironically, we were here on another holiday weekend. This time it was London’s holiday, not ours: the Summer Bank Holiday which made it a three day weekend. Sometimes, when one is on a long trip, this can’t be avoided, and I didn’t even know that Monday was a holiday until we got there. Crowd levels don’t matter much in a city like London unless one is in the biggest tourist areas, though, and except for our stroll past the London Eye, that’s not where we were. The entire city is busy anyway. We were in the Westminster Abbey area early in the day, which also helps. I’ll have more for you on our London weekend the next time I post.

Next time – more sights and tastes of London