Abbey Road (s)

Exterior shot Randy took

Bright and early we arose and headed to Westminster Abbey which is my second visit but every bit as astonishing as Randy found it to be. There were no lines! We ducked inside and just in time to pick up a personal tour by a guide with a great love of history and just the right touch of reverence. It was a fantastic tour. 

Westminster Station in the Tube

Westminster Abbey is immense. The ceiling is over 400 ft high with many chambers and chapels and hallways. It is easy to miss important relics and religious paintings along the way, even with a map.

Westminster sprang from a modest beginning of being first consecrated by the Benedictines in 1065. The first big event was in 1066 when William the Conquerer was crowned Holy Roman Emperor. Each transept and tower is more grand than the last; and it is immediately apparent The Abbey reflects the boundless growth and glory of England itself.

The chapel of Edward
the Confessor

No cameras are allowed inside but there were some on the net to share. The modern look of The Abbey is due to remodeling efforts on and off between the 13th - 18th centuries and has a strong French influence. This is the resting place to some of the world's most influential contributors including ruling monarchs. We were moved by the poignant tributes to Martin Luther King, Jr. and FDR near Winston Churchill's resting place.

Coronation Chair

The guide led behind velvet ropes to sit in the Quire just steps from Queen Elizabeth II's royal seat when she attends mass three times a year. We were shown the exact spot she was crowned Queen in 1953 and how The Abbey was closed for a full year to build massive bleachers for thousands of spectators.

We spent time in the closed-to-the-public Chapel of St. Edward the Confessor. The Coronation Chair was off site and undergoing a restoration to remove graffiti left by unattended English school boys in the 1970s.

Henry VII's chapel is just past the marble tomb of Elizabeth I and her half sister Bloody Mary I, who remain symbolically at odds even in death, and the remains of Edward V and Richard, the young princes killed by their uncle, Richard III, to ascend to the throne.

Tomb of Sir Issac Newton

Poet's Corner overflows with honorary tributes to England's best, beginning with Chaucer in 1400 and shared by Blake, Milton, Austen, Coleridge, Jonson, Wordworth, Keats and so many others, including a tribute to Shakespeare and one to American author Charles Dickens. It is easily my most favorite spot. Elsewhere are tributes to scientists James Watt and Sir Isaac Newton.

We covered as much of The Abbey as possible, and learned about some of the beautiful sculptures and frescoes, and saw Dean's Yard, the chapter house and Abbey Museum. We reverently stood next to the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior before reluctantly heading back to the Tube and into the next leg of our day, a Beatles tour of London.

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The Changing of the Guard and Tower of London

Buckingham Palace CotG

The double decker bus was our first activity of the day, and with limited time it was an excellent choice to see as much of the city as possible and get our bearings.

The day began sunny and crisp as we headed out with a backpack full of maps, water bottles and jackets for a day of exploring in this unpredictable English climate. Within minutes we were standing in front of Buckingham Palace with the throng of others waiting for the Changing of the Guard.

Beefeater with Randy

The shift change happens three times a day but only twice a week is the formal Changing of the Guard ceremony performed at 11:30 am, weather permitting. It is full of utterly British pomp and circumstance and a hush fell over the crowd as they approached and formally transitioned their posts.

Afterwards, we took a leisurely walk through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens to rest our feet and enjoyed the unexpected parade of off duty guards heading right through the park with a full military band escorting them from the Palace to the Guard House.

Included with the bus trip was a short ride up the Thames from the Palace to the Tower of London and a wonderful vantage point to enjoy the varied skyline with its old and new.

Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park

We floated past the Globe theatre that was painstakingly reconstructed after it was lost in the famous fire of 1666. It is said that the four day fire, which began in a bakery, consumed 85% of the 80,000 inhabitants' homes and destroyed nearly all of London's West Side.

We passed the Golden Hinde and under the London Bridge to the Tower Bridge with its bright blue steel girders, and disembarked.

The West Side and Globe theatre

The sky was darkening and the wind had picked up some but we pressed on to the sights within the walls. The Crown Jewels are here in the - aptly named - Jewel Tower with Queen's Elizabeth II's coronation footage playing in the background. It was thrilling to be here.

Small display of the crowned jewels

Visitors approach the Crown Jewels from two sides and slide gently along on a moving escalator. The precious stones each have a story and it was interesting to see where they were acquired and the variety of crowns and sceptres used through the centuries.

The Tower of London

The Bloody Tower got its name partly from the slaughter of Edward IV's two young sons the eldest of which was heir to the throne. It was widely believed that the boys' uncle, Richard III, had them killed in order to take the throne for himself, which he did in 1483. The boys' remains were eventually discovered in the 17th century during a remodel of the tower. In one of the upper rooms, a video clip from Shakespeare's Richard III continually plays.

The Bloody Tower

This is the room where Sir Walter Raleigh lived until his execution in 1618. 

The White Tower has beautiful displays of weapons and armor used through the centuries by its most famous kings and warriors.  There is even armor for children!

Part of an extensive display

We were invited behind the velvet ropes to peer down through a plexiglas floor to where the Rack stood centuries earlier, and saw cannons that had melted together from the heat of bombs dropped during World War II.

There was a wooden door still in use that dates to 1066 when Charlamagne began construction of the Tower as a keep and grand royal palace. It was centuries before it came to be known as a notorious prison and remains a fallback location for the Royal family in turbulent times.

Private residences

We stood in Anne Asher's cell and imagined her torture and death for being a devout Protestant.  Beefeaters still guard the Crown Jewels and outbuildings today.

We dined at Shakespeare's for world famous fish and chips and a pint before hopping on the bus to see the rest of the city and eventually settling down for the night. What a great day.