London – A Traveling Fool

August 19, 2024

Viking British Isles Explorer Cruise: London

My flight left the US on the 3^rd of July, arriving on the 4^th. It was the day of the UK General Election. The only other time I had been in Britain for a General Election was back in 1997 when the Labour party won by a landslide and Tony Blair began his first term as Prime Minister. I was very interested to see how this election would turn out.

Upon arrival at London’s Heathrow airport, after customs and luggage, I was met by a representative from Viking Cruises. This was my first time with Viking. I had done a couple of river cruises before: the Nile in Egypt with Movenpick, and a Grand France river cruise with Avalon Waterways. I had also gone on one other small ocean-going ship in the Aegean (to Greek Islands and Turkey) with a French line, Louis Cristal. With those ships, there were no children, no casinos, and an emphasis on learning the history, art and culture of the places we would visit. The same applied to Viking.

The ship, Viking Neptune, was supposed to be docked at Greenwich. But when docking the day before, the winds were too high for them to do so. We took the northern M25 loop to Tilbury. I had been to London many times before and had visited Greenwich several times in the past as well. I really like Greenwich and had planned to spend my day there, wandering around and exploring. Ended up spending the day mainly on the ship, exploring that and taking photos.

My stateroom was a Deluxe Veranda on Deck Five. I was just two decks directly above the tenders/lifeboats. The World Café, which served breakfast, lunch, and dinner buffet meals opened early for lunch. I love the idea of a buffet on such trips as I can choose what I want and how much. I tend to prefer smaller amounts of a variety of dishes — usually seafood or fish with a couple of vegetables, some fruit, and possibly a salad. If I have dessert, it is usually a sorbet or a mousse of some kind. They had some delicious salmon with grilled vegetables. I had some fruit salad and some seafood salad with that. I was also served a welcome drink involving bourbon and a premium Riesling. I had signed up for the Silver Spirits package so I could have better wines and an occasional cocktail.

I could get into my stateroom at 1pm. My cases were already there waiting for me. I unpacked and got organized for both dinner (the relatively casual dress code did involve something a bit nicer than a T-shirt and jeans) and the following day. The tickets for the shore excursions for which I had signed up were there, except for the excursion to Scone Palace in Edinburgh. Not enough people had signed up for that one. They provided me with an automatic refund. I could also sign up for a different excursion right there from my room. Had a nice early dinner too and, since I didn’t sleep on the plane from the States, turned in a bit early.

I had signed up for the walking tour of Greenwich for the following day. That was the only excursion they had available for that day and it was included (free of charge). Even though I had been to Greenwich many times on previous visits, I still wanted to go on the tour. You never know. I could learn something new or see something I hadn’t seen before. Since we hadn’t been able to dock at Greenwich, I was especially glad I had signed up. We were loaded onto a clipper that would take us up the Thames and deliver us at Greenwich’s dock.

I met a couple of very nice ladies from Long Beach, California (Sherry and Christine) and ended up hanging out with them for much of this excursion and quite often for presentations and dinner on the ship.

We started with the Cutty Sark. My mom and I had toured this ship on our very first trip to London in 1983 – long before the fire in 2007 that nearly destroyed her. I visited her again in 2016. The ship was named after a witch in the Robert Burns poem “Tam o’Shanter”. The figurehead of the ship is supposed to represent the witch. The Cutty Sark was built in 1791 as one of the last of the tea clippers. Although it was one of the last, it was one of the fastest. But, when steamships took over the tea trade, the Cutty Sark was then used for the wool trade from Australia. After that, she became a training ship and was finally put in permanent dry dock in Greenwich as a museum.

From there we went to the statue of Sir Walter Raleigh in front of the Visitor Centre and then to the Old Royal Naval College. This was the site of Greenwich Palace, which was the birthplace of Henry VIII, Mary I and Elizabeth I. Then we went past the National Maritime Museum to the Queen’s House. This was built in 1616 on the grounds of Greenwich Palace and is now part of the National Maritime Museum. From there we looked up the hill at the Royal Observatory. Then came the one new thing that I had not ever seen before. Nelson’s ship in a bottle.

Throughout all of this, the heavens would periodically open up and drop some fairly heavy rain on us. A few minutes later, the rain would stop only to come gushing down again a few minutes after that. I was wearing a rain jacket with a hood that was strapped down over a baseball cap, allowing me to take my photos either by camera or phone without having to deal with an umbrella. Although I was surprised to encounter such chilly weather in July, all of my prior trips to the UK had taught me to always be prepared for the potential of rain, snow, hail or all three.

Our last stop was to take a quick photo of St Alfege Church. The church was built on the supposed spot where St Alfege was martyred in 1012. The church was built around 1290. Henry VIII was baptized there in 1491. The present church was rebuilt in 1712-1714 after the medieval church collapsed due to the number of burials both inside and out.

By the time we returned to the clipper to head back to our ship in Tilbury, the rain was coming down in torrents again. I still managed to capture a few photos of the O2 Arena and the Intercontinental O2 Hotel plus the Thames Barrier between the raindrops.

When I got back to the ship about 2:30pm, I found that I had a fairly relaxing afternoon ahead of me as the ship set sail for Dover. I also found that Kohari (the fellow who was looking after me and my stateroom) had provided me with some cans of orange Fanta in my fridge. I don’t tolerate caffeine and so don’t drink the usual sodas provided. Very nice of him.

I decided to take a shower and really dress up for dinner that night. I had a black camisole with a lightly beaded sheer top over it, plus some slinky black slacks. For dinner, I had signed up for a five-course dinner at The Chef’s Table restaurant inspired by China’s Cantonese and Hualyang cuisines with special wine pairings. The courses were as follows:

Hot & Sour Soup (Cantonese style) with Martin Codax Mara Martin (Godello) from Monerrei, Spain
Fried Prawns (crispy garlic & chili) with Vinologist (Chenin Blanc) from Swartland, South Africa
Coconut (lemongrass & ginger infused)
Wok-Fried Beef (black pepper sauce, rice in lotus leaf with Altano Organic (Tinto Roriz) from Douro Valley, Portugal
Chilled Mango Cream (pomelo and sago) with Broadbent Madeira from Madeira Island, Portugal

Was feeling just a wee bit squiffy afterwards. I usually have one or two glasses of wine with dinner, but not four. The ship was sailing and I wasn’t sure if the ship’s movement was the problem or the four glasses of wine. I decided it was both.

Next time – Hey, weren’t we supposed to dock at Dover?

February 28, 2021

1983 – Last Day in London Before Day Trips

When I first began writing this blog in 2017, I started with my first two trips which were to London in 1983 and overall Europe in 1984. Although I started a trip journal with that first 1983 trip, it didn’t have a tremendous amount of detail for the first few trips.

Photography-wise I had a rather limited film camera that I had picked up in a pawn shop when I was in college and had no money to buy something good. The camera couldn’t zoom and was a view-finder, not through the lens (which meant I had no real clue of how the photo would turn out until it was developed). But it worked well enough at the time for basic quick travel pics (and I still didn’t have much money).

In 1992, I started a new job for a company which had a monthly newsletter published for the department I was in. I joined the newsletter, writing articles to explain upcoming projects and initiatives. Then, when they also wanted some lighter fare, I wrote some humorous articles — especially about my travels. I was quite relieved that they were popular.

Since I was new to traveling those first few trips, I had a lot of silly things that I did or that happened to me. One of my first stories was about nearly getting creamed by an articulated lorry in Stratford-Upon-Avon during that 1983 trip to London. Since I still have those publications containing my articles, that was the same story with which I began my A Traveling Fool blog.

I had a few photos scanned into my computer and my old articles and my journal. As time went on and I started to have better cameras, disks of photos as well as the prints, then moved to digital photography, I could include better and better photos. My journals included more and more detail, so I could provide a better narrative of my adventures, comical, not so pleasant, and just normal.

In 2020 when none of us could travel (plus I hadn’t been anywhere in 2018 or 2019 either), it became clear to me that I would need to go back to those earlier trips and fill in with what I hadn’t written about in the beginning. Then, look at some of the more interesting adventures that popped up here and there through my travels and could use more of a spotlight. So, I scanned several more of those earlier photos in and also used some later photos, if needed, for when I visited the same place more than once and the early photos were too dark or fuzzy or just not really usable.

So, for these posts on my early travels, I have been relying on sketchy journal entries, scanned photos (unless I have later photos of the same place), and my memory. This particular post includes three places that I have so far only visited during this one trip (Madame Tussauds, Kensington Palace, and a nightclub called “The Beefeater”) and one that I have been to a couple of times (Victoria & Albert Museum).

The day was a Sunday and we started out at Madame Tussauds. The London location is the original. Madame Tussaud had been taught wax modeling as a child and had created models of the heads of several of the victims of the French Revolution. After taking her wax heads and other figures around Europe for several years, she traveled to London for a show of her wax figures. She was then unable to return to France because of the Napoleonic Wars. So she set up shop in London in 1835 on Baker Street, a short distance from the current location.

This was the first wax museum that I had ever been to at that point and it was huge. It is even larger now with several special exhibits and experiences (such as an interactive Sherlock Holmes Experience with live actors, wax figures, and film where the audience joins in to help solve a mystery). I had planned to revisit the musuem during the trip I had booked for late in 2020.

In 1983, I was especially interested in the historic figures such as Henry VIII and his six wives and the current royal family (included here is a somewhat fuzzy photo that includes Prince Charles and Princess Diana). I also took a photo of William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens together. Neither one of them looks all that happy. Dickens actually looks as if he is somewhat frightened about something he is seeing. Shakespeare is looking away from Dickens as if he sees something more interesting elsewhere.

We took the tube over to Kensington Palace and had lunch in the vicinity. I did not know at the time that a great, great grandfather of mine had been butler in a house (that still stands, but has been converted to luxury apartments) not far from Kensington Palace. I had planned to revisit Kensington and take some photos of the house in which my ancestor had served during that cancelled trip.

At the palace, Mom and I toured the State Rooms as well as Queen Anne’s private rooms (she was queen from 1702 to 1714 and died at Kensington) and the suite of rooms where Queen Victoria had grown up and where she had been told that she was then the Queen in 1837 when she was only eighteen. We then checked out the gardens and the orangery. Charles and Diana were living in another part of the palace that was far from the public eye.

We took a stroll through part of Hyde Park to get to the Victoria & Albert Museum where we took special interest in the costumes, period furniture and tapestries. After our visit there, we took the underground back to our hotel to get ready for our dinner out.

As part of our package, we had tickets to a nightclub called “The Beefeater”, which was (and still is) located at St Katherine’s Docks near the Tower of London. I have a photo here of the exterior that I took many years later. Transportation was included so we didn’t have to try to find the place on our own.

The club was built in one of the old warehouses (Ivory House) down in the vaults. The theme was the time of King Henry VIII. He and his courtiers came around and encouraged much revelry. For entertainment, we had knights, jesters, acrobats, singers and dancers. The food was served on large platters (and the soup from a caldron) with wine and ale in large pitchers. Again, they were going for a banquet feel from Henry VIII’s time, so only utensils in existence back then were used. The platters and pitchers were passed around for everyone to help themselves.

We were seated between a French football (soccer) team and a group of German tourists. The tourists were not at all friendly. They didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak German, but they didn’t even smile. They also didn’t pass anything our way.

The football team was quite friendly. I could speak some French, which helped. But they were also quite drunk. They did make certain that we were fed, but I did have to ask for the wine. They sort of wanted to keep that to themselves.

Next time — a day trip to Stonehenge and Bath.

Henry VIII & two (and part of a third) wives

February 15, 2021

Trooping the Colour 1983

The Queen of England’s actual birthday is in April. However, it is tradition to have the official celebration of the birthday of whoever the current British Monarch is in early June. This is called Trooping the Colour and is quite a spectacle.

Mom and I had determined during the days leading up to the Trooping the Colour what the best place to view it would be. We chose the steps leading from The Mall up to the Duke of York’s Column. The Duke in question was the second son of King George III who died in 1827. He had been Commander in Chief of the British Army and was so beloved by the men that they pulled together the funds to create the monument.

We found a spot at the base of the column (and at the top of that part of the steps) where we could sit down when we needed to, but could easily see over the crowds in front of us. I bought a program from a member of the Welsh Guards, in full dress uniform, who actually was Welsh. This was the first time I had heard a Welsh accent and I was enthralled. Since he wasn’t on duty, we could actually talk a little until someone else came up to get a program.

The ceremony consisted of a parade from Buckingham Palace to the Horseguards Parade consisting of representatives of all of the British and Commonwealth armies plus most of the Royal Family. In 1983, the Queen rode on horseback with Prince Phillip, Prince Charles, and the Duke of Kent just behind. The last time she rode horseback was 1986. She has taken a carriage since then (along with Prince Phillip). The Trooping the Colour tradition goes back as far as the 17th century.

At the Horseguards Parade, the Queen receives a royal salute and then inspects the troops of the Household Division. These include both the foot guards and the horse guards. After this, they all parade back to Buckingham Palace, where the entire Royal Family assembles on the balcony while Royal Air Force jets fly overhead.

I have included a couple of photos of the Trooping the Colour that I did not take, just to give an idea of it. Back in 1983 I had a camera without a zoom. So, though I took a lot of photos, it can be difficult to see what is in them without greatly enlarging them. In the one with the Queen Mother and Princess Diana in a carriage, the carriage is over to the right side and is drawn by a white horse. The Queen Mother is in blue while Diana is in grey and white.

The photo with the Queen shows her to the left of the photo riding a chestnut horse and with a white cockade in her hat. She is just in front of a white horse with the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of Kent right behind the white horse.

We stayed until the parade passed us heading back to Buckingham Palace. Then we headed over to Westminster Abbey to visit the Royal Tombs.

Back in 1983, the main entrance to Westminster Abbey was used unless visiting the Royal Tombs. The entrance that is now used for visitors to the entire abbey was used only for the Royal Tombs back then. When entering, we were greeted by the painting of Richard II at his coronation (at the age of nine) that was commissioned by him and painted during his lifetime. The Coronation Throne was behind the Shrine of Edward the Confessor. Today both the painting and the throne are at the front of the abbey near the Tomb of the Unknown.

It could have been that the Shrine of Edward the Confessor was only open to the public because of it being the Queen’s Official Birthday, but Mom and I were able to go up the steps and walk around among the tombs of Edward I (and Queen Eleanor of Castile), Richard II (and Queen Anne of Bohemia), Henry III, Edward III (and Queen Phillipa of Hainault), and Henry V. Edward the Confessor’s queen, Edith of Wessex, is buried somewhere near his shrine, but nobody knows for certain exactly where. The shrine was built by Henry III in 1241 directly above where the Confessor was originally interred.

All of the tombs, except Edward I, have effigies of the person or people inside lying on the top. Edward didn’t plan to stay there. His instructions had been to be taken to Scotland and be buried there once his son, Edward II, conquered the country. Junior didn’t conquer Scotland. Instead Robert the Bruce beat the tar out of him at Bannockburn and won independence from England (which lasted until James VI of Scotland became James I of England).

The shrine was closed to the public on all of my visits since then. But, at some point, it became available during special Verger tours. My most recent trip to London in 2017 included a Verger Tour of Westminster Abbey. I was able to re-experience the thrill that I felt to be able to spend time up in the shrine. In 2017, we could also kneel in the niches of the shrine for prayer, if we chose to do so. The niches were quite worn from the knees of 800 years of people kneeling there.

Originally Mom and I had planned to take a boat to Hampton Court Palace from Westminster Pier. But since we were behind in our schedule by a couple of hours, we found we missed the last boat to Hampton Court. We decided to take the boat to Greenwich instead.

At Greenwich, we visited the Queen’s House. It was designed by Inigo Jones for Anne of Denmark, who was the queen of James I. Anne died before it was completed, so it ended up as the property of Henrietta Marie, queen of James’ son, Charles I. It was used just a short time before the English Civil War and Charles’ execution.

When the Tudor palace that used to be at the edge of the water was demolished and the Royal Seaman’s Hospital built (by Sir Christopher Wren), the new building was in two parts to keep from spoiling the vista from the Queen’s House to the Thames. This is now the Old Royal Naval College. The Queen’s House itself contains mostly period rooms, while the wings contain a Royal Museum and parts of the Maritime Museum (at least that was what was there in 1983). It was a special treat to be able to see Admiral Horatio Nelson’s uniform.

We could see the Royal Observatory from the Queen’s House, but didn’t quite have time to do everything. So we decided to see the Cutty Sark instead. I finally visited the Observatory in 2016.

1983 was several years before the 2007 fired that severely damaged the ship. So it was quite intact from when it had been built in 1869. It was very exciting to be able to climb around on the ship. At that point (since London in 1983 was really my first trip anywhere) I had never been on an old sailing ship before. I love old ships and had a couple of ancestors who were ship captains, so it was very special to me.

Next time – our last full day in London before heading out for a couple of day trips.

Trooping the Colour at Horseguards Parade

January 31, 2021

My First Real Trip to Anywhere – Part 2

In 1983, my first real vacation trip to anywhere, inside or outside of the US, was to London with my mom. We had both wanted to go there all of our lives. We were finally there and were overwhelmingly thrilled.

After finally getting a good night’s sleep, we headed out to the Museum of London. One of the things that I love about this museum is that its exhibits are in chronological order, beginning with what has been unearthed in London from prehistory. The building itself straddles part of what remains of the Roman wall that used to surround Londinium and was enlarged to surround Medieval London up until the time of the Great Fire of 1666. Many of the exhibits take you back to a specific time in London’s history, such as Victorian London or during the Great Fire of 1666.

From the Museum of London, we walked a few blocks to St Paul’s Cathedral. I was especially interested in the crypts with the tombs of Admiral Horatio Nelson, Sir Christopher Wren, and the Duke of Wellington. This version of the cathedral had been built by Wren after the Great Fire destroyed the previous version. There had been a cathedral on the site since 604 AD.

From St Paul’s, after lunch, we set off for the Tower of London. On the way, we stopped at the former Roman Forum where the Bank of England, the Royal Exchange and the Lord Mayor’s Residence could be seen. Then we headed towards the river so we could take a look at the Monument to the Great Fire at the head of Pudding Lane, where the fire began at a baker’s shop. I have a real interest in history and love to visit places where historic events took place and picture what happened there.

We should have backtracked up to Eastcheap instead of making our way along Lower Thames Street. Rookie mistake. I did not realize that the area was not the best until I saw that we were totally alone and then noticed that we were being followed by a couple of men. That was when I steered Mom north towards Eastcheap. Fortunately we made it safely to the Tower. It is always important to be aware of your surroundings and try to walk along in more populated areas.

In 1983, not as much of the Tower of London complex was open as there is now. Many, many changes have be made over the years to make it a truly remarkable experience. One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is the wonderful Yeoman Warder (other than that there are now females as well as males). These folks are very, very knowledgeable and very personable. Talking to one or more of them during a visit can give you a lot more knowledge as well as some cool ghost stories (and often a lot of legends). They live there at the Tower and experience some amazing things after all of the visitors are gone. Starting your tour of the complex by joining one of their tours is well worth it.

The Victorian Tower Bridge is another structure that I find fascinating. On this particular trip, we did not cross the bridge, but did so in 1991 so we could also explore the part of London over on the other side of the Thames.

Instead of taking the underground back from the Tower, we started a tradition of taking the boat back to Westminster Pier and walking back to our hotel from there. Since that trip, every time I have been in London with or without Mom, I have always taken the boat to Westminster Pier, no matter how I got to the Tower in the first place.

The following day, we started out at the British Museum. I was really impressed by the Babylonian and Assyrian monuments as well as the Greek statues and Elgin Marbles. The Rosetta Stone was wonderful to see. We were amazed that we could get so close to it. Then there were all of the Egyptian statues and mummies. I had seen one mummy in a small museum when I had been a child. Here there were rooms full of them. It wasn’t until I went to Egypt and visited the Cairo Museum that I saw an even larger display of mummies and other Egyptian artifacts.

We also visited the British Library and looked at some original works by Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare, as well as a copy of the Magna Carta.

After lunch, we visited Dickens’ London home on Doughty Street. This was where he completed The Pickwick Papers, wrote Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby, and began Barnaby Rudge. Mom and I were the only visitors at the time and had a costumed guide all to ourselves. We enjoyed having a private tour with a fellow who knew all about Dickens and the house and looked like he had just stepped out of one of Dickens’ novels.

Before heading back to the hotel, we took the tube to Marble Arch. This monumental arch used to stand in front of Buckingham Palace until Queen Victoria had it banished to its current location at a roundabout. We walked along Oxford Street towards Piccadilly to do a little bit of shopping. I ended up getting one of those bulky, cable knit, highly British sweaters for 14 GBP.

Next time – My First Real Trip to Anywhere Part 3 – where Mom and I experienced the Trooping the Colour (and saw the entire Royal Family, including Princess Diana), visited the Royal Tombs in Westminster Abbey, and took the boat to Greenwich.

January 17, 2021

My First Real Trip Anywhere – Part 1

Since I have now run out of trips for a little while, I have decided to talk about some special, silly, and/or interesting experiences from my travels. These will include more personal details or be from different perspectives than some of my previous posts, especially the earlier ones.

When I was a kid, we didn’t really do traveling. We rented a lake cabin a couple of times. We traveled to visit family. But we never took any real trips.

So, as an adult, not too long after re-joining the rest of my family, which had moved to Minneapolis, my mom and I decided to take a trip to London. She and I were both what you could call Anglophiles plus we had shared British heritage on her side of the family and I had additional British heritage on my father’s side of the family. If we were going on an adventure, it was going to be to London.

This was in the days before the Internet. A travel agent was how it was done back in 1983. In the building where I worked was just such a travel agent. So I picked up a couple brochures and we figured out what we wanted to do.

The choices were to take a fully escorted tour or to book a package through the main airline that served Minneapolis/St Paul. The package would include airfare, hotel, a rail transfer between the airport and the hotel, one or two day trips out of London, and tickets to a play. We chose the package and I met with the travel agent.

We put together a 10-day trip that would coincide with the Trooping the Colour Ceremony for the Queen’s official birthday. We picked two day trips — one to Stonehenge & Bath, and one to Oxford & Stratford-Upon-Avon. We also chose to attend a medieval banquet and to see the play “The Real Thing”.

I had become enamored with an actor named Roger Rees from when “David Copperfield” played on Broadway. He was starring in “The Real Thing” along with Felicity Kendall (who had been in several British TV shows I had seen on PBS) and Jeremy Clyde (who had been part of the singing duo Chad & Jeremy before switching to acting).

Our hotel was at Piccadilly Circus and the theatre was The Strand — quite a walk from the hotel. But I figured it out on the map. The day trips and the medieval banquet would pick us up from the hotel. Because I had lived in New York City for several years and had ridden the subway there, I felt no trepidation about riding the underground (the Tube) in London to visit the other locations we wanted to see.

Once we arrived at Gatwick Airport, we found the train we needed to London’s Victoria Station. This particular train still had the cars with doors opening out from individual compartments. It was an extra special experience as this would be the only time in all of our visits to London where we had that type of rail car. By the next trip in 1991, the trains were all modern with totally conventional rail cars.

From Victoria Station, we took a taxi to the hotel. As we were rounding some very high walls, Mom said, “I wonder what that is.” “Buckingham Palace”, the driver and I responded simultaneously. Mom and the driver both said, “How did you know that?”

There was nothing indicating what it was. I just knew. Somehow. The cab driver was amazed. Mom was thrilled. It gave her the idea that I would know where we were at all times and we would not get lost. To be fair, I had been studying the map so thoroughly that I had nearly memorized it. I still use that same map.

The day before we left on our trip, the travel agent gave us tickets for “The Mousetrap” for our first night in London. The original owners of the tickets had canceled their trip, so we benefited from some freebies. We then made the mistake of trying to take an afternoon nap.

We had not slept on the plane and all and were quite tired. But we were also very excited about being there. We could not sleep. We ended up not being able to sleep that night either. So, by the next day — our first full day in London — we were exhausted. But we had a full day ahead of us.

I had overestimated how much we could cover in a day. On the list was: The National Gallery, the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, the Wellington Museum (Apsley House), the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and Parliament.

At the National Gallery, partially due to a late start, we only had time to take a quick look at some paintings by Michelangelo and Leonardo de Vinci before we needed to take a quick hike up the The Mall to see the Changing of the Guards. The Mall was lined with flags. Mom and I were overcome. We were really in London!

As short as I am, plus we arrived just before it started, meant that I didn’t get too many decent photos of the Changing of the Guards itself. We could see it fairly well however and I did get one good shot when they were right in front of me (and nobody else was) and another of the Horseguards approaching. Then we went to Apsley House and had a good tour there.

After a light lunch we toured the Royal Mews which contains the carriages and motor vehicles used by the royal family. I really enjoyed that tour. Part of the reason was because we were on the palace grounds, behind that tall wall we had passed the day before.

We walked from there to Westminster Abbey. We were able to see the parts of the Abbey that were free (now there are no parts that are free), but couldn’t see the Royal Tombs due to a funeral that was taking place there. I asked if they would be open after the Trooping the Colour on Saturday and was told they would be. So Mom and I shifted our plans for Saturday to be able to include that visit.

We found that we could not see the inside of Parliament, so headed up Whitehall to return to our hotel and get ready to see “The Real Thing” that night.

Next time – more adventures in London on that first real trip anywhere.

December 20, 2020

The Mysterious Meeting on Blackfriars Bridge

When the bus to The Making of Harry Potter Warner Brothers Studio Tour returned to the Victoria Bus Station, I walked along Buckingham Palace Road from there to Victoria Street to visit Westminster Cathedral. The only connection that Westminster Cathedral has to Westminster Abbey is that they are both located in the part of London called Westminster and are both essentially on Victoria Street (although it is called Broad Sanctuary by the time it reaches the Abbey).

Westminster Cathedral is a Catholic Cathedral, built in the 19^th century in the neo-Byzantine style, influenced by the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey. It was that influence that made me curious to see it. The exterior is striped with white stone and red brick. The interior is covered with mosaics. The Hagia Sophia influence was the mosaics. Otherwise the basic floor plan of the cathedral was a standard, western, crucifix with side chapels and one long nave.

There was a very interesting glass coffin containing Saint John Southworth, who was a Catholic martyr in the 17^th century. He was hanged, drawn & quartered. But his pieces were gathered up, sewn together and parboiled to preserve them. I do have to admit that I was glad there was a gold mask over his face.

I took a taxi back to the hotel. A friend of mine, who had never been to London before, was supposed to be flying in that day and was going to contact me so we could get together for dinner. I waited for quite a while to hear from him and even tried texting him at one point. Unbeknownst to me, he was having some issues with his phone.

At about 8:20pm I received a text asking me to meet him in the middle of Blackfriars Bridge at 8:30pm. The only way I was going to make it in time was to take another cab. Fortunately, since the hotel was right next door to Charing Cross Rail Station, a line of taxis was always there ready to take folks coming into the station to their destinations. I leapt into one, apologized to the driver for the strange request I was about to make and sat back as I was taken to the bridge, arriving just in time to see my friend walking towards me.

Actually the driver spotted him before I did. I lowered the window and called out to him. Then I paid the driver and hopped out of the cab.

From the bridge, we headed up towards Fleet Street, but I wanted to show him the Temple first. By this time of night, there was only one entrance open and that was the entrance nearest to where we were. Not being a resident of the area, I explained to the person manning the guard house why I wanted to come in for a short time. She was fine with it and let us in.

The Temple had once belonged to the Knights Templar. The only vestige of their prior ownership was the Temple Church. The rest of the area that belonged to the Templars from the 12^th through the 14^th centuries had been taken over by two of the Inns of Court – the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple from the 14^th century on.

Wat Tyler had sacked the Temple during the late 14^th century Peasant’s Revolt. One of the Jack the Ripper suspects lived on King’s Bench Walk in the Temple. The War of the Roses began at the Temple when each side picked a rose from the Temple rose garden to symbolize their cause.

I knew my way around when coming in through the entrance under Prince Henry’s Rooms on Fleet Street. But I had never entered the Temple from this particular entrance before and so was unable to navigate the maze satisfactorily to get to the Temple Church from there. I was able to point out the rose garden and King’s Bench Walk however, and called it a day.

I had planned that we would eat at the George Pub, which was a very old, very traditional, half-timbered Elizabethan pub at about the spot where Fleet Street became The Strand. So I wasn’t in any big hurry as we sauntered along Fleet Street. I pointed out St Dunstan’s Church which was reportedly where Sweeney Todd hid the remains of his victims in the crypt (until the stench started coming up into the church).

I told him about the Great Fire stopping just before Prince Henry’s Rooms (so they were authentic to their time) and that Prince Henry would have been king instead of Charles I had he lived. What a difference in history that might have been.

We walked by the Griffin marking the border of the official City of London from the rest of London (and where Fleet Street became The Strand) and gazed at the Royal Courts of Justice (where civil trials are heard) before turning our attention to the George Pub. Although it still looked the same outside, it had radically changed its menu since I was there last (and probably had changed ownership too). It had gone from being a traditional pub with traditional pub food to being a trendy restaurant with trendy, and expensive, food.

So we walked a couple blocks further along The Strand and had our dinner at a café. We sat by the window and marveled about how we were hanging out in London instead of Minneapolis. Had I known that the George had changed, I would have taken him to the Olde Cock Tavern (16^th century) just a short distance before Prince Henry’s Rooms. I had wanted to show him a place with some real traditional English atmosphere. Oh well.

After dinner, we continued along The Strand, veering off to Trafalgar Square to take a look at it all lit up at night before getting a few groceries for him from the Sainsbury’s by my hotel and putting him into a cab at the Charing Cross rail station. He was staying in the part of town near Victoria Station.

Then I prepared for my flight home the following day. I thought it was a shame that we only had that one evening in common.

Next – some time spent at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia where Confederate General Robert E Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S Grant to end the American Civil War.

December 6, 2020

Harry Potter London Studio Tour

Once upon a time when I was buying some DVDs, they had a special to buy so many and get so many free. So I picked up the first Harry Potter movie for free. I loved it. I went on to see them all.

When a day trip to The Making of Harry Potter Warner Brothers Studio Tour in London popped up when I was researching what I might want to do while in London on my 2017 trip, I signed up. I just needed to be at the pickup point at the Victoria Bus Station by a particular time, show the ticket I printed off once it was booked and climb onto a purple double-decked bus.

This was a tour of the actual sets, props, and costumes used in the Harry Potter films. In addition to being a fan of those films, I have always had a fascination regarding the making of movies and television in general. Therefore I had visited other studios in the US when I had been out in LA. I had also managed to be involved with filming a few movies when I worked in the recording industry in NYC fresh out of school. So I had been able to watch firsthand how some of it was done. Then there was my double major in Theatre & Radio/Television with a minor in music.

A few of the chess pieces from the very first film were arranged outside to greet us as we approached the building. Then we joined in the long and winding line to actually get in. This tour was a popular one. When booking, both the date and the time were booked ahead so they wouldn’t have everybody showing up at the same time on the same day.

The line did move relatively quickly. All around the top of the hall we were in were photos of all of the actors. Shortly before being able to get into the auditorium, we could see the cupboard under the stairs. This was where the Dursleys had kept Harry before he went to Hogwarts School.

We entered a very large auditorium where I could see that there were some seats open on the front row just right of center. I chose one of those, sat down, and the introductory film began.

When the film ended, the screen rose up into the ceiling and a couple of very large doors were visible. A woman said a few more things and then invited us into Hogwarts. That was when the giant doors opened and there was the set for the Great Hall – also immense.

I was one of the first people through the doors since I was in the front row and didn’t need to gather anything or anyone before getting up and going in. They had mannequins representing several of the characters and dressed in costumes that had been used in the movies.

I had plenty of time, so I took my time looking around and taking photos. Also, I had learned long ago that when you have a fair amount of people around you who are jumping and screaming and terribly excited, it is a good idea to let them get far away from you. Otherwise trying to take photos and even being able to see things can be difficult.

From the dining hall, an enormous sound stage was entered that had exhibits all over the place. They had it all arranged so that you could flow through fairly logically and there was plenty of room to be able to see everything without being crowded out or rushed along. There wasn’t a guide that needed to be followed. There was, however, plenty of staff who could be questioned.

Grouped together were the Yule Ball Ice Castle and the costumes from the dance (from the Goblet of Fire film), the staircase that swings around and the portraits with it, plus the Leaky Cauldron (the pub in London on Charing Cross Road from which one could enter Diagon Alley). Across from the Leaky Cauldron were the Gryffindor boys’ dorm and the Common Room. Then the off-kilter hallway that was also in the Leaky Cauldron.

A very large set was the Potions Lab with both Snape and Quirrell (who was in the first film). The Goblet of Fire itself, the egg that could only be opened underwater without it shreiking, and the Tri-Wizard Cup were logically grouped together, since they came from the same movie. Shelves crammed full of other props were next to these items. Another enormous set piece was the Hogwarts Pendulum Clock.

A favorite of mine was Dumbledore’s office. The Griffin that guarded it came first. Then, at the entrance of the office was the Pensive with the bottles containing people’s memories that had been extracted. The office was quite cool, having multiple levels to it. The fact that it was the actual set used made it really intriguing.

Things often look so much larger on film than in reality. This was not the case when it came to most of the sets. There were only a couple, the interior of Hagrid’s Cottage, The Burrow (the Weasley Cottage), and parts of the Ministry of Magic that were quite small in reality.

A collection of broomsticks and the Quidditch equipment and uniforms were next. The Whomping Willow had a hold of the flying car, which was next to the door to the Chamber of Secrets with its snakes.

Barty Crouch Jr had imprisoned Mad-Eye Moody inside of the lowest level of a multi-level trunk in Goblet of Fire. The trunk was sitting fully open.

Between the Burrow and Malfoy Manor was a display of Horcruxes. A meeting of several of the Death Eaters (from one of the Deathly Hallows films) was taking place at Malfoy Manor, which included Snape, Lucius Malfoy, Beatrix Lestrange, and the snake Nagini.

Dolores Umbridge’s pink office and some of her costumes were on display. Then, through a creaky gate, was the entrance to the Forbidden Forest where we were able to encounter Buckbeak, Aragog (the giant spider), and the dog patronous.

The final exhibit in that part of the studios was Platform 9 ¾ from Kings Cross Station. They had the actual engine and the train cars used in the film. It was tough to get close enough to the engine since everyone was determined to get a selfie with it. Folks also wanted photos of themselves pushing the cart through the wall. There were several of those on the other side of the platform from the train. Oddly enough, not as many people were interested in taking a photo of Ron and Harry in the train car with Ron’s rat Scabbers (and tons of candy).

Before going outside to the sets there, I stopped for some lunch, including some butterbeer. I could keep the mug. So I cleaned it off best I could, wrapped it in several napkins and stuffed it into my camera bag.

Outside was the triple-decker purple Knight Bus. It was possible to get on it and look around. The Dursley Home (No. 4 Privet Drive) was there. It was possible to go inside and see the letters flying around from the first movie when Harry received his invitation to Hogwarts.

The long, covered bridge from Hogwarts and the Potter Cottage at Godric’s Hollow were also out there. I could walk on the bridge, but not enter the cottage. Several more chess pieces were standing just outside of the next building. They were so realistic I almost expected them to move as they had done in the first film.

The building had a lot of the animated pieces for the movies, such as Nearly Headless Nick’s head (played by John Cleese), the dragons (both large and mini), the elves, the goblins, the troll, the Dementors (who guarded Azkaban, the wizarding prison), the werewolf (Professor Lupin), the Thestrals (who drew the carriages to Hogwarts from the train station), the Grindelows (the mer-people in the lake at Hogwarts), and Dobby (everyone’s favorite house elf). Most of the magical menagerie creatures were there.

After seeing all of the creatures and special effects, it was time to take a stroll along Diagon Alley. All of the special shops were there – Eeylops Owl Emporium, Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlor, Flourish & Blotts bookseller, Gambol and Japes (a wizarding joke shop), Madame Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions, the Magical Menagerie, Ollivanders wand shop, Potage’s Cauldron Shop, Quality Quidditch Supplies, Slug and Jiggers Apothecary, Twilfitt and Tatting’s clothing, Wiseacre’s Wizarding Equipment, and Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. Then there was Gringotts Wizarding Bank.

Beyond Diagon Alley was a room with loads of miniatures and models used in filming the series followed by a huge room with the full model of Hogwarts Castle. It was very detailed and fun to view.

Next time – a mysterious meeting on Blackfriar’s Bridge

November 22, 2020

Covent Garden & Soho

The Scotsman Hotel was right across the street from the Waverly Train Station. After checking out, all I needed to do was take the elevator down to the lowest level, cross the street and then look at the boards inside the train station to see from which platform my train would be leaving.

On the four hour train ride back to London, I sat with two really enjoyable ladies. The first one got on the train with me in Edinburgh and the other joined us in Newcastle. They both went all the way to London with me and helped the time fly by.

This time in London, I was staying at the Amba Charing Cross Hotel, which is on the Strand, right next to the Charing Cross Train Station. As soon as I checked in, I headed out to spend some time in the Covent Garden and Soho areas. First I headed up Charing Cross Road to say farewell to Wyndhams Theatre and its production of Don Juan in Soho. Then I went over to St Paul’s Covent Garden.

Built by Inigo Jones in 1633, St Paul’s was nicknamed the Actor’s Church. Several actors have memorials there including Peter O’Toole, Vivian Leigh, Boris Karloff, Charlie Chaplin, Noel Coward, and others. During a past visit, there had been a plaque that indicated that some of the plague victims from 1665 were buried underneath the garden. I couldn’t find that sign on this particular trip. But I found the photo I had taken of the sign on the prior trip once I got home. It is among the photos I have included.

I stopped in at Covent Garden Market and explored the shops that were there. I missed the Dolls House shop that used to be there for several years. I always found something unique and highly British to buy there. Several tea shops were still there as were shops like Crabtree & Evelyn. More pubs and other places to eat were there than had been in the past plus more souvenir shops. Stopped to take a photo of the Royal Opera House before heading off to the Lamb & Flag.

Mom and I used to have lunch at the Lamb & Flag when we visited London together. They had good pub grub. In 1679, King Charles II sent men to confront the poet John Dryden out in the narrow street next to the pub and to beat the living daylights out of him. He had published a not too gentlemanly satirical verse against one of the king’s mistresses. The building itself dates from early 18^th century (after Dryden’s encounter with the king’s men) and became a pub in 1772.

At that point in time that particular area of Covent Garden was rather violent. The upstairs room of the pub held bare-knuckle prize fights causing the pub to be called “The Bucket of Blood”. By the 19^th century, things had calmed down a bit and Charles Dickens used to frequent the place. The upstairs room is now used for serving food while downstairs is more of a bar and gathering place.

From the Lamb & Flag, I set off for Maiden Lane, which is the street between Covent Garden and The Strand. The oldest continuous restaurant in London, Rules was established in 1798 and still serves traditional British food – classic game, oysters, pies, and puddings. It was where the future King Edward VII wooed the actress Lillie Langtry when he was still Prince of Wales.

Other famous actors and authors who dined there have included Henry Irving, Laurence Olivier, Buster Keaton, Stan Laurel, Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin, John Barrymore, Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, and H G Wells. I have never dined there myself. But Mom and I had a traditional British dinner at the nearby Simpson’s on the Strand during a visit that included my birthday.

Back in 1897, the actor William Terriss (known for playing swashbuckling heros) was murdered in Maiden Lane just outside of the stage door of the Adelphi Theatre. The man who stabbed him was a fellow actor who had become unhinged. He spent the rest of his life in an insane asylum.

Heading down the narrow Bull Inn Court towards the Strand, I encountered the Nell Gwynne Tavern. On a plaque outside of the tavern it says, “Built on the site of the Old Bull Inn, the Nell Gwynne Tavern was named after the infamous mistress of King Charles II. Nell, born and raised in this locality, sold fruit in nearby Covent Garden before gaining fame as an actress on the Drury Lane stage. Samuel Pepys, the renowned diarist, describes seeing ‘the mighty pretty Nell’ on his way to the Strand in 1667.”

The Nell Gwynne is a fairly small, cozy pub with some tasty toasties on the short menu. I liked both the food and the atmosphere of the place and didn’t feel odd going there with my mother in prior years or on my own.

The rather weathered Statue of Charles II that has stood near the center of Soho Square since 1681 figures in the comedy Don Juan in Soho. At one point it even comes to life for the rather snozzled Don Juan. So I am including a photo of him too.

Next time – a visit to the London Warner Brothers Studios where much of the Harry Potter movies were filmed to see the sets, costumes, and props from the films.

August 23, 2020

The Tower of London & Scotland Yard

Since my hotel was next to the Thames, it was a short walk along the river to Westminster Pier. I set out right after breakfast and was surprised to see several police officers in front of my hotel and all along the way to the pier. They smiled at me, so I wasn’t too concerned. I didn’t seem to concern them either. Maybe there was someone famous or royal in the area. From what I learned later, it might have been different if I had headed towards Whitehall instead of staying along the Embankment.

At Westminster Pier, I bought a round-trip boat trip ticket to the Tower of London along with the admission ticket to the Tower. It was a savings to get the package. Also, I wouldn’t have to stand in line to buy a ticket once I got to the Tower. I just needed to exchange the voucher I was given, which was a much shorter line.

Along the way, I took a few photos – especially of the places I couldn’t take photos of the previous year due to the heavy rain when I was on the river. The Globe Theatre was one of them. This time I sat on the open upper deck of the boat where I could see both sides of the river quite well.

There were really large crowds at the Tower when I arrived, including all of us that had been on the super crowded boat. I guess I picked the same day to go to the Tower as everybody else in London. This was my first time back to the Tower since 2003 – fourteen years.

The White Tower was built in 1078 and the general layout of the entire complex has been in existence since the 13^th century, renovated during the reign of Henry III (the same guy who rebuilt so much of Westminster Abbey). In the years that I have visited the Tower, there have been different towers open and different exhibits and changes in location of some of the items they keep there. I was given a map to the Tower complex along with my ticket and noticed that there were several more changes from when I was last there.

To enter the Tower, it was necessary to open my nylon bag in which I carried my camera, map and other items for inspection by one of the Yeoman Warders (aka Beefeaters). Since being a Yeoman Warder is a reward for retired service members who had excellent records and some retired service people are now women, I experienced some female Yeoman Warders on this trip for the first time. The one who looked through my bag, jokingly tried to pocket the Cadbury hazlenut chocolate bar I had in there (along with a granola bar).

I think I have mentioned before that I am not a huge fan of large crowds and tend to do whatever I can to avoid them when possible. So, when I saw the masses grouped around a Yeoman Warder who had his back to Traitor’s Gate, I decided to forego the Yeoman Warder tour this time (as wonderfully entertaining as it is) and went up the stairs to the St Thomas Tower. The photo I have of the crowd was taken from the top of the stairs just before I entered that tower.

St Thomas Tower, which is the half-timbered structure over the Traitor’s Gate, had never been open any of the other times I had been there from 1983 to 2003. By 2017, the bedchamber had been restored to what they believed it looked like under Edward I (who built that tower). There was also a display showing how the walls were constructed in the Hall (a large room where the King could dine and entertain).

I crossed a small arch connecting the St Thomas Tower with the Wakefield Tower (built by Henry III) while allowing people to pass underneath down on the pavement between the outer wall and inner wall. An audience chamber from the time of Edward I had been recreated in the Wakefield Tower. This too was new. The throne was based on the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey and was painted to look like it might have looked in the 13^th century. In the private chapel just off of the audience chamber, King Henry VI was murdered in 1471. When the Wakefield Tower had been open on prior visits, it had been stark and empty.

The St Thomas, Wakefield and Lanthorn Towers are all that is left of the Royal Apartments. From the Wakefield Tower I came out onto the walls between the outer ward and inner ward for the wall walk. Some of the remaining ruins of the rest of the Royal Apartments could be seen on the grounds of the innermost ward.

On the wall walk, I passed through the Lanthorn, Salt, Broad Arrow, Constable, Martin, Brick, Bowyer, and Flint Towers. The walk ended at the Devereux Tower near the Chapel. When I was there before, it had ended at the Martin Tower. Back in 1983, the wall walk had consisted of coming out of the Bloody Tower and down the stairs.

As I walked along the walls, down below, I could see medieval tents, costumed interpreters from several eras, and sculptures of some of the animals that had lived there when the Tower had a zoo. They didn’t have all that when I was last there. They also didn’t have any place to eat or any gift shops within the Tower precincts before.

Between the Martin Tower and the Brick Tower, I could look down at the fronts of some of the Yeoman Warder houses built against the outer wall in the outer ward. One thing about living at the Tower, they are there at night when all of the tourists are gone and the ghosts remain. Some of them have related some pretty scary stories over the years.

When I came down from the wall at the Devereux Tower, I walked out to the Tower Green. This was where the executions of people who they wanted to keep out of public view took place. They were beheadings. More public executions of prisoners at the Tower (beheadings or hangings) took place outside of the walls on Tower Hill. These were still royal or noble persons, not regular people.

Beauchamp Tower had much more of it open and contained displays. It is known for its graffiti by the many prisoners it had housed over the centuries, especially the 15^th and 16^th centuries. The one that I have always found poignant was Lady Jane Grey’s name scratched into the wall by her husband, Lord Guilford Dudley, shortly before they were both executed. She was only 17 and he was not that much older. The Beauchamp Tower was also where Lady Rochford, Henry VIII’s 5^th wife Catherine Howard’s Lady in Waiting, was imprisoned. Lady Jane Grey and Lady Rochford were both buried in the Chapel.

After visiting the Beauchamp Tower, I went for some lunch at a spot between the Wakefield and Lanthorn Towers facing the innermost ward and the White Tower. I had an enormous smoked bratwurst with mustard and onions. There were a couple other lunch spots to sit down indoors and have more of a sit down meal. But it was a lovely day and I thought sitting outside would be preferable.

After lunch, I visited a display of torture devices in the lower part of Wakefield Tower. Other times when I had been there, they had exhibited the rack in the lower part of the Martin Tower. The lower portion of Wakefield Tower had not been open to the public then. Afterwards, I climbed the steps to the Bloody Tower.

Before entering the Bloody Tower, I took a photo of Traitor’s Gate with the St Thomas Tower above it through the arch of the Bloody Tower. The portcullis of the Bloody Tower can also be seen in the photo. Once inside, I took a shot of the rest of the portcullis.

The Bloody Tower is famous partly for housing Sir Walter Raleigh for several years (1603 – 1616). His room was still furnished as it had been every other time I had been there.

The Bloody Tower’s other claim to fame is the mystery of the Princes in the Tower. The room where the two children had supposedly been imprisoned was no longer furnished. It was just bare this time. I think it is because they really don’t know for certain where the princes were kept.

The bones of two children were discovered beneath the stairs leading to the White Tower back in 1647 and were reburied at Westminster Abbey in the chapel where Elizabeth I was also buried. They had gone missing, while under their Uncle Richard III’s care, in 1483.

On my way to climb the stairs to the White Tower, I encountered a female Yeoman Warder chatting with a knight in chainmail. The Yeoman Warders have been in existence since the time of Henry VIII, but the knight was definitely from a much earlier era.

The White Tower was chock full of stuff. Before, much of it had been sparsely decorated with a few suits of armor – notably one owned by Henry VIII – and a few scattered others. The Line of Kings (dating from the 17^th century) had been refurbished. This consists of carved wooden horses accompanied by the armors of numerous kings. I had never seen them all before.

The Chapel of St John, which had always been bare, was decorated and furnished, but no photos were allowed. Every floor had loads of items, including an amazing amount of armor, and weapons (swords, daggers, bows, guns, spears, axes, mace, cannons).

After a parting photo of Traitor’s Gate, I headed for the boat to return to Westminster Pier. At the boat I was told that Westminster Pier was closed due to high tide and rough waves. They suggested that I go to Greenwich instead. The boat would be there for about a half hour, by which time it would be okay to go to Westminster Pier. By the time we got to Greenwich, it was raining heavily, so I just stayed on the boat and went through the photos I had taken that day on both my camera and my phone.

Roughly a block from my hotel, along the river, is Scotland Yard. As I went by to return to my hotel, I could see loads of police officers with automatic weapons drawn. There were also loads of television cameras. I didn’t think it would be a good idea to whip out my camera or phone, so I just walked on by as unobtrusively as possible.

It turned out that the real reason the boats weren’t going to Westminster Pier earlier was because Scotland Yard was involved in the take down of a terror suspect on Whitehall close to 10 Downing (the Prime Minister’s residence and offices). He was then taken to that particular building where he was being held. Both Whitehall and the Embankment had been shut down and were just reopened shortly before they let the boats return to the pier. It was all on the BBC that night.

Next time – first part of a Heart of England & Wales tour with Rabbie’s

August 2, 2020

London: Banqueting House, Westminster Abbey & Temple Church

Banqueting House is the last remaining portion of Whitehall Palace. King Charles I stepped from one of the windows to a scaffold to be beheaded in 1649. His son, Charles II returned from exile and took up residence in 1660. Westminster Abbey is over 1,000 years old – the scene of every coronation since William the Conqueror, and the last resting place of over 3,300 people, including 17 monarchs. Temple Church was built by the Knights Templar in 1185 and is the burial place of several knights, including three of my ancestors.

Originally I was to go on a day tour to Stonehenge and Salisbury on this particular Thursday and just hang out in London to visit these locations the following day. But I received an email from the tour company the day before saying that the Stonehenge & Salisbury tour had been canceled. Did I want to go to Stonehenge, Avebury and Glastonbury on the Friday? I just switched plans for the two days (fortunately I didn’t have another tour booked for Friday and hadn’t booked ahead for the Abbey).

After breakfast, I sauntered down the Strand to Whitehall and Banqueting House. I was slightly ahead of schedule and so had to wait just outside the door until they opened. Designed by Inigo Jones and completed in 1622 at the behest of King James I/VI as an addition to Whitehall Palace, Banqueting House was part of another palace that Henry VIII took from Cardinal Wolsey (called York Place) and greatly enlarged.

The rest of Whitehall Palace burned down in 1698, by which time the king was the widowed William III, whose heart just wasn’t in having it rebuilt. His wife, Mary II, had been the granddaughter of Charles I (and daughter of James II/VII). Had she still been alive, it would have been rebuilt.

The ceiling of Banqueting House was commissioned by Charles I and painted by Peter Paul Rubens. The paintings were done in Rubens’ studio and installed in the specially designed frames on the ceiling in 1636.

Charles I was disappointed when Rubens went back to Antwerp when he was done and left Anthony van Dyck behind in his place to be the court painter. He wasn’t disappointed for long as van Dyck quickly proved his own talents. The artist was knighted by Charles and preceded him in death by eight years. He was buried at Westminster Abbey.

The glorious ceiling paintings, pretty much deifying his father, most likely would have been the last things Charles would have seen before stepping out of the window from that room to the scaffold. Actually, they used to say that he stepped from one of the windows from the room itself (the far right window in the photo I have included here). Now they say he stepped from a window that used to be above what is now the entrance to the building. Either way, it is said that he wore two shirts because it was cold and he didn’t want people to think he was shivering with fear.

Shortly after leaving Banqueting House, when heading south on Whitehall, the street becomes Parliament Street, which then empties into Parliament Square. Once in Parliament Square, facing east is a great view of the Palace of Westminster, aka Parliament. Several statues of mostly Prime Ministers stand around the square. But there are a couple of non-Prime Ministers there too. Looking west across the street, you will find Abraham Lincoln and, just before crossing the street to go to Saint Margaret’s Church, you can see Nelson Mandella.

Originally built in the 12^th century and rebuilt in the early 16^th century, St Margaret’s has been the site of several wedding over the centuries, including John Milton, Samuel Pepys, and Winston Churchill. This St Margaret is not the one from Scotland, but a 4^th century martyr from Antioch. There is also a St Margaret of York and a St Margaret of Cortona.

In the church is a window commemorating Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Sir Walter Raleigh, executed across the street in Old Palace Yard, is among those buried here. Another window shows him in happier times with Queen Elizabeth I and Edmund Spenser, the poet who wrote The Faerie Queen.

Next to St Margaret’s is the visitor’s entrance to Westminster Abbey. I had to stand in line for a bit, but it wasn’t really too bad. I have experienced longer lines before and since. I was buying my ticket there instead of in advance online. With the online advance ticket, there is a special “skip the line” entrance. To get the advance ticket, it is necessary to specify a particular time slot. I didn’t want to do that on this trip to stay a little more flexible. So I took my chances with the line.

Westminster Abbey is one of my favorite places. I visit pretty much every time I am in London. It is amazing and overwhelming at the same time. Some people have asked in the past why I go to see a place I have been to before. I’ve already seen it; why would I want to see it again?

One answer is that it might have been a very long time ago that I saw it and my memories are fuzzy (not the case with Westminster, but it had been 13 years since I saw it last). Another answer is that, with a place that I find fascinating, I can see things and experience things that I have never seen or experienced before. Then there is that fact that things change. How can an over 1,000 year old church change? You’d be surprised.

The coronation throne used to sit behind the Shrine of Edward the Confessor. It could be easily missed there unless one knew to look for it or had a guide point it out. By 2016, it was up in the front of the abbey in its own special room. The portrait of King Richard II (the fella I had seen David Tennant portray onstage in NYC at the beginning of this trip), was now just outside of where the throne sat. Richard is seated in that throne in the portrait, which used to be just inside of the entrance to the Royal Chapels. There, loads of people missed out on seeing him. The portrait is pretty cool. It was painted in 1390 at Richard’s request and therefore should be a pretty accurate portrayal.

Unfortunately, photography is not allowed inside of the abbey, so I can’t include a photo that I took of the painting However, I have included an official photo of it from the abbey’s website. He was only ten years old when crowned King of England. His father had died a year earlier, so he succeeded his grandfather, Edward III in 1377. He was deposed in 1399 by Henry Bolingbrooke (King Henry IV) and subsequently murdered while in captivity. He was 33.

Another change was that Westminster Abbey now had audio guides. The audio guide had numbers on it that corresponded to numbers on a map. No more crowding around a guide or trying to squeeze past a crowd.

The special floor in front of the altar had been uncovered as well. Previously this floor had been covered over for centuries and only visible for coronation ceremonies and rare special viewings. It has a type of inlaid stone called Cosmati and was installed by Henry III in 1268.

Founded in 960 AD by King Edgar and Saint Dunstan, the official name of the abbey is the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster. It is a “Royal Peculiar”, which means it falls under the direct jurisdiction of the reigning monarch. Various monarchs have made their marks on Westminster Abbey, most notably King Henry III, whose building spree in 1245 made it largely what is seen today. King Henry VII built the Lady Chapel with the magnificent fan vaulted ceiling in 1503.

In 2016, the abbey was in the process of creating a whole new space for its museum in galleries up above the abbey’s nave that would be opened in 2018. That particular area of the abbey had not been open to the public for 700 years.

I spent a couple of hours at Westminster Abbey, exploring it more thoroughly than I had ever been able to do so before. The exception was the Shrine of Edward the Confessor. It was off limits. It used to be open to a few people at a time, but things change.

I discovered after I got back home that there were Verger tours open at specific times on specific days. A Verger (who is basically a church caretaker) takes a small group of people into places of the abbey where tourists cannot go on their own, including the Shrine of Edward the Confessor. I decided the next time I traveled to London, I would arrange for a Verger tour.

Another change was that they now had a restaurant within the abbey. It was in the former food stores of the monks in the 14^th century and is called the Cellarium Café. I had some Welsh Rarebit (a fancy cheese toast) with salad, and an apricot tart with ice cream.

My foot was bothering me (the same one which had a stress fracture back in 2014), so I took a taxi back to the hotel (there were several parked out in front of the abbey), gave my foot a massage and wrapped it in an ace bandage. Once wrapped, it felt much better.

I decided I didn’t need to stay in the room with my foot elevated, but I didn’t want to go too far. So I walked the relatively short distance from the hotel to Temple Church.

Built in 1185 by the Templar Knights, the original part of the church is round, with a later rectangular addition. I have mentioned in past posts that I have loads of ancestors who were knights. Two became Templar Knights in their later years. They were buried in the crypt of the church with effigies upstairs.

One died in 1219 at the age of 73. He was a knight all of his life and even led (and won) a major battle at the age of seventy. He had served five kings – Henry II, his sons, the “Young King” Henry, Richard I, John and John’s son, Henry III. He decided to become a Templar Knight on his deathbed and was invested into the order.

Another died in 1226 at the age of 56. He came to the Templars a little later in life — in 1212 at the age of 42. He had been a busy guy – also in the service of Richard I, John and Henry III. He was a strong supporter of the Templars with gifts of lands in Yorkshire. So, as a generous member of the order, he was honored with burial at Temple Church.

Another ancestor died while on crusade in the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1241 (at the age of 31). He was with Richard of Cornwall, who was King John’s second son and was involved with the refortification of Ascalon. A chunk of stone, found among the rubble in a former moat in Ascalon, had graffiti including this particular ancestor’s coat of arms. He is also buried in the Temple Church. He either doesn’t have an effigy, or his is one of the unidentified effigies, or his was destroyed when the church was bombed by the Germans during World War II. His body is down in the crypt somewhere.

Next time – Mystic locations of Stonehenge, Glastonbury, and Avebury