Church Day on a Monday with a Shakespearean interlude (August 3, 2015)

This was our last full day in London, so we knew we needed to cram in a few last things on our wish list.  We began our day at Westminster Abbey.

They didn't allow pictures inside, but Dan did sneak one that I will share in a bit.  We waited in line a few minutes to enter and picked up the free audio tour.  Dan and I remember wandering around aimlessly in Westminster on our previous visit, but the advent of technology (and, thus, audio tours) has really created a neat and orderly process with little wandering.  Sometimes it makes me sad that we have lost the spontaneity, but we really do learn a lot more along the way.  Anyway, they also offered a kids' information trail, so we filled in blanks as we toured.  About halfway through our tour, we discovered that they were having a short Communion service at 12:30 and that all were invited to attend.  We took a break from the tour and participated in the service.  It was really moving to actually take Communion in Westminster.  The kids (other than Jack --the priests questioned serving him multiple times, so we felt like terrible parents and acquiesced) experienced wine in communion for the first time, as this was an Anglican service.  We, as Methodists, are typically served grape juice at Communion.  They didn't like it very much and preferred our Altar Guild's bread and grape juice at FUMC Lexington.  After the service, we continued the tour.  The highlights for the kids were Queen Elizabeth and Bloody Mary's tombs and Poet's Corner.  They enjoyed seeing Shakespeare's memorial and Handel's tomb.  As we left Westminster, there was a fabulous view of Big Ben, so Dan took a picture. We also quoted, "Look, kids! Big Ben, Parliament!" several more times with some eye rolling in return.  

If you notice on the clock tower,it was almost 2 PM.  By the time we made our way around the square, we were actually able to hear Big Ben chime the hour when we were standing right below it. That was really neat.  Big Ben is actually the name of the bell inside the clock tower, not the name of the tower, itself.  

The next planned stop in our day was St. Paul's Cathedral.  We rode the Tube over to St. Paul's and grabbed a quick bite of lunch before heading inside.  Unfortunately, we discovered that they don't take the London Card, which was the prepaid pass we had been using all week.  It was accepted at every other museum/sightseeing spot (other than Harry Potter and Buckingham Palace) all week.  To pay for our family to just walk through the Cathedral would have been around 50 pounds (about $75 dollars).  We decided to opt out and then discovered a loophole that would gain us free access.  If you come to a church service at St. Paul's, you receive entry for free.  There was a Service of Evensong at 5:00, so we decided to return that evening.  We would get to view the beauty of the architecture and hear the Westminster Choir sing for free, all in one shot.  Sounded like a great deal.  We did take a picture on the steps in honor of the Mary Poppins song, "Feed the Birds."  It describes the little old bird woman on the steps of St. Paul's.  I sang it to the kids often when they were babies.  We didn't see a bird woman, but we did see pigeons.  

The reproduction of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre is just across the Thames River from St. Paul's, so we walked across the Millennium Bridge.  There were fabulous views from the pedestrian bridge.

St. Paul's dome in the background

Tower Bridge in the background

The Globe Theatre is a historically-accurate reproduction of Shakespeare's original Globe Theatre, a few hundred yards away from the original location.  

They were rehearsing for an upcoming show, but we were able to take a tour of the facility.  Our tour guide was very knowledgeable.  He gave us lots of great facts about the theatre experience in Shakespeare's day.  The original Globe burned down when the actors decided it would be a great idea to fire a real cannon during a battle scene...in a wooden building with a thatched roof.  Go figure.  It was rebuilt, but torn down when the Puritans took control of the government for a short period.  They opposed theatrical productions.  The current building was finally rebuilt in 1997, using the materials and design of the original with construction techniques of the 1600s.  

The end result...

The kids enjoyed watching part of the rehearsal, as well.  The accompanying museum had this really interesting quote about Shakespeare's works.  

OK, back across the bridge to St. Paul's for the concert.  We weren't supposed to take pictures in St. Paul's, but Dan broke the rules because of its beauty and grandeur.  

The Choir loft

The hand-painted dome

The dome is about 214 feet from the floor. We can't figure out how anyone could have painted that.  I will have to do some research on that history, since we didn't pay for a tour.  

We settled in for the Service of Choral Evensong.  They processed past us and the priest announced that the St. Paul's choir is on "holiday" so we would be blessed with the vocal performance of All the King's Men from Winnipeg, Canada.  What??!!!???  They did a wonderful job, though. It was a beautiful a capella service.  

Being Methodist, we really intended to spend an afternoon of our trip seeing the John Wesley sights.  Sidney will be going through Confirmation in a few years, so I thought it would be great for her, especially.  Our minister, Rev. Jamie Armstrong, even graciously pulled together some information for me on the Wesley Heritage Sites.  Unfortunately, we ran out of time.  John Wesley was put on a back burner for this trip and we Anglican-ed it up, instead.  I feel a little guilty, but John Wesley will be put on our list for a return trip to London.  Dan did take a stealthy picture of the memorial to John and Charles Wesley in Westminster earlier in the day so that we could say we did something Methodist.

We decided to grab some dinner near St. Paul's after the service before heading back to our apartment.  We figured out that we were near Fleet Street, which has a Wagamama (for one more meal at my fave place).  Sidney and Lyndon immediately freaked out.  They said, "We can't go to Fleet Street,  It is dangerous!"  We finally uncovered that they were worried about Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street.  (The story goes that Sweeney Todd murdered his customers in the barber chair and had them cooked into pies.) We had attended a Sondheim review at the Smith Civic Center in Lexington on the day before we left for our trip.  (It was an excellent show!)  They performed "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd", and it scared the dickens out of Sidney and Lyndon.  They were convinced that Sweeney Todd was a real person.  We forced them to walk to  Fleet Street for dinner, anyway, to conquer their silly fear.  As luck would have it, Wagamama is right next door to an actual barber shop on Fleet Street.  We made them take a picture with the barber pole.  Lyndon is intentionally making her "worried" face.

The walk back to the Tube gave us a great view of St. Paul's dome glinting golden in the sunset.

We also stumbled upon Temple Bar, which is the last surviving gateway to the City of London, erected in 1672.  It is not in its original location because it was being frequently vandalized.  It was moved to this safer location in 2004.

After riding the Tube back to our stop, I asked everyone to humor me by taking a one-block detour to see the portion of Kensington Gardens near our apartment.  We were well-rewarded.  It is the section called the Italian Gardens.

What a beautiful conclusion to our time in London!  Next stop, Vienna.