It’s our last day in London and we decided to spend it at Westminster Abby.
After breakfast we left the hotel and walked through Chinatown on our way to Westminster Abby.
Delivery trucks filled the streets of Chinatown making their morning deliveries.
This is a delivery truck for Fuller’s London Pride Ale. They seem to be very proud of the fact that it is brewed beside the Thames.
Beer is mostly water with some hops and other grains thrown into the mix. I hope to God they are not using water from the Thames to brew Fuller’s London Pride Ale. The Thames is a dirty brown river filled with tree branches and other more odious detritus. The Thames, like the Platte River, is too thick to drink and too thin to plow. Who in their right mind, other than Pabst that proudly uses Illinois River water to brew Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, would even think about using an open cesspool as the water source for their beer? Coors uses crystal clear Rocky Mountain spring water to brew their beer. That seems like a no brainer to me. But what do I know.
I smelled this truck unloading in Chinatown when I was a block away.
You don’t see many fish monger delivery trucks in the States. If you own this company you don’t have to worry that the guy driving this truck is going to take it home and use it to run errands and take the kids to soccer practice.
Westminster Abby is right next to Parliament Square. As we were walking around Parliament Square Abe started screaming for me to stop. I did, and as he cackled with delight, he pointed one of his long boney fingers at this statue, located across the street from Parliament Square.
Abe was beyond thrilled to see that the Brits had honored him with a statue. I was and am a little miffed that they put Abe across the street from Parliament Square and not in a place of honor in Parliament Square, where he belongs. It’s the thought that counts though, and it was very thoughtful of the Brits to honor Abe with this statue.
We finally made it to Westminster Abby and signed up for the 10:30 tour.
There is a strictly enforced no pictures rule in the Abby so I will need my words, not photos, to describe the highlights of the Abby to you. There are over 3,300 people who are either buried in the Abby or have a memorial honoring them. As you walk in the main entrance to the Abby you run smack dab into the memorial stone for Winston Churchill.
It is a great honor to be buried in Westminster Abby. Everyone was surprised when Churchill declined this great honor and said that he wanted to buried in the family plot in the churchyard at St. Martin’s Church in Bladon, near Woodstock, Oxfordshire. After he died and was buried the Queen insisted on honoring Churchill with the most magnificent memorial headstone in the Abby. I am glad the Queen insisted on honoring Winston. He was one of the greatest Englishmen this island nation has ever produced.
As we walked past Churchill’s memorial stone we encountered the memorial headstone honoring all those British soldiers killed in World War I. You can and do walk on every other memorial headstone set in the floor of the Abby. Not this one. This headstone is usually surrounded by poppies and is roped off as a sign of the deep respect the British have for those soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice in World War I.
Then we walked over to the scientists’ section of the Abby. The most recent of the Abby’s headstones was placed there earlier this year when they buried Stephen Hawking in the Abby.
I am a big Stephen Hawking fan.
At the Abby he is flanked by Sir Issac Newton, who invented gravity, and Charles Darwin, who invented evolution. The inscription on Hawking’s headstone mirrors the inscription on Newton’s headstone and reads: “Here lies what was mortal of Stephen Hawking.”
After that we toured through the main altar area where they do the coronations and the State funerals. We even got to see the coronation chair.
After that we walked through the back of the Abby where all the kings and queens of England are buried. What an amazing history lesson that was!
Finally, we ended the tour in Poets’ Corner. Chaucer started it by asking if he could be buried in the Abby. Once he was buried in the Abby every other author in England followed his lead and now there is an entire section of the Abby set aside for authors. This is a partial list of the great authors either buried or memorialized in Poets’ Corner. Shakespeare, Dickens, Anthony Trollope, Kipling, Dylan Thomas, Henry James and the Bronte Sisters.
Our last stop on the tour was a badly faded medieval fresco of St. Christopher carrying the Christ child on his shoulders. This greatly pleased St. Christopher and made for a wonderful end to our tour.
Before we left the Abby St. Christopher lit 🔥 a candle 🕯 for Anna and we said a prayer for her recovery.
We then went outside and walked around the Cloisters of the Abby and inspected the memorial headstones in the walkway surrounding the Cloisters. You all know how hard it is to find a good plumber. Apparently, this guy was a very good plumber.
This is another memorial in the Cloisters walkway.
As we were walking back to the hotel after a long, full and rewarding day touring Westminster Abby I was struck by the fact that London is such an amazing and historical city. I have had so much fun touring around London.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow I fly home. It has been a real hoot but I miss everyone and I will be glad to be back home.
I hope everyone is having a great Wednesday.
Good evening from London.
AbeAndMarkontheCamino 