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| Maureen outside Sally's at Alexandra Palace |
Late Sunday we had fun viewing the YouTube satirical comedy of Sally's multi-talented son Daniel (aka Antoine Speekz or Damien Slash) who has quite an online following. His Barak Obama impersonation is gold!
It was sad to leave but marvellous for Maureen to reconnect with her and for me to meet her. As Sally is an Analyst who works with young people we had the beginnings of good conversations about society, psychoanalysis and the helping professions.
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| tomb of Edward the Confessor |
On our final day in London we ventured to Westminster Abbey. Benedictine monks first came to the Westminster site in the middle of the tenth century and the Abbey has been the coronation church of English Kings since William of Normandy in 1066 and is the final resting place of seventeen monarchs. The present church was begun by Henry III in 1245 and is the site of many royal celebrations like coronations, weddings, and
funerals. This arresting Gothic
Cathedral has enormous significance for
the English and is full of the tombs of Kings and Queens, and famous
politicians, warriors, explorers, scientists, literary and other figures from
the history of Britain. Notable tombs
include those of Edward the Confessor (a Catholic Saint), Elizabeth 1st
and Mary Queen of Scots. The later two
have equally sized memorials of side chapels.
This is surprising because Mary Queen of Scots was never Queen of
England and was imprisoned by her cousin Elizabeth for 19 years and then
beheaded for treason. Mary’s son James
the 1st , who succeeded the
childless Elizabeth, reinstated Catholicism as the official religion and
reclaimed the status of his mother in the placement and size of her tomb.
he tomb of Oliver Cromwell, who dramatically increased the power of Parliament, was in the Abbey and still has a plaque there. His embalmed body was removed and hung on gallows after the royalty was reinstated. His head was then cut off and stuck on a spike outside Westminster Hall.
As an aside,
it was 18 pounds to get into Westminster Abbey (~$35 AUD) whereas all Catholic
Church around the world are free to enter no matter how famous eg Pantheon and
St Peters in Rome and Notre Dame in Paris.
Close by to
the Abbey are 'Big Ben' (which has a clock face on each of four sides of the
Tower) and the Houses of Parliament. It
is hard to imagine a less grand building for the political life of a
nation. However the multitude of windows
must be a nightmare to clean and maintain!
Catching the
underground once more, we got off at London Bridge , less prescient than its downstream neighbour, the Tower
Bridge. We explored the shore of the
South Bank past the 'Golden Hind' (Francis Brake’s ship) and stopped for lunch at
the 'Swan' restaurant adjacent to the Globe Theatre and overlooking the river. I had a delicious mushroom and chestnut pie!
By the end
of lunch we did not have time to tackle the Globe Theatre so we walked across the
Millennium Bridge (built in 2000) to Saint Paul's Cathedral. We finally caught the Circle Line
Underground back to King’s Cross Station just a stone’s throw away from St
Pancreas where we boarded the Eurostar to return to Paris.
It was good
to visit London and scout out things for a return in the future – hopefully!!. London has so much to see but is much more
expensive that Paris and things seemed to be double the cost of the equivalent product or service in Australia.
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