Westminster Abbey

Here is the front of Westminster Abbey....but it isn't the door you go in, it is the door you go out of on the one-way tour. This is the church where nearly every king and queen in British history since William the Conqueror has been crowned. There are a ton of people honored within its walls and just about anyone who has been anyone in British history has some sort of plaque or statue or memorial here. The place is stuffed with them.

See that row of statues along the bottom just above the door arch that is cut off?

There are ten statues there. Fifth from the left, on the far right of the photo, is Martin Luther King, Jr. I thought that was pretty cool. On the far left is St. Maximilian Kolbe, for whom my youngest nephew, Peter Kolbe was named.

No photography was allowed in the cathedral. Suffice to say that there is alot going on in there. Lots of tombs and memorials and plaques on the walls and floors. The coronation chair is there...I totally missed it the first time we were there...I don't know how, since it is quite prominently displayed, but there were throngs of people that day. There were considerably fewer people this time around and we could really look at everything we wanted to while following our audio tours.

Well, lookythere. I was able to link to the pictures on the Abbey website.

This is the tomb of Queen Elizabeth I. It is also, ironically, the tomb of her half-sister Mary. If you'll remember, Mary was the daughter of Henry VIII and catherine of Aragon. Elizabeth I was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. These half-sisters were NOT friends and in fact, Mary imprisoned Elizabeth.

Here is the high altar. The coronation chair sits a ways behind it on a dais.

Here is the ceiling in the Lady Chapel. This is in the apse of the church, long behind the high altar and the chapel of St. Edward the Confessor.

And here is a rather grainy photo of the coronation chair. I can't figure out how to size it down here, but at least you can sort of see details at this size.
Here is Poet's Corner, which is more like two or three corners, since there are so many monuments here. They are all over the walls, on the floor, in the stained glass windows....

So there is your mini-tour of the cathedral. I was able to get some postcards of the effigies in the museum. Wax or wooden funeral effigies of royalty were carried through the streets as part of the funeral procession and many of the effigies were cast from death masks and then clothed in the monarchs' actual clothing.

Here are Andre and Corey in Chinatown where we ate lunch. Corey and Andre are friends from grad school in Chicago. Andre is a Belgian married to a Japanese woman, living in London. My first visit to London was in 1998 when they got married. They had a wedding luncheon in Northern France and then afterwards they let Corey and me stay at their flat for a week while they took Mari's parents to Germany.

Our last night there, we saw Spamalot. The theater was near Chinatown, so we stopped by after lunch and were able to score some awesome seats for the next night on the sixth row, center. Loved it.

No photography allowed, but lookyhere what I found: I think this is the Broadway cast because that looks like Tim Curry playing Arthur, but the guy in the middle (Sir Galahad) is the same guy we saw in London.

No pictures of Kensington Palace. Sorry.

I worked all day getting the junk room ready to accomodate my brother since Mom and Dad will be in the guest room tomorrow night and Tuesday. daddy is having heart surgery Tuesday. I may be off-line for a few days. It's hard to tell. I'm really tired and although I have a few things left to do, it is probably time to head to bed. After I eat, since Corey worked tonight and I skipped dinner.