Monday 1 August 2016

London again part 2

St Paul's was good, Shakespeare's Globe was great, the weather was hot and we still had time for more adventures. Saturday was a family day; a barbecue in my cousin's lovely garden with almost all of my English family.
Sunday our aim was to go to a service in Westminster Abbey. We arrived early so went for a long walk along the side of the Thames, crossing over Lambeth Bridge to Lambeth Palace on the South Bank and back to cross Westminster Bridge:

Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!
Really, it wasn't that early when we crossed, but I always say Earth hath not anything to show more fair when I cross. At the Abbey, the tourists were queuing to go into the choral eucharist. They were very well organised. It was a pleasant, quite simple service. Then we walked through St James' Park, past Buckingham Palace and caught the tube back to Earl's Court. We had a little self-catering apartment in a shabby old house in Kensington. It was ok once we got someone to turn off the bathroom radiator. We bought ready-made food from local supermarkets every day; mirowave curries or made-up sandwiches or wraps and punnets of strawberries. On Sunday afternoon we went to the National Portrait Gallery, where the Tudor portraits are like old friends. 
Last bit on Sunday was Abbey Road: 
Lots of students on the famous crossing! From there we went to Swiss Cottage.
This is a pub. Wikipedia says: The district is named after an inn called The Swiss Tavern that was built in 1804 in the style of a Swiss chalet and on the site of a former tollgate keeper's cottage. The inn was later renamed Swiss Cottage.


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