A tale of two churches

 October 16

This morning we had coffee in our Benjamin Franklin room in fine cups and saucers while packing. We stowed our luggage then set out for Westminster Abbey, stopping for something to eat at Pret a Manger near Trafalgar Square. 

The Abbey was awe inspiring! I recognized so much of from watching the Royal family events on TV. 



Tomb of the unknown warrior , the only tomb in the floor that no one has ever walked across - not even the monarch. Inside are the remains of a soldier from WWI

The nave

Isaac Newton

The choir

The queen’s seat

The altar

This floor! 

The person for whom the abbey was built


Poets corner has so many famous people from the literary history 

The oldest door in the Abbey

The coronation chair

The entrance

Afterwards, we stopped at the Red Lion for a drink and to use the “Ladies and Gents”. 

The Red Lion near parliament

Winston Churchill was a patron


Bonnie wee Lass on the bar


The bell would be wrung 7 minutes before a vote so that members of parliament could make it back in time

We grabbed our luggage and huffed it to Charing Cross station, bought tickets to Heathrow and then started our journey to Oxfordshire.

We’re driving a Grandland car (never heard of that before, but it is nice). 

First stop was Oxford to visit Christ Church Cathedral. 1000 years of Christian worship, school, literature, invention. 

Beautiful English garden on the grounds of Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford

The steps to the dining hall used in Harry Potter to welcome the students

The ceiling above those steps from the 1400s I think

The dining hall for the students, from which the Harry Potter dining hall was modeled. Still used and it smelled good in there!

The quad

Inside the church

Beautiful stained glass windows. This being the oldest.

Stained glass window from 1320 with the middle royal blue panel showing the murder of Thomas Becket. He clashed with King Henry II over the church and his images were all but destroyed during reformation

Famous students who were brothers. They started the Methodist church. Charles wrote the hymn, Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Drove to Chipping Norton. Checked in to our cute Airbnb. Walked to town and had dinner.  Tomorrow we start day 1 of the Cotswolds tour. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anacapri and Marina Piccola

Image
 October 5, 2024 We awoke to our first breakfast here at Aldarogi. Scrambled eggs, prosciutto, cheese, tomatoes and croissants. And a great cappuccino!  We then headed up the exhausting climb to Capri (143 bpm). Which takes about 10 minutes.  It rained hard overnight, but no rain is expected today! I was awake from midnight to about 4 and loved our view of the Italy coastline from our room. It just sparkled! We grabbed a bus to Anacapri (20 minutes of hairpin turns) and were deposited in the main Piazza. We walked a little, grabbing a map from a vendor and then made our way to the chairlift.  Once at the top, we had another coffee and took in the panoramic views from there.  Back down again we explored Anacapri and I bought some tiles for our eventual new home at 309 W. 19th Avenue. We ate lunch at an off-the-beaten-path trattoria and had a delicious experience! Ravioli Caprese and a Caprese Salad. So fresh and good! After lunch we visited the nearby church and it’s beautiful mosaic fl
Read more

Naples and Catania

Image
 October 9, 2024 This morning we packed and checked out (leaving our bags for them to hold) while we went out to explore once more. We took the metro to the Municipal area and palazzo Reale (royal palace) but alas it is closed. Instead we visited the iconic castle by the port, Castle Nuovi, built in the 1279 as a palace for the french king, Charles I, and took a tour.  In the middle of our tour I got a text from EasyJet reminding us of our flight at 2:45. We thought it was at 3:45! Gasp! 🫢 so we left the tour and had to hike it back to the metro and then hike from there to our hotel. As we were arriving at our hotel, a cab was dropping someone else off so we had her wait while we grabbed our luggage at the front desk. We made it to the airport in enough time to sit down for a beer and a light lunch before heading to our gate.  Our flight ended up being delayed due to cell service interruption and so we ended up leaving a little more than an hour later. Ciao Napoli!  Finally in Catania
Read more

Siracusa and Ortigia

Image
 October 12, 2024 Breakfast with Mt. Etna Our hotel Byssus Suites is in Siracusa but wasn’t ready when we arrived. The drive from Acireale was about 1.5 hours. The hotel took our luggage and parked our car. Ortigia is an island and mostly pedestrian, so we walked there (about 15 minutes) to look around. They have a massive farmers market and we walked around and ducked into a small restaurant just behind a fruit merchant who regularly started hawking. Ortigia farmers market Archemedes fountain The beautiful old lanes of Ortigia The Duomo - inside is the left arm of Santa Lucia (Sicily’s patron saint) Plumeria trees line the streets in Siracusa. Another tree seen often looks like ficus trees but the trunks are massive!  Interesting ending machine!  We had a nice dinner at Pourquoi Pas. Although in Sicily the food is mostly seafood, I opted for a pork dish this time. The roasted cabbage is soooo good! I need to try this at home! Our room is very spacious and high quality!  Tomorrow we wi
Read more