A Stroll Along the Thames

If you every decide to visit London, I highly recommend following the itinerary I invented for our day, especially if the weather is nice. This was the perfect way to enjoy the London skyline and take it some great history and culture. Just skip the getting-on-the-wrong-bus-right-off and the whole rest of the day will go smoothly. First stop: Westminster Abbey! The great church where Monarchs are crowned, buried, and married.

The audio guide is free (church touring is not) and the narrator is none other than SCAR! You know, Scar? From the Lion King? Jeremy Irons? Yeah, anyway, photography not allowed inside the cathedral. We took a few photos outside and inside this other room before we noticed the sign indicated no photos were allowed in there either. Oops.

Surely I'm not the first person to miss the tiny sign while looking at the windows.

 

Westminster Abbey doesn't seem to be as big as Notre Dame, at least it doesn't feel as big, but it is packed with the burials and memorials of Britain's rich and famous. Henry V, Elizabeth I, Edward the Confessor, a lot of royal bigwigs and random rich people you've never heard of, plus memorial plaques and monuments for Shakespeare, Dickens, Handel, Purcell, Austen, Tennyson...the list goes on! The Abbey is also home to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, so that is the second one we've seen on our trip.

Literally next door to Westminster Abbey is Parliament!

You should be singing "Britannia Rules the Waves" in your head right now.

The seat of the government here in London is also home to the worlds most famous clock tower and the worlds most famous bell: Big Ben. Just to be clear, Ben is the bell, not the clock or the tower.

 

 

You can visit the House of Commons or the House of Lords, we didn't end up visiting Parliament beyond taking a few photos from the outside. We took a stroll along the South Bank--which has been fairly recently gentrified--and enjoyed the sunshine and buskers. We walked right by the London Eye, but neither of us were too keen on waiting or paying for the ride. We enjoyed our stroll, stopped for lunch, and made a stop in at the Tate Modern Art Gallery.

 

Another one of London's free attractions (to make up for how pricey admission is at the rest, I guess) the Tate was interesting and stupefying and confusing, as modern art often is. We liked this big piece: a collection of odds and ends put together in a fabulous way.

Andy Warhol's iconic Marilyn Monroe.

 

There were these fold up stools available for people to carry around the galleries so they can sit to examine the art, we used a couple because our feet were already tired and it was only midday.

Tate Modern's balcony provides a really great view of St. Paul's Cathedral and the millennium bridge. Which is where we are heading next. but first a brief detour for...

The new Shakespearean Globe Theatre! If it had been summer, we would have had standing room tickets like the paupers we are, but that wasn't really an option this time around. So we just paid homage to the Bard from a distance and carried on across the river.

A view on the Thames

 

Behind me is the industrial age smoke stack of the Tate Modern.

And we cross the river to visit St. Paul's Cathedral for the Evensong service. Some good information for church the aficionado: London's biggest churches charge admission for tourists, not for worship services. If you want to visit the church, save some money, and don't mind missing the tombs and smaller chapels that are on the far side of the quire, attending a service is well worth it. Evensong starts at 5, but they opened the door to us at 4:15, so we had lots of time to see the open portions of the church before the service. Both Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's does an Evensong service everyday where the psalms are sung or chanted by the choir and accompanied by the organ. I don't think you get a full experience in a big cathedral unless you hear some music, the spaces are meant to be filled with song. Baroque and Renaissance choir music really makes sense in a grand church in a way it doesn't always in a different venue. The choir at St. Paul's is spectacular, the interior (no pictures allowed) is impressive. We actually got to sit right up near the choir during the service.

 

And there you have it! If you want to add a bit to your perfect London day, you could go up on the London Eye, tour Parliament, or take in a Shakespeare play. You could even do the whole day in reverse by touring St. Paul's in the morning and attending Evensong at Westminster Abbey. To all my friends and family who are planning, thinking of planning, or dreaming of planning a trip to London, take my advice: Do a day just like this one!