I had breakfast with my cute roommate from Kentucky currently serving in Germany for the Army. I then headed straight to Westminster Abbey and stood in line, in the rain, for about 30 minutes. By far the longest line so far. There were little wooden crosses with red poppys all over the lawn with peoples names and general tributes. Once I got inside I walked around soaking in the beauty of the stained glass and ornateness of the shrines. The tombs were impressive and honestly the whole place was a lot to take in. After lighting a candle and saying a little prayer I sat down for a bit looking around at all I could see trying to capture it with my non-camera lenses. I thought of all the momentous occasions that have gone on here. Of my lifetime the most notable being Princess Diana's funeral and Will & Kate's wedding. About five minutes before 11am I was walking through the tombs when someone official got on the microphone and started talking about the upcoming two minutes of silence and the reasons behind it. He talked about the significance of the time (11am) on 11/11 with the end of the war in 1918, and also that the unknown warrior was buried in the abbey on 11/11 in 1920. I went and stood still with several others by the tomb of the unknown warrior for the two minutes which felt quite special. I also really enjoyed the poets' corner and literary section of the abbey with tributes to several of the greats (Thomas, Chaucer, Lawrence, Byron, James, Austen, Shakespeare, Kipling etc), which of course made me want to read. I then took a quick look through the abbey museum and then the shop, where I bought two little souvenirs - a Christmas ornament of Big Ben (or the tower really, if I want to be legit), and a little gargoyle for my sandplay collection.
Nearby is the Churchill War Rooms that my roommate told me I must see. So I did. It has an audio guide with admission which was helpful. It was very interesting walking through there, trying to imagine what being underground during wartime must have been like. Mid-tour I took a break and had lunch in the Switch Room cafe.
Afterwards I walked through St. James Park on my way to Buckingham Palace. The park was lovely and had lots of types of birds, which if you know me well makes me happy. As I walked I was staring at the birds, when I think my mouth actually dropped open. I was definitely not expecting to see a flock of pelicans gliding through the pond. What? A little while I stopped at a sign which talked about the bird species, and that pelicans were first introduced in 1664 as a gift from the Russian ambassador. Apparently earlier this year the city of Prague gave the park three more pelicans. I love pelicans, but it was strange to see them here.
I read in my handy little guidebook that Chihuly made a chandelier for the foyer of the Victoria & Albert museum. So that was my next stop since I'm a big Chihuly fan. Getting there my eyebrows raised at the 'free admission' sign, so after admiring the glass I took a quick walk through a section of the museum, and a wander through their store since it's "the best museum store" per Frommer's. Since it's my last day here I didn't want to spend it inside. But the Natural History museum's 'free admission' sign across the street caught my attention as well, so I took a quick gander, had millionaire shortbread goodness and a coffee in their cafe, and moved on. But before I did I checked out their museum store too, to be fair. And that's when I decided to get up the courage to ask a woman that worked there the stupid question of what the purpose of a tea towel is. She laughed and said that confused her too when she first moved there, and that it's just a kitchen towel. Has nothing to do with tea. In my head I thought it should be a little towel involved in the afternoon tea setup, but they don't really look like they'd be good for that. Glad I asked a human and not the googles. As much as I like the internet, it's fun to ask a person once in a while. That also marked my second and last mini-conversation of the day (after breakfast). Back to singing to myself.
My trusty friend at the front desk of the hostel told me when I first got here that I must check out Camden Town. So that was the next stop. On my way there after I walked through the tube turnstile I heard a loud "excuse me". It was so alarming I thought I was in trouble. But the man was simply handing me a glove that I dropped. My left hand said thank you. That was nice. Overall though I wouldn't say the Brits have been very friendly. They haven't been rude though either. I'm waiting for France for that treatment. Gotta love stereotypes.
Camden was very cool. It's the alternative part of London, apparently. It has a huge market, I think there were several actually. It stretches beside a river with locks. There were many food vendors, mostly ethnic foods so I got a good and cheap dinner. The stores and vendors had everything - antiques, jewlery, rave/club attire, vintage clothing, glowing shirts etc. After I bought a scarf I walked to a pub called The Elephant's Head and had a glass of malbec. Even though some of their beers said 'extra cold' on them, I didn't want to chance it. I'm sure if I lived here I would get used to it, but the wine was delicious. I finished my Bryson book at the bar and will leave it in the hostel for someone else to enjoy his British travel experiences and wit.
As I had hoped, I'm enjoying a room to myself tonight. Off to Belgium in the morning!
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