Statues in the Park

Across the street from Westminster and across from Parliament, a small square park is surrounded by whizzing cars, taxis and buses. And in the otherwise empty park are several statues. We saw the striking image of Winston Churchill, a man of iron commemorated in iron as it seems, in an earlier post. We went by for another look before leaving London.

Nearby is a more traditional statue of King George V, the father of the reigning Queen Elizabeth II. A close look will tell you that a bird had not treated for late King kindly. That stripe coming down the side of his head is the proof of that.

After that final turn through the park, we went back to the hotel, finished packing, and were prepared for a pleasant ride to the cruise ship dock at Dover. "Will we see the White Cliffs?" I asked our driver. "Oh, yes, they are right there," he answered.

Oh, yes, they were. They are. And you will see in the next post.

Westminster Abbey

Five days had passed by in the proverbial flash, four in and around London and one in Paris. On Friday morning we needed to pack and be ready for our car to pick us up at 10:00 AM. Time to do anything interesting? Of course.

We walked by Westminster Abbey twice and we drove by it about six times earlier in the week. By Tuesday we knew we did not have time to stand in line for the tours of the famed edifice. Tours begin at 9:30, far too late to help us on Friday. But as I talked to our Stratford tour guide, I discovered that a regular Church service is held at 8:00 AM daily. So there we were, at the door, waiting to attend the service.

A very positive experience, one that I would repeat on another trip, the actual service took about 35 minutes and it was held in a side chapel. That meant that we would have to walk through the great sanctuary, passing by the grave of Rudyard Kipling and the monument to Shakespeare. On the way out we saw additional memorials and even took the time to light a candle, which let us look some more.

The awe-inspiring Abbey will be on our tour list next time. But so will the Church service!