Next, we saw one of my favorite places on the trip, the Church of St. Stephen Waldorf. This church was designed by Christopher Wren before he designed St. Paul’s, and some folks say it was his “warm up.” St. Paul’s is amazing, but St. Stephan Waldorf’s is a place I would actually want to go to church. Its simple and modern pews are a nice contrast to the ornate nature of the small dome, and they are circled around a simple center altar. As Michael commented, it is a very democratic design.
We visited many other churches today, including St. Mary-le-Bow and St. Bride’s, both of which were designed by, you guessed it, Christopher Wren. St. Bride’s was unique because of the Roman and Saxon ruins we were able to see in the crypt, which were only revealed after the bombings during World War II. One can still see the mosaic tile floor laid by the Romans in about 180 A.D.
After a brisk walk along Fleet Street, we stopped for a moment at the former house of Samuel Johnson, which is tucked back behind the much taller and more modern buildings of Fleet Street. Johnson said, “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford,” and Michael and I are finding on our trip that we certainly agree. We are not at all tired of London, and life is very good.
We also visited St. Paul’s, Wren’s masterpiece. With one of the largest domes in the world, it is amazing in scope. We first viewed the dome from the ground level, and then we headed to the crypt to see the tombs of famous individuals, including Lord Horatio Nelson, William Blake, and Florence Nightengale. But the big challenge for today was our climb to the highest level of the cathedral, some 532 steps up. The views of London were spectacular, and we were shocked by the number of cranes hovering over the tops of the buildings, an indication of the amount of growth and development London is currently experiencing.
An amusing part of our visit was that we seemed to shadow a group of 13-year-old girls who were away from school completing what they refer to as “field work.” They did know what I was talking about when I asked them if they were on a filed trip. The girls were all in matching school uniforms, and they flocked around their teacher while completing their “field work” activity sheets. Of course, we laughed when one expressed concern that her group would be “told off” for getting too far ahead of the group on their climb to one of the upper viewing galleries. Luckily, this did not seem to happen. The picture below shows Michael and me before we took a walk across the modern Millenium Bridge leading into Southwark:
After leaving the center of London, we took the tube to the Kensington Palace area. We first took a walk by the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. After continuing north and seeing Royal Albert Hall, we headed into Kensington Park, where we enjoyed seeing active locals (and their dogs) before seeing the actual palace. After viewing the palace, we walked in a neighborhood called Palace Green, the poshest we’ve seen here in London -- some homes selling for close to $100 million. We saw the Romanian embassy and the heavily guarded Israeli Embassy (no pictures allowed). Then we returned to some main streets where we saw beautiful apartment buildings and row houses as we walked back to our own row house in Chelsea. Below is a picture of me in front of Kensington Palace:
We took about an hour break before heading back to King’s Road to visit our local pub for a couple of pints of ale and some fish and chips (and peas – the dish is always served with peas). Everyone at The Chelsea Potter was really nice, and most were just getting off work and stopping in for a few drinks and some good company. While Michael was at the bar getting our drinks, two young women asked if they could sit at the other side of our table for a few moments until another table opened. They said they were regulars who visit the pub several times a week, and they were lamenting the fact that they, like all people in London, only have four days remaining to smoke in public places before this practice is outlawed on July 1st. There has been much talk of this new limitation during our visit, and interestingly, our tour guide on last night’s Westminster tour told us that the lawmakers in Parliament would still be allowed to smoke. When I shared this information with my tablemate, she was quite upset, and she immediately texted a friend who works in the Parliament buildings to verify the information. I do not know the result of her inquiries. In any case, both women had quite a bit of spunk, and I was glad to have had a brief chat with them.
Michael and I are spending the night at home this evening after our comparatively early dinner, and we will leave early tomorrow to travel to Canterbury.
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