Our First Two Weeks in London

Hi from Greenwich and London. 

We arrived on January 2, 2013.  When we arrived the weather was mild (in the 40’s) but it’s quite cold this week.

Our flat in Greenwich is terrific!  It’s hard to imagine something better.  I found it through a service called sabbaticalhomes.com.  We are in a two room basement apartment.  Each room is large.  One is a bedroom/sitting room and the other is the kitchen.  Our landlords are wonderful and live upstairs.  We have included some pics of the flat here.  The kitchen is fully equipped with a fridge, freezer, and nice gas stove.  We have a washer but no dryer so we are doing the British thing and hanging all our clothes on a drying rack (you can see the end of today’s washing in the pics).  We have TV and WiFi.  The flat is in a great location -- just half a block from a train station that connects us to the London tube.  We have a butcher, fishmonger, green-grocer and cheese shop just down the street, and are close to the post office, bank and grocery store. 

Our first task on getting here was to find bikes.  The good news is that we found two used folding bikes that we can take on the underground or fit in the "boot" of a rental car.  The bad news is that my bike was vandalized last Tuesday, the first day we rode them!  Someone took the quick release clams from the handlebars and the seat.  They didn't take the seat itself.  Go figure.  We lucked out and found a really nice shop close to our flat where the bike repair person helped us.  We ordered new clamps and got them yesterday so we are back in business.  There are tons of bike paths and bikeways around London these days -- the city seems to really be encouraging cycling.  So we hope to get lots of use out of the bikes.  And we are perfecting a locking system that will make it more difficult for vandals.

So far the highlight of our trip has been Westminster Abbey.  We have been several times in previous years and decided to pay extra for a guided tour by one of the vergers at the Abbey this time.  We definitely hit the jackpot with this decision.  Our tour was led by an a verger who is a bit infamous (more on this later).  He was a great guide -- witty and informative.  We also were with a very nice group of people -- a British couple in London on business and an Australian family. 

We did the tour last Tuesday and decided to go back today (Sunday) to attend the Evensong service and a weekly organ recital held at the Abbey.  When we walked in for Evensong, who was greeting visitors but our verger/tour guide.  He recognized us, led us to the front of the quire and asked the usher to find two good seats for “his special guests”!  As a result we sat in the main quire area and not in one of the two transepts with the general admission folks!  Tom sat in the seat reserved for the Head Master of the Abbey School -- called the Archididasculus and I sat next to him (and did not note the owner of my seat J).  We were just seven stalls from the Queen’s stall which was occupied today by the Dean of the Abbey.  No photos are allowed inside Westminster Abbey but I found the picture with this post online that shows where we sat.  We were in the back stalls in the very bottom right corner of the picture.  The choir sat in the first two rows on each side of the aisle.

The service was incredible -- it was almost completely sung by the Abby's choir comprised of about 10 men and 20 choir boys.  The choir was beautiful.  They started with a haunting introit and then proceeded with wonderful traditional music with lots of solos for both the boys and the men.  The sound was ethereal in that great space.  What a treat! 

We returned a hour later for the organ concert which was also wonderful and surprising.  It featured secular music including an arrangement of Bizet's Carmen, for organ – quite unexpected.  As the organist played Carmen's seductive Aria I imagined I could see King Edward the Confessor (who founded the Abbey and is buried near the altar) rising from his grave.  The organist was terrific.  I think he used every one of the 100+ stops on the organ during the concert.

Well, I said our verger was a bit infamous.  During our tour, the British couple we were with thought they recognized the him and asked if he was the "cartwheeling verger" from Will & Kate's wedding.  I did not know what they were talking about, but googled him when we returned home.  It turns out he was the head verger at the wedding and was caught by TV cameras cartwheeling up the center aisle of the Abbey just as the last guests were leaving the church after the ceremony!  Here he is!  Believe me, the enthusiasm that you see in those cartwheels was evident in our tour. 

In addition to our visits to Westminster Abbey, we have been to the Victoria & Albert Museum twice (and I, at least, am not done there!), a fabulous exhibit of Pre-Raphaelite art at Tate Britain, Windsor Castle, and the Borough Market (a huge outdoor market near London Bridge).  We’ve been able to spend some great time with our friends Robin and Ruth, and went to the local wine bar with our landlords, David & Hilary.  We have walked miles exploring Greenwich and southwest London where we are staying.  I have located and attended a UK Weight Watchers meeting and am starting to get the inside scoop on finding low fat food options at the store.  We have begun to really figure out the bus/train/overground/tube interface (although on this front we still have a lot to learn!).

Now that we are settled in, we hope to post more often!  I know tonight, Tom and I had a little contest over who should write this post!

Liz