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| The Painted Hall -- Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich |
It’s been a while since we have posted – we’ve been having such
a wonderful and relaxing time, it’s hard to capture it in words!
Yesterday (and it snowed last night!) was a rainy and cold London day. Despite the weather we decided to join the
many Londoners outside walking through the city. (I am constantly amazed that Londoners are out in any weather, rain or shine, pushing buggies completely outfitted for the conditions and otherwise enjoying "a spot of fresh air"). Our plan was to take the tube to Monument and
walk through central London about 5 miles to the Victoria and Albert
Museum. (There I wanted to spend time
looking at the incredible exhibit of china and porcelain! Tom was not as exited – but then he doesn't necessarily share of my love of china!) When
we exited the tube station to begin our walk, we were greeted by two
treats. One was expected – “the Monument”
was erected as a memorial to all those who died in the Great London fire of
1666. It was a massive granite structure
that is now dwarfed in the middle of central London skyscrapers.
As we stood in front of the Monument we heard church bells
change ringing. We walked around the
corner to the small church of Saint St. Magnus the Martyr. It is a wonderful church, just at the foot of
London Bridge. The building was designed
by Christopher Wren. A group of “twenty-somethings” was change ringing. For those of you who don’t know what change
ringing is check out this article. Many think that hand bells were developed so
that change ringers could practice without the entire neighborhood
listening! We tried to record the bells
and I tried unsuccessfully to upload some audio of the ringing so you will just have to imagine the beautiful sound of 12 huge church bells ringing away!. We walked down to the church which was just
finishing Sunday Services and got to look around the beautiful sanctuary. Despite the rain our walk was great.
One of the reasons we undertook our walk in the rain is that
we are trying to walk as much as possible so we will be ready for the Camino in
April. As part of that we decided last
week to try walking segments of the London Loop. The Loop is a 150 km marked walking trail
around the perimeter of London link. It
is divided into about 20 segments. So it
seemed like a great idea to walk these marked trails as part of our training regimen. Last Monday, we walked about 8 miles from the
industrial London suburb of Erith to Bexley along the River Cray. It was a great day and at the end of the walk
we stumbled on a very atmospheric cemetery at St. Mary’s Church in Bexley. Although the cemetery is still active, it has
not been maintained. We included some
photos of the gravestones and markers slowly becoming part of the forest
again in the slide show link at the end of this post.
To continue our training, this past Thursday we planned to
walk about 16 miles on the next two segments of the Loop. We set off early and the day was sunny and
beautiful. Little did we know that during
the day we would slog through over 5 miles of incredibly muddy trails. After seven hours of walking we had covered
about 14miles, it was getting dark and starting to rain. So we bailed and took the bus and train home,
thoroughly exhausted and completely encrusted in mud! We decided that we need to wait for a bit
drier weather to walk the loop and find some less squishy walks for the next
couple of weeks at least!
In the past couple of weeks we have done and seen many other
things. Highlights have included seeing Spamalot in the West End, walking
through the Inns of Court and visiting Temple Church, visiting St. Paul’s, and
touring the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich.
Spamalot was a
great experience. I must confess that I
do not normally go for the silliness of Monty Python, but I know Tom loves it,
so the tickets seemed a natural for us. Our seats were in the first row and we could
actually make eye contact with the actors.
I don’t remember when I last laughed so hard! We especially loved the marriage between
Lancelot and Prince Henry! It was
side-splitting!
The Inns of Court were also very interesting – they were
lovely but struck me as a bit too much of a “place apart” to truly serve the
cause of justice! I think the British
courts are much more accessible now than in past years. Nonetheless, although we found a great shop
where all the British barristers buy their robes and wigs, Eide &
Ravenscroft, I don’t think I am ready to place my order just yet! A real treat of this day was the Temple
Church. The original portion of the
church was built in the 11th Century by the Knights Templar. Inside the old portion of the church are a
number of effigies of 11th century Templar Knights. They were in perfect condition prior to
WWII. The church was substantially
damaged by bombs during the war and the effigies also were damaged. They are still incredible.
The Old Royal Naval College and St. Paul’s were both
designed by Sir Christopher Wren and are lovely. We enjoyed our tours of both places and have
included many pictures with the slide show.
The chapel at the naval college was especially beautiful!
On a personal note, we are enjoying this time together,
resting and relaxing. We have decided
that we should go out to dinner each Tuesday (after my WW meeting J)
and are making the rounds of Greenwich restaurants and pubs. We also had dinner last weekend at Robin and
Ruth’s and loved meeting their friends Deborah and George again. The evening was great food (curry – which is
ubiquitous here) and conversation. This past
Saturday the four of us went out to a fabulous Italian meal here in
Greenwich. So far The Hill (the Italian place),
Davy’s Wine Bar and the Ashburnham Arms (“our” local pub) are our favorites! We
are trying to make a point of trying all things British -- so we are eating
corgettes (like our cucumbers but different), curry (of course), cheese (OMG do
they know cheese here), mash (most often potatoes but they mash everything at
one time or another), British pork sausages (bangers) (I found a Weight Watchers
brand that is only 1 point per sausage!), porridge (chunky oatmeal) and
Weetabix (a little like shredded wheat but not really).
Here are our two most recent slide shows: Walking and Exploring -- February 2013 and Around London -- Late January 2013
So long for now,
Liz
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