Today was our last day in London so we hit the ground running. Our first stop was Westminster Abbey. Ian, our tour guide, gave us a wonderful and detailed tour of the Abbey which was fascinating. One bit of trivia about Westminster that we all found to be of interest — 3,300 people are buried there including royalty, well known musicians, scientists, writers, etc. It seemed that every square inch was covered with a memorial of some sort. We were all extremely puzzled that within the area dedicated to the burial of those who made huge contributions in the world of science was the grave of Charles Darwin. That really caught us by surprise. We weren’t expecting to see him there!
We also got to see the coronation chair. Since the coronation of Edward II in 1308, almost every monarch has been crowned in this chair. It is currently undergoing some major restoration however, the restoration crew was working behind a huge glass window so we were able to get a good close look not only of the chair but the actual restoration in progress.
From there we walked across the street, ate lunch and got back on the coach to head to The British Library where were saw some ancient manuscripts such as the early manuscripts of the Bible, the Magna Carta, writings of Shakespeare and other famous writers. We also got to see the original written lyrics to numerous Beatles songs many of them jotted down the back of a card, an envelope, or a scrap piece of paper. It was a very interesting place.
From there we were off to The British Museum. It’s enormous so during the two hours we were there, we were only able to see a small portion of it. However, there was something of interest for everyone so we all took off in different directions to explore the areas that we had interest in. One thing that I think we all went to see was the Rosetta Stone. It was neat to see it in person.
We are now back at the hotel getting ready to go the see “Oliver” tonight. This will be our grand finale as a group.
We have had a great day in London!
