So Westminster Abbey is still around. It is FULL of dead people AND alive people–honestly it’s a bit much. One or the other.
Here is a view from the outside.
And some from out and around the huge building.
And a prayer for all you sinners–
Down the outdoor hallway so common in this big old churches you can find Britain’s oldest door.
I’m not sure if the door still works, but the lock does. Along this same breezeway were yet more dead and alive people, one of whom I recognized:
Fairly beautiful I think. Newton was also inside. He had his own statue and almost his own alcove, which is a lot of property within the Abbey, where dead people seem to be situated every which way, with the exception of some royals.
Poet’s corner was of course overwhelming, withe tombstones or tributes to the likes of Chaucer and Shakespeare and Dryden and Longfellow and all the Bronte women. I got a bit suspicious though when I saw Jane Austen’s name as I know from my recent field trip to her house that she was buried not in Westminster but in Winchester Cathedral. Upon closer inspection I discovered that Shakespeare’s mortal remains aren’t at the Abbey, either, but up at Stratford-upon-Avon, which I guess is fair. It made me wonder who else signed the attendance card but didn’t stay for the party. It doesn’t really matter–seeing the lineup on the floor polished by tourists’ flipflops is already strange and striking enough. On the way out, next to the exit, is a bust of FDR. Keep heading out the door and you’ll find his buddy, Churchill.
The tour guide said that there is a myth circulating that pigeons don’t dare sit up on that round head. I couldn’t prove it wrong, and I’m not sure I want to.
Down the street is a monument in the middle of the road for the glorious dead.
For as patriotic America seems to be, we have, at least in California, comparatively few such monuments.
The weekend plan is to make my way up to Stratford-upon-Avon. We’ll see how it goes.
I’m reading A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman and The Night Manager, which keeps getting longer the more I read.
paralyzedbynotcaring 