Ancient History

We spent yesterday at two famous historical sites in London. First stop was on Horseguards and the Churchill Museum. It was terrific and we spent a interesting time looking and listening to all the exhibits. The Museum includes the rooms used in World War II for cabinet meetings when Churchill was Prime Minister. They lived down in these basement rooms day and night
to avoid the bombings.

Leaving there we headed for Parliament Square and lunch at a pub "Westminster Arms". The square is familiar to us all with the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben on one side, and Government offices on another, and of course Westminster Abbey. We toured the Abbey with an audio tour narrated by Jeremy Irons! Great voice to walk around with! We were lucky enough to get into a small prayer service which they have every hour; it was in a cordoned off area next to the tomb of Edward the Confessor.

Nearby was Poets Corner where the tomb of Chaucer is across from the grave of D.H. Lawrence. It is a spectacular building part of which dates back to Benedictine monks in c960 and was the place of William the Conqueror's coronation in 1066. The actual date of the church as it is was 1245. Loved it all as I am a history nut!

I thought of how well my pen and ink and watercolor artists' friends would and could record all these sights!

We exited back in Parliament Square to a heavy rain storm and were soaked by the time we got on the Tube back to our hotel.

Dinner was at The Ivy and delicious restaurant in the West End. It is a bustling place with some great English food and drink! Enjoyed our dinner and dessert - "Sticky Toffee" pudding. More later.......