The Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, they're all things we've seen on television or movie screen. Most of the time the reality is smaller, dirtier, less grand than portrayed there. Despite having been to London a half dozen times before on business, I'd never made the time to see them, so I was completely unprepared for it. The movies don't do any of it justice. At all.
The first things we saw as we emerged from the Westminster tube station were the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Massive. Grandiose to the point that it should seem foppish and overdone but somehow doesn't and is just magnificent. We explored the grounds, gardens, sat for a bit on the bank of the Thames watching the boats glide by. We found a little hidden gem on the grounds in the form of the Jewel Tower, one of the last of the original structures of old Westminster. It had a very inexpensive self-guided tour that nobody seemed to know about, so it was just us and a couple other intrepid folks wandering around the place. It was a really cool little piece of history and it was (almost) just ours for a short time.
There are really no words to describe the gravitas that Wesminster Abbey conveys both inside and out. The memorials and tombs of kings and queens, knights and sages, poets and generals, these people you've read about in books become real. I know, that's the point, but it's the magnitude of it in that place. Jen's moment was when we came upon the tomb of Geoffrey Chaucer. Geoffrey. Chaucer. Yeah.
I'd have taken hundreds, nay thousands of photos, but sadly none are permitted and they have about 300 deacons on hand to lay the smackdown on any heathen who dares draw smartphone or camera.
Needless to say we barely made it to the station in time for our bus. Lunch was a grab and go of a couple of sandwiches and bottled waters from a station kiosk.
