Sunday, September 17, 2017

Glastonbury, Canterbury and London

Our final week in the British Isles began in Glastonbury, then proceeded to Canterbury, with a final five days in London.  Glastonbury was the site of one of the largest monasteries in England, until the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VII.  On the grounds is a stone marking the supposed burial spot of King Arthur.  But since Arthur is a legendary figure, possibly based on a great warlord, the site is either the grave of that warlord, or a medieval ruse to attract visitors and raise money.



On the way to Glastonbury we stopped in the small town of Wells and visited the cathedral there.  The scissors vaulting in the nave is most unusual.


Our next stop was Canterbury where we thankfully avoided being arrested for mistakenly driving down a pedestrian only street. The cathedral there was dark and gloomy, and would have been a waste of time except for two things. The first was meeting a wonderful docent who invited us to her home to share a bottle of french champagne, and the second was seeing the altar marking the site of the martyrdom of Thomas Becket.


Our final destination was London where we became acquainted with the tube, the bus system and London cabs.  We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the Tower of London, where we took a Beefeater Tour.


The next day we had lunch at the Cafe in the Crypt at St. Martin in the Fields Church and enjoyed a Stravinsky concert afterwards.  On our third day, we visited the British Museum where we saw ancient Egyptian, Assyrian and Greek sculptures as well as dozens of mummies, acquired by rather dubious means by the Brits.  We also saw the Rosetta Stone.



When we were tired of admiring several thousand year old artifacts, we headed out into the rain and hailed a taxi to take us to the portrait gallery, where we had a leisurely and amazing lunch while gazing over the rooftops of the city.


The next day we took a Thames River Cruise and spotted many iconic landmarks such as Parliament, Big Ben, the Tower Bridge, Shakespeare's Globe, the Shard and other buildings.


After the cruise we spent a little time in Westminster Abbey where pictures were not allowed.  Even if they had been, however, the place was swarming with tourists and pictures would have been pretty much worthless. On our final day, we were exhausted, but mustered enough energy to visit the Victoria and Albert Museum which was pretty amazing.  We only had time to browse through two rooms: the cast room with reproductions of famous statues, and the medieval room with sculptures, paintings and entire altar pieces from the Middle Ages.


 We had lunch in their cafeteria and then headed back to our hotel to rest up before leaving for home the next day.