Adventures of Davina

Well, after a grueling trip from San Francisco Airport, to Calgary, to London, on to Cambridge... I made it in one piece. Although I was feeling under the weather, I felt victorious for having made it!

In the morning, Tim and I leisurely discussed plans for heading off to Amsterdam for the weekend. We plotted, we schemed, and eventually bought tickets. However, there was a long and busy day ahead of us - LONDON!

So we hit the road - or rather - the train.

On the way to London, Tim examined the mini-tour book I had purchased at Book Buyers back in Mountain View. This was an incredible investment and I certainly got my $6 out of this book on this one day alone. We decided to have lunch at Google, followed either by a museum, some churches or both.

After arriving in London at Kings Cross train station (made famous in the Harry Potter series of books,) we caught the tube to Green Park. It was there that Tim made a new friend with an adorable little white ferret who was out for a walk with his owner.


At the end of Green Park is one of the most famous buildings in the world, Buckingham palace, home of Queen Elizabeth. The flag was flying over the palace, so we knew she was home.

We passed the guard house, and Tim remarked that he often wanted to just put a toe over the line. and touch the royal and highly protected grounds.

As we went around the building, towards Tim's work near Victoria Station, we spotted numerous signs, warning people not to enter the grounds.

As luck would have it, a kind gaurd at one of the side gates was amenable, and Tim touched a toe on the royal estate.

After our trip around Buckingham Palace, we turned and headed towards Victoria Station. Tim works for Google, UK. Their offices are located in a stark modern building called Belgrave House. Not only did I have to go through security in the lobby of the building, but had to register at the front door of Google as well. Everyone there was quite nice, Tim scored a new T-shirt and we both had an enjoyable lunch.


As we continued down The Strand, we saw a wide variety of shops, pubs and the remains of the old newspaper and printing industry along Fleet Street. Below is a photograph of the Temple Bar Memorial outside of the Royal Courts of Justice. It dates to 1880 and has an impressive dragon on the top. In this shot, you can also see the spire of the RAF church, St. Clement Danes.

The first church on our agenda was the Temple Church.
This church is built in two parts, the round and the chancel. The round was first consecrated in 1185 and follows the design of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Built by the order of the Knights Templar, this church was featured in the plot and movie "The DaVinci Code."

Unfortunately, the building was rebuilt and rebuilt. First after the great fire in 1666 when it was largely rebuilt by Sir. Christopher Wren, and then again in the 1950's after the Nazi blitz destroyed nearly the entire church.


One of the most striking parts of the Temple Church for me was the amazing doorway. While standing inside, peeking outwards, you could only see the soft green of trees and the warm grey and gold of old stone buildings in the distance. The round church was filled with little gargoyle heads that were charming, but difficult to photograph. And last, but not least, I was impressed by the amazing acoustics - I can only imagine what a choir would sound like in this space.

After spending time in this church, we continued east along The Strand heading towards the famed Fleet Street.

I was delighted to find several Tudor-style buildings still standing after all of these years. One of them was the original Tudor-era gate house that marked the entrance to the Temple Gardens where the Temple Church was located. It is a miracle that the two great fires didn't destroy this architectural gem. We didn't go into the free museum of Samuel Pepys located in the rooms above.

The other, with a photo that actually turned out! This building is one of the oldest remaining buildings in Fleet Street. Many of these vintage buildings have no dates listed and no origin stories attached. Just gloriously old buildings that have withstood the test of time.

The next church we visited was the "printers church" or St. Brides. This hallowed spot has been in use since ancient Roman times and was razed in the fire of 1666 and redesigned by Christopher Wren.

During the Nazi blitz, all but the exterior walls were completely destroyed. With the floor, ceiling and furnishings gone, a team of researchers dug up the remains of a 12th century foundation and below that, a tiled Roman floor. The crypt of this church is fascinating - and none of my photos turned out.

We paused for a snack and beer at one of the numerous pubs, taking a load off before heading onward. I was "schooled" in proper language of drink. Seems that an "Irish Coffee" must have cream in it. So I took my whiskey with a coffee back and mixed my own. Certainly Takes the edge off of tired feet!

Our next stop was the monumental St. Paul's Cathedral, Sir Christopher Wren's masterpiece. This church is spectacular, no matter what angle you look at it from. Tim and I had visited this church on a previous trip, so we weren't there very long. Instead, I talked Tim into high-tailing it over to a church that is gushed about in all of the guidebooks.. a hidden gem.Tim and I hustled our way over to St. Bartholemew-the-Great and snuck in just a matter of minutes before closing time. We rounded the corner and saw an unassuming Tudor gate-house and was drawn to take a look. The map we were using indicated the church was around the block, but this was, in fact, the gate-house for St. Barts.

We passed through the gate to find a pleasant garden courtyard with trees, benches, uneven paving stones and a beautiful little church. After St. Pauls, I felt a little underwhelmed.


And then I went inside....

Although we were late, they let us in without paying the steep charge of 4 (all the other churches had been free) and then we got a good look at the place. It IS a jewel.. One of the oldest churches to survive both the fires with most of it's original architecture intact.

The heavy Norman Era building was consecrated in 1143 as an Augustinian priory. The building is amazing, it FEELS magical and the archetecture.. well.. I just tingled with excitement.. and then I recognized it! This building had appeared in the movie Shakespeare in Love and a docent told us that (had we been there sooner) we could have seen the "About St. Barts" film which included a list of other films the church appeared in including Elizabeth the Golden Age, Four Weddings and a Funeral and The Other Boleyn Girl. Thus proving - Good Bones can make you a star. They shooed us out - I want to go back again - perhaps even on this trip.

I got several good photos including a great shot at the back of the apse, where you can really see the structure of the barrel vaulting and the heavy round Norman piers.

Another nice shot is from the small portion of the ambulatory that has been recovered. The light streaming in through the fantastic windows.... The later Gothic fan vaulting. So beautiful!

After we left St. Barts, we were now "stuck" in London until after commuter hours. Well.. that's really not a big problem when you're on vacation and ready for dinner and a show! So we headed off to catch a tube at the Barbican station to Leister Square to find out what was available. How odd it was to round a corner in this West End tube station to hear a guy playing very loud electric surf guitar. I couldn't get through the wall of sound to tip him - if I had wanted to.
Tim and I went to the ticketing agent and asked "What's playing." and after she rolled her eyes at us, we went off to think about it for a moment and Tim suggested the wildly funny, bawdy and Politically In-Correct Avenue Q - Winner of 2004 Tony for Best New Musical and Best New Score. Naughty Puppets. I laughed.. I laughed.. I laughed...

Just to give you a small taste of this charming musical experience, check out this clip on YouTube. I would see this again - and plan on picking up the soundtrack soon!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Sxqz7-CGIc4