Westminster Abbey - teaser

Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey

Sunday morning in London...yes I came planning to attend church over the next six weeks here in London. Someone actually asked me "Are you going to church while you are here?” I had planned on it all along although I joked with my family that I would take a vacation from church while I was here :-) There are a few other girls in the program who are also LDS and we went to church together. The meetinghouse is at the building of the Institute of Religion. The single Adults meet at 9am, followed by a Portuguese ward at 11 and I believe there is a family ward at 1pm, I think. 

Half way through our Sunday school meeting somebody accidentally pulled the fire alarm. We were all evacuated from the building for about 7-10mins and then returned to complete the rest of our meetings. After our adventurous morning at church we returned to our flat and prepared for our trip to Westminster Abbey! We headed to the tube, scanned our oyster cards, boarded for a brief ride and got off at the Westminster stop. Our Professor, Tim Slover, said that there was a right way to exit the underground. He said that as we went up the stairs we needed to look down at the steps and not look up until we reached the top. He was right. As I went up the stairs, almost head butting the stranger in front of me, the temptation to take an early glance grew and then suddenly there I was.

BIG BEN

I don’t think that I ever thought such a magnificent piece of architecture existed. I’d seen it in movies but I certainly never thought that I would, within 20 seconds, be standing in front of such a beautiful thing and say, “Hey, I was there”.  The first thing that captured my sight was Big Ben, a huge and magnificent tower clock!  I suppose that to those of you who are extensive travelers and have seen wonders of the world that I have never seen my view of London may seem “cute”, but I’ve never traveled and its incredible to me. So don’t hate :-)

I learned a new word today:    
pal·imp·sest, /ˈpalimpˌsest/ noun
 2.   Something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form.

This is true of the majority of the buildings here in London – particularly Westminster Abbey and definitely Hampton Court Palace. Monarch after Monarch added to the Abbey, some attempting to keep to the same style while others strayed away from it completley. Due to the size of our group we only toured the outside grounds but will return in smaller groups to tour the inside of the building with our professor. For you followers of the Royal Wedding, this is where the ceremony was held. I can’t wait to come back and tour the inside!