Westminster Abbey

One of the great things about London is that entry to many museums and other cultural attractions are free. And then there are the places you have to pay to get into. On my student budget, I've been avoiding most of the places that charge an admission fee but I made an exception to go see Westminster Abbey.

So last weekend I got in the huge line (populated mainly by Italian tourists) outside the church and paid my fee. I did find that it's a lot easier to wait if you have something nice to look at, like this.

There are no photos allowed inside the Abbey (although that didn't stop plently of people from snapping away, to my slight horror). I'm not much of a church person but I really enjoyed my visit and would highly recommend it to anyone visiting London. The interior of the church is packed with tombs and memorials; I was amazed at how much stuff could be fit into one building. I won't start listing all the famous people buried there (that's what guidebooks are for).

Just off the quire is a memorial to James Wolf, who commanded the British to vicotry in Quebec and died for his efforts. I was obviously a lot more interested in this huge sculpture than most of the other tourists. There are two colours (flags) as part of the memorial- one is old and beautiful and the other is old and shredded (it needs to be conserved badly). The ceilings in the church are breathtaking, anytime it got crowded in front of me I just looked up and consistently found something beautiful. And the cloisters (a grassy courtyard in the middle of the Abbey complex) is such a beautiful place to sit, relax, and look at the flying buttresses.

One of the more famous items kept at the Abbey is the coronation chair, which is currently undergoing conservation work. It's been moved into a very large display case and the work is being carried out in front of the public (although not on a Saturday, obviously). I image that the work will be long and painstaking, since they are repairing the guiltwork. I'm sure it will look shiny and spectacular in the end.

Westminster Abbey also has the most unique bag search I've run into yet (many places do bag checks before you are allowed in). The guard got me to open my purse and took what looked like a dowel or sawed off broom handled and knocked it around my purse. That way he got a good look without actually reaching inside and touching anything (although now that I think about it, his stick may have something to do with my camera's screen spontaneously breaking this week...hmm).