Finally

This will be my last entry for Michaelmas term. I have one use left on my BritRail pass to get me to Luton airport. Shanty Irishman that I am, I couldn’t just let the penultimate box go unticked, so I had to do something today. I wanted most to go to the Holy Isle of Lindisfarne. But I just couldn’t do the math needed to coordinate the train schedule and the tides. So I went to Westminster Abbey instead because I’ve never actually visited Chaucer’s tomb, the cornerstone of “Poet’s Corner,” though I have tried twice before.

Well, this pilgrimage was most successful. But no pictures are allowed in the abbey, so I’ll pluck one or two off the web. Chaucer’s tomb itself looks rather cobbled together, and he wasn’t buried in the abbey for being a poet. . .but let the historians worry the facts.

London was very drizzly this morning. . .big surprise. Nevertheless, there was a huge crowd of sightseers, all of them from Spain. It costs 10 quid just to get into Westminster, another four for the guided tour, so I figured “in for a pound, in for some more pounds.” However, no one else signed up because the tour was only in English. Yeah, me! So I got escorted around to all the secret nooks, skipping over velvet robes, gathering sneers along the way. Favorites: Edward's throne (sans scone), Richard II and Anne of Bohemia are buried together; Henry V’s chapel has a huge “H” on it; Mary [don’t call me “Bloody”] Tudor is buried with Elizabeth I (but only ERI gets the effigy); and Ben Jonson is buried vertically because he couldn’t afford to lie down (and his last name is spelled with an H).After three or four hours, I decided to visit the British Museum too. I realized I could only zip through it, but admission is free and it’s sort of on the way back to King’s Cross via the Piccadilly line. Of course, I was overwhelmed: the Sutton Hoo treasures, the Rosetta stone, the Parthenon frieze, and on and on. My brain exploded. But I did take some odd pictures for DF’s H2P lectures: Mithras, Romans being naughty in a boat, etc.
Well, it’s off to meet Tricia in Paris day after tomorrow, and now it’s time for you to make up your own stories.