On Friday, October 2 we went to Westminster Abbey! At this point we have been to a few abbeys but this one was definitely one of my favorites. Although it was built in 960 AD by Benedictine monks, it really became important in the 13th century. Around this time the abbey was set apart as the burial place for the celebrities of the time...monks, saints, kings, queens, and other significant people. However, its main function is as a place of worship and that is still true today.
Inside the abbey there are a few little chapels for different saints, the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, etc. I thought that was really cool, and they are all very ornately decorated with individual features in each one. Since it has been a famous burial place since the 13th century there are a TON of monuments, tombs, plaques, memorials...it's crazy. There are huge sections of the floor that are completely made up of tombstones inscribed with names and dates that are barely legible since they have been walked over so many times. There were a lot of interesting little things that I learned about Westminster (you gotta love those long-winded audio tours), but my favorite thing by far was Poets Corner!!!!!
I downloaded this picture off the internet...unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. This is a small section Poets Corner. But before I talk about that let me show you something cool. See those two arches on the right side of the picture? Can you tell that there are pictures painted on the wall behind them? Those aren't just pictures my friends, they are religious medieval murals. Isn't that awesome??? Some guy uncovered them in 1936 when they took a couple of memorials down for cleaning and you can still see all the colors. We tend to think of medieval, gothic, and classical architecture and art in terms of the old stone, marble, and muted colors that it possesses today, but in it's time these places were vividly painted in bright colors. Murals, mosaics, and other surviving art hint at those color schemes...I wish I could have seen these places in their prime. They must have been incredible!
Ok, so Poets Corner. The excitement that I felt in this place really gives away the true extent of my nerdiness, but at this point I've just got to embrace it. This is the section of Westminster where significant literary figures, and some composers are either buried or memorialized. There are a bunch of names carved into the floor, lots of statues, busts, plaques, memorials...I probably could have spent a good hour just looking at all the people represented here. They're all there: Handel, Wordsworth, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Keats, Byron, Shakespeare, Milton, Longfellow, Percy Shelley, Tennyson, Dickens, Chaucer...and so many more. It was awesome.
After our tour in the abbey we had to hurry over to the National Gallery to meet with the Humanities class to look at some art. Isn't it awesome that we get to have a class period in the National Gallery? We have been studying this art for a few weeks and then we get to just hop on the Tube and see it all in person. I love this place! Anyways, we couldn't resist this photo op...I thought this was a pretty good, standard London picture.
This guy outside the National Gallery was the perfect conclusion to a great day out. He had headphones in, so I'm not quite sure what he was dancing to, but I'm pretty sure it was Michael Jackson (judging from his moonwalk and Jackson 5 t-shirt). I wish I could upload the video, this guy was rocking out, sweating up a storm, and totally in the zone...it was absolutely hilarious!! We watched him for a good 5 or 10 minutes but I was too scared to put money in his hat. He kept kicking his legs up right next to it and since his eyes were closed there was a very real possibility of getting kicked in the head.
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