London Day 3

We started out the day going back to the south bank of the Thames for a walking tour out of the Rick Steves' guidbook. We started at London Bridge, which marks the city limits of London, and walked to Southwark Cathedral. We toured the Cathedral and then proceeded on our walking tour, taking time to look at the Golden Hinde and the remains of Winchester Palace. On to the Globe Theater (a replica) and back to the Tate Modern. Darryl wanted to see more of the permanent collection and I enjoyed a restful nap. We ate lunch there, crossed the Millennium Bridge and went to St. Paul's Cathedral. We were absolutely appalled at the prices to tour the cathedral, so we picked up a schedule of services for the week. Proceeding down Fleet Street, the heart of the City of London, we stopped at several different churches. St. Bride's Church has a really neat historical exhibit in their crypt. St. Dunstan-in-the-West is now home to a Romanian-Orthodox congregation. St. Clement Danes is dedicated to the Royal Air Force, particularly those soldiers of the RAF who gave their lives in combat. We also stopped by the Temple (the church here was closed) and Somerset House (very nice plaza). We walked by the very impressive Royal Courts of Justice as we made our way down Strand to Trafalgar Square. Just a few blocks away from Trafalgar Square, we ate dinner at the Sherlock Holmes Pub, which was quire apropos as I have been reading the complete Sherlock Holmes. After dinner we continued our walk down Whitehall to Parliament and Westminster Abbey. We attended an absolutely wonderful concert at the Abbey featuring one of the best string quartets in Europe and the poet laureat of the United Kingdom! It was a captivating performance and one of the most memorable of the trip. We returned to the hotel absolutely exhausted.