After a butter soaked breakfast at The Dukes (every room is named after a Duke, our's is the Devonshire... after the Duke of Devonshire, who i fondly remember as, the "Creamy Duke" after the wonderful devonshire cream... incidentally, the restaurant where we enjoyed breakfast every morning is the Cavendish Restaurant... named after the Cavendish family, the family that holds the Duke of Devonshire peerage), we went to the Bath Rail Road Station to catch the 1043 train from Bath Spa to London Paddington Station. We sat in the First Class Quiet carriage and enjoyed the lush green hills of southern England all the way into London. A cab took us from Paddington to The Savoy hotel where the door man greeted us by name, ushered us into the beautiful Savoy lobby complete in marble elegance where we were met by a tall young woman holding a small sleek appointment book. She also greeted us by name and then offered to show us to our room which she hopes will be to our satisfaction. Who were we to say no? When we got to our room, she took the time to show us around the room before completing the check in process by taking down the information for the credit card we would like to keep on file for incidentals. Promising us that our butler will be with us shortly, the tall woman took her leave and, after a few short minutes, our butler, a young woman from Montreal, Canada, arrived to find out if we needed anything attended to. After she left, our luggage arrived at the door and was carefully put away by the bell hop. After walking around and touching everything, including our very own bedside photo of Kristin Scott-Thomas (as the caption says, she is a British actress and she stayed at The Savoy in November, 2006), we departed for Westminister Abbey. Yes... we too found the photo to be slightly strange but yet wonderful at the same time. A long queue greeted us at the Abbey, but after some investigation, we found out that it was the line for folks paying with credit cards. The cash only line, on the other side of the Abbey entrance, was much shorter and we hopped on in, as we were flush with cash. After getting our bags searched and informed that no photography was allowed, we were allowed in to the Abbey. The Abbey is... vast... even with all the huge monuments, statues stacked like strewn straw, and wall plaques galore. The interior is dark, 16 10 foot tall waterford chrystal chandeliers (gift from the Guiness family - yes, of the stout beer fame - for the Abbey's 900th anniversary) gave off brilliant light that just gets sucked away by the vast ceiling of the Abbey. With that vastness before us, we decided to buy an extra 3 pound per person ticket for a 90 minute guided tour. This, next to the duo of pork pies (at 2 pound 50p per) we bought as we left The Queen's Arms in Corton Denham, was the best bargain we got on this trip thus far. The guide of our tour was Verger Peter (we found out that his job is to carry the virga or rod... the verger's job in the day of yore is to open a "hole" in the masses with their rod so that the clergy and other church folk and dignitaries can get through the unwashed folks) who kept a clip pace and was extensive and efficient in the transfer of his knowledge. Being on the tour has fantastic privileges. We got to sit in the choir pews and walk under into and through the beautiful choir screen, taking the route that a processional would take during major functions like, say, the last royal wedding (btw, Verger Peter was part of the procession of the wedding and got to sit on the high altar so that he was physically closer to the ceremony than even the Queen herself!). We got a private tour and a rest in the Shrine of St. Edward the Confessor. We also got to be led right up to the rope at pretty much all areas of the Abbey as our delightful Verger shoo'd people away... ha! Verger Peter was a font of knowledge and took requests as to who's monument we would like to spend more time on. It is amazing how many amazing and renown persons has their tomb stone or memorial stone in the Westeminister Abbey. Our tour started at 1430 and ended at 1600. At 1700 the Abbey conducts their Evensong service, and at the end of our tour, Verger Peter asked to see if anyone would like to stay for the service. Six of us raised our hands and Verger Peter promised to save us good seats. Sure enough, come time for the seating for the Evensong service, Verger Peter showed us to front row seats in the choir stand right next to the choir. For another 45 minutes, we were serenaded by beautiful choral vocals and organ music, interspersed with prayer and bits of religion from both the Old and New Testaments. What a wonderful afternoon it was, tour of an amazing Abbey, loads of history lessons and some great insights to the English people through the years to be terminated by wonderful religious music as i sit opposite the Abbey cantor and half of the choir with my silly ass Firefly tribute shirt... boy, did i feel poorly and inappropriately dressed!
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