Westminster

On my last look-about day in London, I met up with my friend Eleanor in Westminster. I was planning on going to Choral Evensong at St Martin-in-the-Fields, so we decided to meet for tea at the Cafe in the Crypt before. There really should be more occasions for meeting people in crypts.

It was beautifully atmospheric. We both got the afternoon tea and my scone was so large that I couldn’t finish the very nice cherry sponge cake. After poking about the crypt and galleries, and being shooed away from a private door, we decided to wander to Trafalgar Square and catch-up next to the fountains and the lions. We wandered down to Eleanor’s tube stop, stopping on the way to see a statue of one of her ancestors. After she’d left, I wandered back, stopping at Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, saying hello to the statue of Churchill watching over Parliament.

Sadly, I didn’t spy either Holmes or the Prime Minister.

I did spot Big Ben, an old friend. I stayed to hear his chime bells. It’s impossible for me to hear them without remembering the scene from the Betsy-Tacy books, where Julia is in London and sends back the words of the chime to her family.

And I spotted a monument that had not been in Westminster the last time I wandered there, one to all the women who served in WWII. A beautiful and moving monument to some truly incredible women.