Farewell to London

Tuesday was a school day. Noah and Jake did school work, and I continued to fret over travel arrangements for  where we will be staying. I'm still fretting about them actually, and I should be a little, as it's Friday, and we'll be in York as of Sunday afternoon.

Anyway, Tuesday was a good, rest our weary legs, pyjama, school day. We stepped out in the early evening for a bit of Indian food, and then home again. Lots of reading. Plenty of relaxing. Likely not what a doctor would order as I do not think there is a billing code for it, but nonetheless, a good thing to have done.

Wednesday was our final day in London. The morning was a fairly quiet one at the house, as we were seeing a show in the evening so I did not want us to tire ourselves out walking about all day. Walking about for the afternoon seemed reasonable though.

Our target destination was Temple. Why Temple? Well, the church in Temple was founded by the Knight's Templar, or so we are told, and Noah had an interest in going there. 

I am not going to get into the Knights Templar. There is too much, and no matter what I say, I will not get it right. Really, this time I mean it. 

The church is lovely, but to be honest, we found it a bit disappointing.

It is a very nice building.

The original part being the rotunda you can see to the exterior of to the left in the above, and the interior of immediately below.

And has some lovely ornamentation.

There's that rose again. (I think.)

It has a nice monument directly outside depicting two Templars on a horse - a symbol of their vow of poverty,  but apparently one that was used against them later on in their history.

And some cool effigies inside as well.

So why the disappointment?

Well, we wanted the dirt. We wanted the secret symbols. We wanted everything Dan Brown and Umberto Eco (I apologize to Eco fans for putting those names side by each) wrote about. Secret Societies. Vast amounts of wealth. Manipulating the world from some secret lair.

Who keeps the metric system down?
We do.

We wanted all of that. What we got was a church. A church that continues to serve Temple today, and is currently displaying information on the first world war, and the role modern day Templars played in that.

And who is a modern day Templar. Well, they are the members of Middle and Inner Temples, two of the four Inns of Court that are the professional associations for barristers in England and Wales.

Templars are lawyers.

Given their roots in the crusades, setting up what was likely the first multinational corporation, managing land, vineyards, establishing what I imagine to be the first international banking system, it seems like a natural evolution.

But I said I wasn't going to go there. So I shan't.

Below is Lincoln's Inn, another of the Inns of Court. We stopped to read for a bit in Lincoln's Inn Fields, a once site for public hangings, and now a lovely park with tennis courts, and plenty of people out enjoying the sun.

Arthur Coleridge was a member of this Inn, and more importantly for our purposes, was the nephew of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. S.TC, the author of The Ryme of the Ancient Mariner, amongst other bits, and an obsession of my fathers. So that's for you Dad.

From here we went to the John Soane house. Soane was an architect during the Victorian period who bequeathed his home in it's entirety to London on the condition that it be kept in its original state and made a free, public museum. No pictures were allowed, and I cannot do it justice. All I will say is that it was full of stuff, so much stuff you cannot imagine. Art, architectural models, statues, sculptures. He was quiet the collector of things. It was overwhelming. Take the V&A and stuff it all into three townhouses linked together to create one maze of a house, and you'll get the idea.

It was then off to dinner. A, for London, straight line walk into London's Chinatown to meet up with Tanya and Simon for dinner. They weren't joining us for the show, but as it was our last night with them we wanted to share a meal together, have a bit of time, and say thank you for being such kind, wonderful hosts to us. We had originally planned for a Tuesday night dinner however work got in the way of that, and plans needed to change. As you may recall, these things happen.

So Chinatown. Conveniently located right in London's West End, which, for those who do not know, is the home to more theatres than I can count.

After dinner the guys and I headed to The Gielgud Theatre to see a production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night. It is based on a book by the same title. I have read and liked this book. Noah has too. Even better, Noah is reading this book as part of his Grade 11 English course. So a theatrical version was a must see.

I love theatre. I used to, and still hope to, write musicals. We'll see how I get along with that. Some reasonable starts and unreasonable finishes in the past couple od years. As often is the case with personal projects, too many lame excuses to no dig in and committ to it. So we'll see. You can kick my but next time you see me Risa. I know.

I love theatre, and I had, since planning this trip, had it in my mind that while in London the three of us needed to see:

1. A musical. Not sure which, but a musical.

2. A piece of Shakespeare, perhaps at Stratford-on-Avon, perhaps at The Globe, perhaps in a pub. But Shakespeare. We're in England damn it!

3. The Curious Case...

We got to #3. We didn't do #1&2. If we had, you would have already heard about them.

London's expensive.

Choices, always choices, and there is the most of a year ahead.

That said, we made the right choice. This show was the best piece of theatre I have seen in my entire life. Period. I am not over exaggerating. I am so thankful that we got to see it, and mostly thankful for the kismet that has Noah reading it for school, else we would perhaps prioritized some other show and missed out on a piece of incredible theatre. 

I'm not going to get in to why. It just was.

Post that incredible experience we headed on back to Tanya and Simon's, Jake having done a brilliant job of getting us from the Gielgud, direct to Charing Cross Station by way of Trafalgar Square. I had no idea where we were. Jake? I may start tying letters to his ankle and using him for post. 

Back to the house where we, okay, I, gushed on about the show and demanded that Simon and Tanya go see it. Noah and Jake did not gush, but they did speak favourably on that topic. Then a nice wrap up of events over the past couple of weeks with the five of us and off to bed.

The next morning we got up to see Simon and Tanya off to work, and to bid our farewells. I can't possibly thank them enough. And really, I keep saying it, but that's because I keep meaning it. I am ever so grateful to them both.

Then it was packing and off to Victoria station to catch the train to Polegate, which is in Sussex near Eastbourne. Here we were picked up at the station by my cousins John and Helen to begin the next bit of our adventure. More on that later.

Now though it is time to say farewell to London. I think it's been a good leg of the journey. I've enjoyed and I believe the guys have too. I think I learned a lot in London about how this year is going to go, how there must be time to do "nothing", how much Noah and Jake really enjoy their books, how I likely need to plan a bit more, not too much more, but a bit, and how to find a balance between rest and activity that works for the lot of us.

I could of course be totally wrong. And I'm sure that whatever is working now, will still continue to change as we continue our travels. Whatever the case, I'm happy about what we've experienced, and excited about what comes next.

Cows.