Today the weather was very pleasant. It was not as hot as yesterday, quite cool with a bright sun and a lovely breeze. Right at the time when Big Ben was chiming half past nine e stood at line to enter Westminster Abbey. We took an audio guided tour which I think is a great concept. You can customize it according to what you want to know and not have to follow a human guide in a crowd.
Westminster Abbey was stunning. It's not just how grand and majestic the place is, not even that from 1066 AD onwards all the monarchs have been crowned here, but the thing that blew me off is that probably every British that I ever got acquainted with - Darwin, Newton, Maxwell, Bell, Thompson, Livingstone, Shakespeare, Tennyson, Browning, Chaucer, Longfellow are ALL there!!! To let Sukumar Ray know, yes I did visit Livingstone's grave when I were in London.
The grave of the unknown soldier is like our Amar Jawan Jyoti and that is the *only* grave where you are not supposed to step on. Not even the Queen would walk over it. I actually felt a little awkward walking over people's graves, I mean that too people like Darwin and such. But it is so crowded, you don't really have any other option.
A thing that was very funny is Queen Elizabeth I and her half sister Queen Mary are buried on top of one another. While alive, the two half sisters bickered over religion (one was Catholic and the other Protestant) and Mary had Elizabeth imprisoned too. Now on death they are together! Mary, queen of Scotts is also buried nearby. I hope they don't turn in their graves...
Westminster Abbey was stunning. It's not just how grand and majestic the place is, not even that from 1066 AD onwards all the monarchs have been crowned here, but the thing that blew me off is that probably every British that I ever got acquainted with - Darwin, Newton, Maxwell, Bell, Thompson, Livingstone, Shakespeare, Tennyson, Browning, Chaucer, Longfellow are ALL there!!! To let Sukumar Ray know, yes I did visit Livingstone's grave when I were in London.
The grave of the unknown soldier is like our Amar Jawan Jyoti and that is the *only* grave where you are not supposed to step on. Not even the Queen would walk over it. I actually felt a little awkward walking over people's graves, I mean that too people like Darwin and such. But it is so crowded, you don't really have any other option.A thing that was very funny is Queen Elizabeth I and her half sister Queen Mary are buried on top of one another. While alive, the two half sisters bickered over religion (one was Catholic and the other Protestant) and Mary had Elizabeth imprisoned too. Now on death they are together! Mary, queen of Scotts is also buried nearby. I hope they don't turn in their graves...
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