Green Man Archaeological Tour Begins.

Made it to London and have now been here for a good 24 hours, hunkered down at a hostel in Piccadilly.
So far I have just wandered.  It's a great place to walk aimlessly because you end up seeing the major spots anyway, while coming upon otherwise unknown onces on accident.


Yesterday evening when I set out to explore, I happened upon Trafalgar Square and then ended up at a very lovely little pub called Little Waxy's in the West End.  I asked the bartender, "This is my first night in London.  What beer do you recommend?"  He answered "Guinness."  "Guinness?" I thought, "Why an Irish brew?"  I ordered one since I like them anyway - and then, after being noticied with my Guinness, proceeded to hang out with a group of middle-aged Irish men having an after-work drink.  They are all employed by a contracting company doing major construction in London, including the new Google building.  They fly home to their families every weekend, but live here because they cannot find work in Ireland at the moment.  At least, not the kind of work they can get paid the big bucks for.  I told them it was my first night ever in London and they laughed, "Your first night!  And here you are hanging out with a bunch of working-class Paddys!"  I dare say they are a bit better off now than "working class," but as they all grew up that way, they made for excellent, down to earth company.


I spent a good chunk of today at Westminster Abbey.  I certainly hadn't planned on going there, and even more so because it was like 13 pounds to get in.  But I found it to be worth every pence.  That place is one big massive crypt for all the people that made the UK what it is.  It was built in the 1050s, and every monarch since William the Conqueror in 1066 has been coronated there.  I saw the tomb of Queen Elizabeth I - the face of her marble statue having been created from her death mask (a typical practice), is said to be the most realistic impression of how she looked.  She was buried in the same tomb as her half-sister Queen Mary, a Catholic whom she succeeded.  I found that pretty ironic considering how volatile their relationship was, how many people were murdered for being Catholic or Protesant during their reigns, and how much England changed due to both their personal convictions.  At the base of their tomb it reads

NEAR THE TOMB OF

MARY AND ELIZABETH

REMEMBER BEFORE GOD

ALL THOSE WHO

DIVIDED AT THE REFORMATION

BY DIFFERENT CONVICTIONS

LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES FOR

CHRIST AND CONSCIENCE SAKE

I could go on and on about Westminster Abbey - it was so cool.   It's a thousand freaking years old! I saw Britain's "oldest door" today, a small, thick wooden one that opens to who-knows-where.  Faded, chipped paintings all over the walls of the little side-chapels from the 1200s.  But among the many burials at the church, I was thrilled to see the following: Geoffrey Chaucer, D.H. Lawrence, Charles Dickens, Isaac Newton, and Charles Darwin.  I gave a cheerful salute to Darwin's tomb!


And that coronation chair - the one with all the carvings on it (the one that Lionel Logue sits in to taunt almost-King George in The King's Speech) - I always wondered why that chair had all those words etched into them.  It must be something special, something meaningful, I figured.  Turns out a bunch of naughty boys in the 1700s who attended school at Westminster Abbey decided to carve their names all over it.  And being staunch in tradition, I guess, to the point of superstition, the British continue to use it for all coronations.


For being the center of world domination for hundreds of years, this is certainly not the overwhelming, imposing city I was expecting.  I could move here tomorrow.