The last two days have been restful. Since we have performances from now (Thursday) through Saturday night, Joyce, Rich, & I took the opportunity to sightsee around London. Tuesday was spent taking a turn on the London Eye for truly fantastic views of the city ("look kids! Big Ben! Parliament!" was repeated as necessary). Then we walked down the Thames to get a look at the Olympic Rings then over Monument Bridge to walk through the Whitehall gardens and onto, well, Big Ben and Parliament. We also walked around the outside of Westminster Abbey. We weren't able to go in because it closed for the day, but we're hopeful to take in Evensong there on Saturday afternoon. Just before going to see Chariots of Fire, a play on the West End, we stopped and had High Tea, complete with finger sandwiches, scones and my personal favorite topping, clotted cream.
Since we've been unable to get tickets to events, we took Wednesday for a day trip to Oxford. Okay, Rich and Joyce indulged me on this. I've been wanting go there for years and the timing never worked out. I was so excited. It was everything I thought it would be. We didn't have time to tour many colleges, but we walked by Blackfriars, Balliol, Magdalene, and Exeter. We stepped into the Exeter chapel, which is where JRR Tolkien went to church. Exeter also has a fantastic tapestry of the Adoration of the Magi which is in remarkable condition for its age. We climbed to the top of St Mary's and were treated to a stunning views of the entire city. Of course, we saw Radcliffe Camera.
And the piece de resistance, for me anyway, was the Bodleian Library. 600 years of history, 12 million volumes and over 118 miles of bookshelves. Oh my. I was in book nerd heaven. We were not allowed to take pictures inside, but trust me, it's amazing. On the tour, it was explained that at the time the library was put in place that bookshelves were a relatively new technology to store books and were originally called bookpresses as you had to press the books together on the shelf to keep them standing upright. The books were also physically chained to shelves to prevent pilferage which made for a lot chains and a lot of noise when moving them. Like I said, book nerd. I went nuts in the bookstore after.
To think I was in the same town and in the same area as Oscar Wilde, Albert Einstein, CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, Lewis Carroll, Dorothy Sayers, PD James...(I could go on) were, and in some cases, still are is really something. The city prides itself on its history, so you can catch a 'whiff' of exclusivity, but I loved being there just the same.
Next up, we are sadly leaving The Cedars but are traveling to Homerton (neighborhood in London) for the last performances. It's very close to the Olympic Village, so fingers crossed, perhaps we can get tickets for daytime event. Also, Friday morning, all three of us are going to the Eric Liddell Awards Breakfast where hopefully Rich will be able to present an excerpt of his play. We're also hoping that we meet people who may be able to get Rich in to perform the whole play in the Olympic Village for the athletes.