Playing Tourist Again

Today I was a big dork and took a $3 guided tour of Westminster Abbey, with a very short Verger. That place was WAAAAYYYYYY cooler than I thought it would be considering the Protestants/Anglicans have been in charge for so long. You know, they are a little less down with the ornamentation and frescoes than the Catholics. I was really impressed by the overall structures and gardens, yet embarrassed that it took me 4 months to get over to the abbey when it is only a mile away from the house. Sorry no pictures, prohibited thank god.

Our tour group only had eight people (well, we ended up with seven because the guy from Chicago couldn't make it through the whole tour without a cigarette) and it was a slow day at the abbey generally. Thus, we got to go into several gated and roped off areas and see the really cool old stuff from the 12th century. I love old stuff, especially in churches, and I asked a lot of annoying questions about everything. What I really wanted to know was WTF a Verger is, but figured that I was looking stupid enough with all my Reformation pestering and could just Wikipedia that when I got home. By the way, a Verger is: a person, usually a layman, who assists in the ordering of religious services. 

The abbey history is just amazing with all the former kings and queens that are interred within the side chapels and such. I need to study up on my British history so I know who they all are. Though, I was a bit disappointed with the volume of stuff in there. I do wonder if all the monuments and memorials just got to be too much in the early 1900s and someone just said, that's it with the statues people - we're done now. While I was being annoyed with all stuff in that place - I had a revelation. Wait a minute, Shakespeare isn't buried here. Hold up, why are there huge memorials to Winston Churchill, William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and Oscar Wilde if they aren't buried here. False advertising if you ask me.......

  
On another Shakespeare note, someone put huge stickers that say "NO" on these posters in all the Tube stations for the movie Anonymous - right below the Was Shakespeare a Fraud question. I think that is hilarious!