On one of my days in London I visited Westminster Abbey. It was impressive and very historical. The royal family has been crowned in the Abbey since 1066, sitting on the same throne at every coronation, which is on display in the Abbey. There is a regal constancy in Great Britain’s love of both the past and the present, something which we lack in the United States. I wish that our country would build a building to last for centuries, instead of decades.

Buried there are many famous men and women, including royalty for hundreds of years. There are many very beautiful memorials and burial effigies in the Abbey, and also plaques to some who are not buried there, but memorialized, like one of my favorite authors, Jane Austen.

I was not able to take photographs on the inside of the Abbey, and it really is worth the visit to see it in person if you are in London. I also stopped into St. Margaret’s Church that is beside Westminster Abbey and enjoyed part of a free lunchtime piano concert. It was very beautiful, and there are commonly lunchtime concerts throughout the city. There was a lovely statue outside of the chapel in honor of, what else, the Olympics.

Afterwards I strolled by the Parliament and took a few more photographs. I was amused when I thought of the scene in the recent Sherlock Holmes movie in which Sherlock Holmes chases Irene Adler through the sewers from Parliament up to the top of Tower Bridge. The distance between the two places is nearly 3 miles – no wonder Holmes is out of breath at the end of the chase.