Friday 10th April 2009

Good Friday – we woke to a grey London morning, the weather forecast had been for heavy rain in the morning clearing to a cloudy afternoon. They got that backwards !
We had a good sleep last night, thank goodness. We went down for breakfast, and the cafeteria was really busy with lots of young people having breakfast, and preparing for their day out. Bus loads of them departed regularly while we ate.
I decided to try to get some laundry done while we had the chance, and managed to get it all washed and dry by 10.30am. So we checked with reception about transport, and discovered that the Jubilee line for the underground was not running for the whole of Easter, which meant we needed to take the 381 bus to Waterloo to get to any of the attractions in the city.
Having had practice with the buses yesterday, this was not a problem, and we set off to Waterloo Station. It only took about 20 minutes to get there, and once again we were amazed with the pleasantness of the people in standing up for us when we got on to a rather crowded bus.
When we got to Waterloo station, we checked out where the bus would be returning from, and then went off to explore. We were just across from Jubilee Park, where the London Eye was situated, so we took the usual photos. We have tickets for a ride, courtesy of Claudine and Leo, but will wait until our next visit to London, to use them. Besides the queues for the ride were incredible being a Public Holiday.
We walked down to Westminster Bridge, and saw the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, more photos of course. It was drizzling off and on, but it didn’t worry us too much. Of course there were hundreds of people milling around, and in the park opposite Westminster Abbey there was a large group of Sri Lankan Tamils on the fourth day of a hunger strike, protesting about the lack of support from the British government.
At 12.00md we heard Big Ben chime the full 12 chimes, and then discovered that in Nave of Westminster Abbey, there was a service at 12.30pm – “Stations of the Cross”. Deb and I decided to go in and attend the service – inside the Abbey you weren’t allowed to take photographs, which was understandable given that it was Good Friday. However it was magnificent to see the interior of this magnificent building.
We were fortunate to get a seat, and the ? Rector or Deacon who gave the initial part of the service was a woman !! Westminster Abbey moves with the times.
It was fantastic to hear the organ, and the organist played Contrapunctus XI from The Art of Fugue BWV 1080 by J S Bach for the Meditation following the Address. Wow, was that heavy going – and very loud.
The service was quite moving, and when the cross was carried into the church, it was a black man who carried it, assisted by a woman. A huge procession of followers came into the Abbey, and it was then packed. In the procession was the Lord Mayor of London – a woman, who had on the three cornered hat, and the gold chain and other regalia of the mayor. Deb and I felt like we were taking part in history.
A young man by the name of David Goss sang unaccompanied the American spiritual song “Where were you when they crucified my Lord?” – it was really beautiful.
The Rev Les Isaac, another black man and Founder of the Street Pastors Initiative and CEO of the Ascension Trust gave a most inspiring talk about his work as a Street Pastor – and Deb and I both commented later, if only the all of the members of the Anglican Church could practice what he was doing.
We left at the end of the first section of the Way of the Cross, as it was scheduled to go on until well after 3.00pm.
Feeling really hungry, and getting cold and wet in the rain, which had increased while in the Abbey, we headed towards, the London Eye, where we knew there would be places to find food.
There were by now hundreds of tourists milling around the area, and finding somewhere to eat proved to be a little difficult, especially as we wanted to be able to sit down and have a bit of a rest.
Eventually we found a place with some vacant seats, so Deb minded the seats while I got the toasted sandwiches and coffee. Then we headed off to find a bookstore. The YHA is really only a place to sleep, and there are no TVs for you to watch at night, so we needed a book to entertain us.
We found a bookshop, bought a couple of books, then headed off to catch the 381 bus back to the YHA where we had a rest, then ate at the cafeteria, and back to our room for the night. By the way the food at the cafeteria is quite reasonable, and as there aren’t any places nearby where you can get a meal, we are grateful that there is a cafeteria on the premises.