Another eventful day! I had to say goodbye to my awesome hotel room. I’ve enjoyed the excellent street views for the last couple of days. I spent several hours exploring the HMS Belfast, the last surviving British WWII cruiser. Grandpa & Grandma Vogt arrived, so we also headed down to check out Westminster Abbey, the cathedral where all of the British coronations and royal funerals occur.
This’ll be a quick post because it’s really late here and we have to get up really early.
HMS Belfast
The Belfast is the last of the Imperial War Museums that I would be visiting. There’s a 5th in Manchester that I just didn’t have time for this trip. The ship is a pretty important one. She’s the last British WWII carrier in existence and she was the flagship of several armadas during WWII, the Korean War, and general patrols in the 60s. I’ve been on lots of WWII ships over the years. This one was by far the least restrictive. Visitors are able to access most of the ship, navigating using the incredibly tight corridors and steep ladders that the crew would have used. It’s about as close as you can get to combining a museum with an obstacle course.
Perhaps I’ll add more details about the ship later, but it’s a lot of technical and military jargon and information that isn’t worth typing out now. Although, one particularly interesting fact was that babies born to sailors on the ship were often baptized in the ship’s silver bell! The real bell had inscriptions of the names of the babies baptized in it. There was also a replica bell in the ship chapel to continue the practice, I guess.
The ship was beauty and a lot of fun to explore. There was also a modern British naval vessel moored to the Belfast, so I got a sneak peak at some legit British military gear. It’s pretty intimidating.
Grandparents arrive
Once Grandpa and Grandma arrived, we took the Tube over to Westminster to check out Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. The Tube was absolutely packed (rush hour), but the locals were a huge help in getting us situated and caring for us on the trains. I’m consistently impressed by the courteousness of the people here.
Once off the train, we took some pictures and walked to the cathedral. Visiting hours were closed, but there was a church service going on that you could attend. So that’s what we did to get in! It was a nice service. My experience at Holy Trinity Church helped me recognize certain parts and understand more of what was going on. Unfortunately, there was no time to linger for pictures. It is by far the biggest and most intricate cathedral I’ve ever seen. The echoes of the choir singing there would chill anyone’s bones. Shoutout to Josh Chism — let me in your choir before you perform at the Abbey someday.
Up next
That’s it for tonight. Tomorrow we’re taking an all-day tour of London. I’m excited to let someone else make the tour plans for a change! It’ll be nice to enjoy the sights without having to think about what’s next.