Once we got ourselves sorted, we jumped on the DLR and the Tube to the Embankment. We emerged on to the street right under Big Ben. We took a stroll around the back where the policemen with the big guns were and, after taking lots of photos of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, we entered Westminster Abbey. I didn’t get a chance to go inside the last time I was here so I was quite excited. It was amazing to see effigies and burial sites of Elizabeth I, Mary Tudor, Mary Queen of Scots, Henry VII and other famous people we have heard of. There had been many funerals and weddings here as well so the place was swamped with history. We weren’t allowed to take photos but I fired off a few surreptitious shots anyway.
We walked over Westminster Bridge and started to walk down the steps to the Embankment to walk around to Tate Modern. Half way down the steps I gasped with delight. In the county hall was a Star Wars Exhibition. Lou and Jackie weren’t too interested in seeing it but suggested that I go through it while they carry on to Tate Modern. I’ve never been one to argue with solid logic.
I walked in and bought a ticket as a Jedi Knight walked past complete with activated lightsaber and robes. I was escorted to a Jedi training academy where six kids were picked from the audience and trained to use the lightsaber before the Emperor and Darth Vader walked in and tried to kill them all. With their newfound skills, the padawans managed to fend off Darth Vader and the combined force powers of the audience sent the Emperor packing.
After the training, I walked through the rest of the exhibition which featured a full scale Naboo N-1 starfighter, imperial speeder bike, Anakin Skywalker’s Podracer, Han Solo’s carbon freeze unit, and a whole heap of original costumes, props, sketches and models. I spent a good hour going around inspecting and photographing various items. I felt a fanboy chill when I saw Jango and Boba Fett standing shoulder to shoulder.
After leaving the exhibition, I walked to the London Eye and around the embankment towards Tate Modern. There were heaps of people on the pavement performing for money doing balancing acts, still art, and breakdancing. After a pleasant walk around the Thames, I found the Tate Modern gallery and found Lou and Jackie in the café on the 7th floor. We looked around the minimalist exhibiton on the 5th floor but didn’t have enough time to go to the Dali exhibition on the 4th floor which would have been good to see.
We crossed the Millennium Bridge to climb St. Peter’s steps towards St. Pauls Cathedral. Unfortunately, the steps that the Cybermen had climbed down in The Invasion no longer existed as they did in 1969, but it was still a memorable location. Evensong was about to start so the dome was closed to tourists which was a shame, but we went inside and listened to some lovely music and enjoyed the service. The inside of the cathedral was beautiful, so I took a few more surreptitious shots.
On the way home, we stopped off at a Tesco Express and bought some ingredients for tonight’s dinner which consisted of Chicken Tikka Masala, Grolsch and a selection of Krispy Kreme Donuts!
