Day 4: Going to Temple Church & Piccadilly Square
The journey begins in London, England. We then proceed west through Southern England before crossing into Wales. The religion of England and Wales is Protestantism and the currency is the pound sterling.
We then take a boat west to enter Ireland. Ireland is a very independent nation where the main religion is Roman Catholicism. Their currency in Ireland is the EuroDollar. We travel through Ireland, including their capital city of Dublin.
We proceed north crossing into Northern Ireland, an important part of the United Kingdom where the primary religion is Protestantism and their currency is that of the United Kingdom which is the pound sterling.
We then travel by boat east to the Island of Great Britain (which is the countries of England, Wales and Scotland) back into England before proceeding north to Scotland. The religion in Scotland is Protestantism and their currency is the pound sterling.
You can see below a box of 71 small photos. You can also see only 20 photos, but click on the #1 to #4 to view the next 20 photos. You can click on any photo to see it enlarged OR just click on the 1st photo and wait....it will present a slide show of all 71 photos that advances every 5 seconds.
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I wanted to see something new on this trip, even though it has been 15-20 years since I last visited London, England. I wanted to view the Temple Church, a building used in an important scene in "The DaVinci Code". I do show this film to my students at the end of our unit on the split in the Christian church. I read the book and I see this movie 5 times every year and I've shown it to my students since approx. 2006...that would mean I have seen it 18x5=90 times!
I bought a daily pass for the London Underground and embarked on my journey to find my way to the Temple Church...and I did! How exciting (see more photos below).
Today was still a free day for me, at least half-way. I am going with a tour company I first tried 20 years ago...Trafalgar. So today, Trafalgar gave a free 1/2-day tour of London for their clients from North America who are booked for their different tours and who are in London. So 38 people had a guide as we drove through London and saw where the Prime Minister lives (which is at 10 Downing Street), the headquarters for their Supreme Court, and Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. We saw part of it...the marching in of the new guards. But it was so crowded that we could not see the ceremony of changing the previoius guards with the new guards that was on the other side of the fence. You could tell by this video clip (and the photos below) how crowded Buckingham Palace was with tourists from around the world.
We also made a quick visit to St. James Cathedral. The guide was very knowledable for what I teacher in world history...the creation of Christianity, then the split among Christians, more specifically between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants. St. James is a Protestant church, or even more specifically an Anglican Church. We made a quick view of many places around London and ended our quick guided tour at approx. 12:30 pm by being dropped off in our hotels. The next half of the day was free time.
I then took a couple Tube routes to Piccadilly Square where I walked around. It was crowded with tourists, but what drew my attention was that there was a second "Hard Rock Cafe" in London! I didn't know this! What also drew my attention is that "Les Miserables" is still playing in London! It has been playing for over 25 years. I have seen this play over 15 times, several times in London, and even more times in New York and Los Angeles! I enjoy this historical play so much that I have the soundtrack from the original play, and the 10th anniversary play, the 25th anniversary play, and the movie soundtrack! I wish I had more time to see this play again here in London...maybe next time!
What another fantastic day in London, England! I am always learning more. It is also such a great reward from working so hard over the year. I enjoy visiting new and exciting places, seeing people and places from the world! Tomorrow, our Trafalgar group meets and begins our 21-day tour.
(See the photos below...I have so many more of the inside of the Temple Church.)
I did purchase a couple books. I also had a conversation with the receptionist inside the church. I wanted to confirm that the Temple Church was indeed built by the Knights Templar, the order of monks/soldiers who went on the Crusades to Jerusalem for the Pope. But later, the Pope will deem them devils since they did not give to him what they brought back from Jerusalem, so the Pope sent a message to all of the rulers in Europe on Friday the 13th to kill all of the Knights Templar.
As a result, when Christian church split, and more specifically the Christians in England became Anglicans (Protestants), the Temple Church was turned over to the Protestants. What a great part of world history of which I learned more and can now share with my students! The church closed at 4 pm, so I am very lucky to have spent some great time at this historic site.
Then, I did a lot of walking to reach an HSBC bank. I wanted to exchange an old 10 pound bill I had. My 10 pound bill was from over 15 years ago, but today England (and many nations around the world, but NOT the U.S.) now make their many out of plastic, not paper. I thought the bank would switch my paper pound to a plastic pound, but only if I had an account with them. I will have to try to exchange my old paper money from England at home...I can't do it here!
It was still a bit early (5:30 pm) and I hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast, so I stopped at a coffee shop for an iced coffee and a treat!
It still being early, I thought I would stop a Piccadilly Square on my way back to the hotel. I got back on the Tube and took a couple lines to Piccadilly Square. What an exciting part of London is Piccadilly Square. It reminds me of Las Vegas. Another interesting fact...London itself is only 1 square miles. What is considered greater London includes 32 other boroughs, one important being the City of Westminster. As you can tell by the street signs, many people may not be in the city of London...they may be in a different borough. But the same applies for New York and Los Angeles.
