Easter Weekend 2

Easter Sunday was a miserable, cold, snowy and windy day. For the first time since we arrived, Carl and I spent the entire day inside the flat. Carl worked on the taxes, and I read the book (The Time Traveler’s Wife) for the upcoming book group meeting at the library.

Monday was also a holiday – and it was still cold but sunny outside – so we took off as tourists again for the day.

In the morning we went to Greenwich – to the Royal Observatory. We saw the exhibits on clocks and longitude. We stood on the exact spot of the prime meridian -- zero degrees longitude. We read about the development of the first clocks – and the beginning of daylight savings time. The observatory was on a hill (of course) in a beautiful park adjacent to a college campus – Greenwich University. Greenwich was a pleasant village with several blocks of shops and eateries. It also had an open-air market with booths containing clothing and crafts. There was one Chinese man selling artwork created as paper cuttings. Another man sold plates and bowls hand painted from Israel. One woman was selling decorative items made from Juniper trees. It was easy to see how this would be a popular spot in the warm weather. (As it was, it started to snow again while we walked around.)

In the afternoon, we went to St. Paul’s Cathedral. Since it was the day after Easter, the church bells were ringing almost continuously – filling the air with melody. Inside was an indescribably beautiful cathedral, designed by Christopher Wren. Carl and I took the taped tour together. St. Paul’s was the first cathedral built after the Church of England broke off from the Catholic Church. It compared in beauty to many of the cathedrals we saw in Spain and Italy. Many of the domes inside are filled with multi-colored mosaics tinged with gold. They are very colorful and rich, and they sparkle in the daylight.

One very special feature at St. Paul’s was a memorial chapel dedicated to the 28,000 Americans who died during World War II fighting in Britain or on their way to fight in Britain. This chapel holds a prominent place right up in front of the main altar. As the story goes, an American official asked the British where we could build a memorial for the lost American soldiers in the War, and the British responded something like this – Wait a minute – it is not for you to build the memorial – it is for US to build it. So they built this very special memorial in this very special location in St Paul’s Cathedral. A centerpiece in the memorial is a large book containing the names of all those 28,000 lost Americans. Each day, they turn to a new page in the book.

A small snow shower on the way home didn't bother us at all. (None of the snow ever sticks.) We stopped in at a favorite place near our flat --Carluccio's--and had an early dinner before returning home to our television-less flat.