Walk: A City Built by a Genius - Wren's London

Now, I have an old friend, Vicki, in Cork, whom I usually go down to see once a year, staying the night - usually at Christmas, but she was too busy for me last Christmas. So we arranged for me to go and stay last Tuesday, coming back next day. (Just when the first storm of the season was supposed to hit! Typical.) Now, that realistically meant I couldn't fly to London before Thursday - but with nothing unmissable yesterday, I booked to fly back last night instead. I checked on my holiday request, and it looked approved.. Long story short, the "severe weather" we were promised didn't appear as scary when I tested it - and I was lucky with petrol, which I got on Monday night, and which jumped by 2c/l overnight! And gee, it was great to see her.. tricky to organise things with people you don't see often, but in this case, worth the effort. Roll on the next time..

On Thursday, I thought about Plan 75, showing at the Belltable as part of the Japanese Film Festival - people aged 75 or older are given the option of assisted suicide, with free burial, and a $1000 grant to do with as they please in the meantime. Mentioned it to my mother, who raised no objection.. until, of course, I had booked it, whereupon she suddenly started begging me to stay in that night. Bah humbug - I was half expecting it, but she could have said it earlier..

Flying back, I couldn't get the early evening Ryanair flight, and was on the late one again. Which was, of course, late.. only by an hour, this time though - I've known it much worse. Main thing is to make the Stansted Express, whose last departure from Stansted is at 12.30am, and which I did. I definitely had to be back in London for today though, when I was booked on another walk with Laurence Summers and the 45+ Not Grumpy Old Londoners! This one was A City built by a Genius - Wren's London. He's now scheduling walks I haven't done for days I can make them! Very cool.. because I do love his walks. And lunches.

Still, it was hard to pull myself out of bed - but it's been worse. And I just made the bus. Changing buses (because I could, and it saved me a lot of walking), I was privy to some excellent high-speed driving by a car with a siren and flashing lights, zipping in and out of the traffic; I couldn't have bettered it myself! Arrived at The Liberty Bounds - where there was no-one outside. Correctly assumed - on what wasn't the warmest of days - that they were sheltering inside, and joined them there. Mind you, as someone remarked to me - stay away from the hot chocolate. Funny, I've never had it here, but that exact thought occurred to me en route.. Rather lacking in chocolate, it seems!

And in due course - after determining that the no-shows weren't just lost - off we went. Now, this was primarily a church walk - but not exclusively. For example, we passed the evocatively named Hung, Drawn and Quartered pub, just down from the Tower of London - which bears the following amusing plaque:

Speaking of churches, I'd heard of Sir Christopher Wren proving the stability of one of his structures by having his daughter sleep under it - behold, that church turned out to be St. Dunstan-in-the-East!

Destroyed by the double-whammy of Great Fire and Blitz, it's now a picturesque garden. Where a party was in swing as we passed:

Again, there was more to see than churches:

Of course, our path took us to the Monument (to the Great Fire) - where we had a chat about the architect:

D' you know, they used to have a telescope inside! Well, why not..

Our most successful church of the day was St. Mary Aldermary ("Older Mary", there having been a previous St. Mary's on the site). Turned out to be open - unusually for a Saturday; they were preparing for Orthodox Easter, tomorrow! And not only were we let in, but got a detailed lecture on the building's history from someone who works there - runs the church on occasional Saturdays. And graciously, he gave us all a flier on the church's history, and told us everything he knew about the place! Really, he couldn't have done more.

He helpfully explained to us that this is not Wren's typical style.. and pointed out to us the stained glass memorial to a benefactor:

Most of the stained glass windows bear the arms of the livery companies that sponsored their restoration, following the Blitz. Lovely place to visit, all in all - and they have a cafe on weekdays, if you want to check it out.

And so to St. Mary-le-Bow, within the sound of whose bells you must be born to be considered a Cockney. I'd heard that before - but not the story of the balcony, reminiscent of an earlier, wooden one, which had collapsed, taking the King and Queen with it, during celebrations for the birth of their son!

Finally, to Wren's masterpiece - St. Paul's: on the corner where we stood, of course, you can see four of his churches at once. And, massive as it is, I'd forgotten that a line of sculptures, rounding the edge of the area where it sits, mark the original expanse of the cathedral that preceded this one! Now, that must have been a sight..

Lovely tour, plenty of winding alleys, unexpected corners, and well - nooks and crannies! It's amazing how there's always more to explore. Fair enough, as he said, you have a better chance of finding churches open on Fridays, when he normally does the tour - but yay for the weekend outing for those of us who can't typically manage that! And needless to say, entertaining as ever.

Ah, I miss working in the building we were standing in front of at this point.. great area for shopping, as I remarked. And for lunch. Speaking of which, we then dispersed, most of us coming for lunch, in the Punch Tavern. Where I wasn't sure I'd been, but thought so - but no, methinks now I only saw it in passing! Hey-ho, I had steak again - and while not the pinnacle of all steaks I've ever had, it was very welcome. Lovely peppercorn sauce with it - and massive chips! And a real character of a manager - you can't miss him, tall as he is, with a booming voice. And a jovial time was had. Ah, great to see folks again.. Roll on the next, although I'm limited when I can come:

Rolled home at last - to find the most passive-agressive parking I've seen, in my road!

Now, my boss suggested - quite a while ago - that we might have a jaunt to the head office in Tel Aviv tomorrow! I hadn't heard anything since, though - so I finally asked him. He confirmed that it won't be until at least next month now - wants to get the latest release out. (Just as well really, with all the unrest over there.) So I'll be in London this week. And in fact, tomorrow, I finally found something good to do - London Herstory Guided Walks is doing Movers & Shakers of Marylebone! Great to be back with Mandy again.

However, there isn't honestly much coming up that interests me on Meetup - so I'm thinking of heading to the cinema on Monday and Tuesday. I've been having terrible trouble with that film listings site, though - even at time of writing, the listings for this week aren't complete! and new listings have been added since yesterday. Anyway, for Monday, what it's currently looking like is The Beasts - set in Galicia, in Spain, this is the story of a French couple who move to a rural area, only to spark an argument with a couple of their neighbours.. I hear good things. Showing in my local cinema, the Curzon Bloomsbury. Not that you'd know it from the listings site, which - last I looked - had no listing for that, in that cinema, for Monday!

For Tuesday, what's coming up is a Ginger Rogers film - the BFI is doing a season of her films. This one is a comedy called Bachelor Mother - daring for 1939, it has her as a single mother! Mind you, in her case, she finds the baby abandoned outside an orphanage.. also stars David Niven, and Charles Coburn as her father.

For Wednesday, I've booked For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide.. at the Apollo. I have a front-row seat in the Dress Circle - now, I seem to remember ridiculously tight legroom, here - so I'm at the end of a row, and Seatplan says it'll be OK if I lean forward.. Just today, they asked me to "check in", and thereupon sent me my ticket..

On Thursday, I'm with TAC for a talk on Arab & Islamic Roots of Europe's Architecture, at St. Mary Magdalene Church.

Then it's back to Ireland for the weekend. On the 24th, back with Up in the Cheap Seats for The Secret Life of Bees, at the Almeida - no seats left in the stalls, when I booked! Seatplan made me wary of the cheapest seats, so I'm in the next bracket up..

And on the 25th, back with Over 40 Living the Life, for dinner at the Greenwich Yacht Club again. Well, it was good last time - good food, cheap prices, good company. Four of us going so far - I'm sure there'll be more!