Wednesday 6th June
Up and packed early and off to
“Marie’s Café” in Lower Marsh St for a # 1 and #2 breakfast, both had 2 eggs,
bacon, sausage, 2 slices white bread, tea or coffee ( very good) and #2
had great homemade chips. Waddled back to UJC, checked out, to
underground from Waterloo to Bank, then short walk along the flat to St Pauls
YHA by 11am. Couldn’t check in until later in afternoon so had to haul bags
down to basement to storage room for the day, lockers here were not as wide as
at Earls Court so we had to decant some stuff out of our suitcases –when we
returned we had to take suitcases back up to ground floor then up another 2
floors ( 5 flights of stairs in all –great inducement to travel light !).
Fascinating building that used to be the
quarters for St Pauls choristers, about 100 metres from St Pauls itself-some
people complained because the bells ring every quarter of an hour, 24 hours a
day but it didn’t bother me at all, in fact rather liked it.
Then we went off to do some visits
to some of the dozens of churches in the City of London. First was St Mary
Aldermary a Wren church. Very nice volunteer man there who told us about the
group who were rehearsing in the church for a concert the next night. They are
called “Cardinall Musick” and specialise in unaccompanied 16th and
17th Century English music and their director is Andrew Carwood who
is also director of music at St Pauls. We sat entranced for nearly 1 ½ hours
listening to them rehearse in beautiful surroundings
with fantastic acoustics. Then it was off about 50 metres down the lane to St
Mary le Bow, yet another Wren church which is the home of the Bow bells. The
crypt here is now a café.
Back to YHA and made 2 trips up
stairs from storage room to our tiny room on 2nd floor , 2 single
beds, hand basin, small window that rattled, 4 power points ( so can charge all
devices at once) and just enough room for 2 suitcases.
Within about a 200 metres of this
hostel which is not self catering is a Tesco Express, a similar Sainsburys and
a M&S Food. In all of these you can buy pre prepared meals and since we
didn’t have access to a microwave there we had to stick to the cold salad ones.
Our favourite so far is a Moroccan Chicken and Couscous salad at 2.50gbp,
desert is rice pudding from a can and a Belgian Chocolate mousse for 55 p on
half price!!
Went out for a walk about 8.30 pm
along Thames bank as far as Southwark bridge and back. Discovered beautiful
urban garden, Cleary Gardens, then St Pauls met 2 young American bankers from
New York, all sharp suits and teeth, slightly
lost and looking for their hotel. In course of conversation they looked at St
Pauls and asked “What is that building ? ” Some cultural teaching required
there !!
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