A Day Out...

We woke to an overcast sky and a pretty orange red sunrise. What does the old adage say? “Red sky in the morning shepherds warning.” Yup that’s the one. But undeterred, after breakfast, we left for the local oveground station and with our normal great timing arrived in time to catch the southern train to London Bridge Station. The Shard is very close to this station, and the progress on the building is very much in evidence in the few short weeks since we were last here. It is going to be an impressive structure when it is finished. The station itself changes each time we come through it as part of major upgrade.

Out of the station we head across London Bridge toward from Liverpool Street Station stopping partway over the bridge and offer to take a picture for a young chap who is photographing his friend against the backdrop of the city. Then, on through the streets of multi-storeyed glass fronted towers that jostle shoulder to shoulder with the survivors of the past

 Liverpool Street Station is a great place to sit and people watch. Groups  toting multi-coloured wheeled cases, couples with young children in tow,  men kitted out in lycra suits pushing expensive looking road bikes. 
The board displays our next train’s departure time and platform number and before long we are on our way to Waltham Cross. From there it is a good walk to Waltham Abbey.

This beautiful old church is all that remains of a magnificent abbey that was one of the last to be destroyed when King Henry VIII, after declaring himself head of the church, caused the dissolution of all the religious houses. He gave the lands to his friends who reinvented the building as grand mansions and lodges for themselves to live in.  

It is hard to describe the interior of the  Abbey.  The panels down the entire length of the ceiling are decorated with the signs of the zodiac. The church in its usual manner, has taken on these pagan symbols and reassigning them a Christian meaning. We wander down the side aisle reading the names on the wall plaques and inscribed stones that pave the floor, marvelling at the dates.

Then as a bonus we discover that there is to be a lunchtime concert. The two musicians fill the high vaulted abbey with glorious music that is over all too soon.

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The Man asked one of the guides why there were always crypts under the churches. One suggestion was that they were used as cold storage for the dead to be kept in prior to burial, and some were used as burial places too.