Day 3: “Mind the Gap” Day
For someone from the United States that might sound like a strange title for a blog post. What in the world could that possibly mean? There are actually three separate meanings behind that title that all have a lot to do with what we accomplished yesterday, a very fulfilling and truly pilgrimage filled day.
First of all, we spent a good part of the day on public transportation, the London Underground or the Tube getting around the different sites in London. Like most big cities, traffic is bad in London and parking is worse, so it is much better to purchase a pass and get around on what we call the trains and subway system, which the English call the national rail and underground systems. It is all quite organized and with the right pass you can get pretty much everywhere with only having to walk a short ways (more on that later). At every single stop, you are warned about a gap that exists between the trains themselves and the platform. So, all day long we were hearing, “Mind the gap.” At one stop, the recorded messages stated, “Mind the gap,” and the conductor repeated four times in a rather funny way, “Mind the gap, mind the gap, mind the gap, AND mind the gap.” Throughout the entire day into the evening, that is what we heard.
Second, the term gap has different meaning depending on what “gap” one is referring to. There is a gap between how we refer to things and how the British refer to them. So “baby stroller” becomes a “push chair,” different “cars” on a train become “carriages,” and many more. The gap can also refer to the one that exists between our Catholic faith and those of the Protestant ecclesial communities, which here is primarily Anglican (or Episcopalian in American parlance). This played a role in our first post breakfast stop at Westminster Abbey.
First of all, we spent a good part of the day on public transportation, the London Underground or the Tube getting around the different sites in London. Like most big cities, traffic is bad in London and parking is worse, so it is much better to purchase a pass and get around on what we call the trains and subway system, which the English call the national rail and underground systems. It is all quite organized and with the right pass you can get pretty much everywhere with only having to walk a short ways (more on that later). At every single stop, you are warned about a gap that exists between the trains themselves and the platform. So, all day long we were hearing, “Mind the gap.” At one stop, the recorded messages stated, “Mind the gap,” and the conductor repeated four times in a rather funny way, “Mind the gap, mind the gap, mind the gap, AND mind the gap.” Throughout the entire day into the evening, that is what we heard.
Second, the term gap has different meaning depending on what “gap” one is referring to. There is a gap between how we refer to things and how the British refer to them. So “baby stroller” becomes a “push chair,” different “cars” on a train become “carriages,” and many more. The gap can also refer to the one that exists between our Catholic faith and those of the Protestant ecclesial communities, which here is primarily Anglican (or Episcopalian in American parlance). This played a role in our first post breakfast stop at Westminster Abbey.
Westminster Abbey is almost the center of faith for the English. The Abbey was run by the Benedictines for centuries, being built originally in the year 960. It was rebuilt and expanded by King Edward the Confessor (a saint) to essentially created a royal burial church. Since that time, almost all royality have been crowned and buried there. Walking through the large building (no photography allowed inside), one sees the beauty of it filled with statues to all of the whose who or British history seemingly buried there. Not only are British royalty, but also Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and even Stephen Hawkings. There is actual a memorial to many Christian martyrs of the 20th century including St. Maximilian Kolbe, but we didn’t know that until I googled it the next day to be able to write this.
The biggest “gap” related to this story has to do with that between Catholics and Anglicans. Two of the people buried there were actual contemporaries, Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I. Both were royalty, Mary being the official Queen of Scotland and Queen consort of France (her husband was crowned King). The Catholics considered her to be the legitimate Queen of England, as she was the only child of King James I, but that was during the tumultuous time of upheaval when Elizabeth was officially crowned and began her perscution of the Catholics including killing her cousin, Mary. They are each buried in tombs that essentially “looking” at each other on either side of the nave of the building, which serves as the physical “gap” between them.
The biggest “gap” related to this story has to do with that between Catholics and Anglicans. Two of the people buried there were actual contemporaries, Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I. Both were royalty, Mary being the official Queen of Scotland and Queen consort of France (her husband was crowned King). The Catholics considered her to be the legitimate Queen of England, as she was the only child of King James I, but that was during the tumultuous time of upheaval when Elizabeth was officially crowned and began her perscution of the Catholics including killing her cousin, Mary. They are each buried in tombs that essentially “looking” at each other on either side of the nave of the building, which serves as the physical “gap” between them.
For the final “gap” tie in of the day, you’ll have to wait a bit, as I relate our other stops. Just think of it as a “gap” of paragraphs as the story continues. (Sorry, I could resist!)
After wondering through the Abbey, we knew that Anglican services were performed, but what we really wanted for our pilgrimage was a Catholic mass, so we headed to Westminster Catholic Cathedral. We had assumed that it was close to the Abbey, but there was an Underground ride and long walk between them (a gap?). We arrived hot and tired (Europe is unseasonally hot this year, including England, which we assumed would be cool and even rainy, but no). The Catheral is an impressive building in “neo-Byzantine style” with two tones of stones/bricks on the outside and dark ceilings on the inside. It reminded me a lot of the Byzantine buildings that Maria and I saw in the Holy Land. We walked in and the mass was being celebrated. That gave us some time to explore before the next one began in 10 minutes. It was actually refreshing to see that there were 7 daily mass during the week at the Cathedral, including one every day at 10:30 in Latin. There was a large congregation both for the mass going on when we arrived and the one in which we participated, which was also refreshing. The prior mass seemed to have a good ethnic mixing with many Indian Catholics, and our mass had a large number of African Catholics, all sharing the one true faith. I haven’t asked Maria or Nico yet, but that was definitely the highlight of the day for me, to be able to celebrate mass. I hope that we can do the same today, but Saturday masses are more infrequent, especially by where we are going.
Our next stop, after visiting the Catholic Truth Society’s bookstore, was a visit to the Shrine of the Holy Rosary at St. Dominic’s Priory. The Priory is run by the Dominican friars, not surprisingly and is dedicated to the Holy Rosary, also not a surprise. There are chapels all around the church each dedicated to a mystery of the rosary. The altar pieces for each were gorgeous, with part of the design in the altar itself and part on the part behind. The sad part was the entire church was empty with the exception of us and the one other woman praying there. As we walked around the community to go back to the Underground, I wondered how many practicing Catholics lived in the area. The majority of the people we saw were Muslim Asians. The Priory does have a Catholic school, but, as in the US, that doesn’t mean that there are Catholics that attend. We still had an enjoyable time praying in the church in spite of its emptiness. Maria was happy to see that St. Therese was there, as she is in most Catholic Churches in the world, but not at the Westminster Cathedral. She was also happy that her statue was close to that of St. Anthony’s (Nico’s patron), as he is in many churches, since he also can be found in most around the world.
Our next stop was St. Etheldreda’s. I had never heard of that saint before, but when we found that the oldest Catholic Church continuously celebrating mass in all of England was at this church, we knew we had to visit. It is a tiny, humid, but also beautiful church with gorgeous stained glass windows. It was also completely empty, but we still had time to pray for all of those who asked us to pray for them during our pilgrimage (were you one of those?). After praying, we went in search of restrooms (English just say “toilets”), since we had not gone in a while, and the ones in the church were locked. A local pointed out that the closest was in the pub “down the alley around the corner.” We got lost trying to go around the corner not realizing that the corner was coming out of the church and not at the end of the street and then walking right by it, as the alley way barely had enough room for one person to walk, unlike the alleys in the US where up to two cars could drive. I didn’t need the restroom, but definitely didn’t complain about stopping at a pub on the hot afternoon. I was “forced” to consume a beer. Darn! Maybe I will be “forced” to do the same every day throughout the rest of the pilgrimage.
We had completed everything on our itinerary to visit during the day, but Maria had picked up a pamphlet of touristy offerings where we saw one tour advertised as a Chocolate Tour of chocolatiers in London. We knew that we didn’t have time to take the tour, but bought that we could at least visit one of the chocolatiers. That was a wise choice. We found one Swiss chocolate factory where we sampled multiple delicacies before purchasing a small box of 8, which the lady helped us turned into 9, so that we could have 3 pieces each! They were delightful: dark and light chocolate, hazelnuts, whiskey, coffee, yum, yum and yum! We wanted to buy more, but knew that the heat would not allow us to keep them.
Next, we asked where a good place for dinner would be. She wasn’t as helpful there, as she said it depended on what kind of food, and we didn’t give her any suggestions. She did say that many of the restaurants in the area were overpriced. Luckily, we found one via Google, which was reasonable and very, very tasty: Bill’s. If you are in the area of Covent Garden, I highly recommend it. Maria and I had the sea bass and Nico had fish and chips. I ordered a dark beer, which ended up being very tasty, but surprising. It was a Czech beer, beautiful label, but when I read the label carefully, I saw it was Budweiser. Go figure!
After dinner, Maria reminded us that we still needed to go by Buckingham Palace. Nico wasn’t overly thrilled by going there, especially just a walk-by visit, which due to the time was all we could do. Maria pointed out that we would be very disappointed getting home and being asked about Buckingham and having to say, “We didn’t go,” so we took the Underground and the walk to it. It was a really quick, “OK, we’re here,” snap a couple photos and we left again. It was no where near as meaningful as the other visits we made, but at least we can say “We were there.”
Next, we asked where a good place for dinner would be. She wasn’t as helpful there, as she said it depended on what kind of food, and we didn’t give her any suggestions. She did say that many of the restaurants in the area were overpriced. Luckily, we found one via Google, which was reasonable and very, very tasty: Bill’s. If you are in the area of Covent Garden, I highly recommend it. Maria and I had the sea bass and Nico had fish and chips. I ordered a dark beer, which ended up being very tasty, but surprising. It was a Czech beer, beautiful label, but when I read the label carefully, I saw it was Budweiser. Go figure!
After dinner, Maria reminded us that we still needed to go by Buckingham Palace. Nico wasn’t overly thrilled by going there, especially just a walk-by visit, which due to the time was all we could do. Maria pointed out that we would be very disappointed getting home and being asked about Buckingham and having to say, “We didn’t go,” so we took the Underground and the walk to it. It was a really quick, “OK, we’re here,” snap a couple photos and we left again. It was no where near as meaningful as the other visits we made, but at least we can say “We were there.”
We finally took the Underground back to where we parked the car and then back to the hotel. It was a long day, so much so that both Maria and Nico fell asleep on the final train ride back. We had walked a lot, rode a lot, put up with a lot of heat, and were all tired. But that ties in with the third “gap” connection. I’m sure that some of you are going to say that I am pushing it a little with this connection (Francesca, I have you in mind), but it was clear in my mind.
“Mind the gap” in the US would be “watch your step.” We did a lot of steps (way beyond getting our “steps in”) during the day. My phone showed over 17,000 steps while Maria’s showed over 21,600! No wonder we were so tired! We make a longer trip tomorrow, heading to Cambridge, which is a two hour train ride away. I don’t think that we will be walking as much and the forecast is for cooler temperatures. Besides, it will be Saturday. We will keep praying for you regardless of the weather and the tiredness.
“Mind the gap” in the US would be “watch your step.” We did a lot of steps (way beyond getting our “steps in”) during the day. My phone showed over 17,000 steps while Maria’s showed over 21,600! No wonder we were so tired! We make a longer trip tomorrow, heading to Cambridge, which is a two hour train ride away. I don’t think that we will be walking as much and the forecast is for cooler temperatures. Besides, it will be Saturday. We will keep praying for you regardless of the weather and the tiredness.