I went out to price some digital cameras today, so I should be getting a new one within the next week or so. I'm itching to take some pictures!

Yesterday's visit to Westminster Abbey was really interesting, mainly because a) I love history (especially British history) and so I recognized more names than your average tourist would, and b) because I have a thing for cathedrals and I've been to a couple for comparison purposes. The main thing I noticed when I first walked in is that your eye isn't immediately drawn upward as it is in most Gothic cathedrals, because there is just so much to look at on eye level. The whole cathedral is just absolutely crowded with tombs, monuments, statues, plaques, and every kind of memorial you could possibly think of. It's a huge building, but with so many monuments crammed in, it actually feels quite cramped.

The second thing I noticed is that it doesn't feel like a church. In the other cathedrals I've visited (Toledo and Sevilla, both in Spain), the architecture creates a sense of vertical space so that your first impulse is to look up, towards the heavens. Most cathedrals (and all good religious buildings, in my opinion) give you this overwhelming feeling of human insignificance and the glory of God. Westminster Abbey is certainly glorious, but my impression was of a museum celebrating the glory of man, not of a church celebrating the glory of God. The Gothic architecture is there, but as I said, your eye isn't drawn to it in the same way that it is in other places (even in Our Lady in Guelph, which you should visit if you have no clue what I'm talking about). Westminster Abbey definitely feels more like a museum of history, not a living church. We're all required to attend a service there as part of our Music in London class, so maybe my opinion will change after seeing an actual religious service held there.

The third thing that surprised me is that although it feels like a museum, Westminster Abbey is still very much a living community. There's a boarding school on the grounds for the choirboys, and the monks' cells in the cloisters have been transformed into offices and apartments for the clergy and staff. The apartments face onto a small garden and have a larger one in back, and there's a low wall separating the private space from the public. There's a friendly orange and white cat that clearly lives in one of the apartments, but considers the cloister gardens his as well, and he's obviously used to tourists. Even with the tourists, it's a part of the Abbey that feels private and peaceful, and it would be a wonderful place to live. I thought my 1841 apartment building was historic, but how many places in the world can you live in a building that dates back to 12-something?

Some of the above sounds like I'm criticizing the Abbey or that I didn't like my visit. It was a wonderful place to spend the afternoon and I haven't even written about some of the most impressive things (mainly because what's impressive to medieval history buffs is boring as hell to everyone else). There were some things about my visit that surprised me, but in a good way. So, if you have the means and the opportunity, I highly recommend a visit. It's pretty cool.