May 21st: Goodbye Norwich

Photos for this post

Packed and ready for the next phase of this adventure; leaving Norwich for a few weeks in Essaouira. Robert walked me to the bus station where I caught the inordinately inexpensive Megabus, to be met in Stratford by Alex. I hadn’t seen Alex in about a decade, and this was a lovely chance for us to gad about the streets of London together.

We travelled to Liverpool St. Station where, I had been ‘reliably’ informed that I could leave my luggage. I would have been better off leaving it at Victoria Coach station. Sometimes this information is difficult to find, even for someone like me! We walked past Trafalgar Square, Chinatown, old familiar haunts, and sauntered in to the British museum. Entrance to the museum is free / donation, which makes it the perfect place to visit whenever the mood strikes. Such an enormous place it can only be consumed in small bite sized pieces. And crowded! I’d forgotten about the crowds in London. We decided to tackle a small part of Greek history and then escaped the crowds for a tasty lunch of falafel & schnitzel at Maoz in Soho.

We walked back to Trafalgar Square for evensong at St. Martin in the Fields, possibly my favourite church in the whole of London. It dates back to 1222, but the present church is Georgian. The simple interior is in sharp contrast to the imposing exterior. It’s a wonderful City church, fully involved in the lives of the citizens, and the citizens involved in the church which has been at the forefront of religious broadcasting, peace and social justice movements, activism … It is the home of the world renowned Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields chamber orchestra, who have taken to touring South West Florida in the winter! There are frequent concerts, even the sing along type, seminars, jazz evenings, and a cafe in the crypt. When I was young I loved the architecture of the church - inspired by Christopher Wren, but designed by James Gibbs. As a teenager I learned about Dick Sheppard, founder of the Peace Pledge Union - and with whom I share my birthday, and became more interested in the church outside of the religious aspect. Nowadays they do a lot of work with the homeless - just as they have throughout the centuries. As their website states, “St Martin-in-the-Fields is a unique configuration of cultural, charitable and commercial initiatives rooted in the life of a vibrant Church of England congregation.” When I miss home, London, this is one of the places I miss.

Evensong was peaceful, a nice place to relax … Alex in a pew, and me in one of the boxes … until we were interrupted by the world outside; a homeless person ran in and up to the choir. He was removed by one of the vergers, built like a security guard, but one of the singers was visibly shaken. The vicar carried on with the service, a sign that this was not an unusual occurrence. The swift removal made me wonder how much the charity work truly impacts the life of those immediately outside the church.

We had some time to spare before my next appointment, so we walked around the corner to the Halfway to Heaven pub for a quick drink. Alex kindly walked me to 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, otherwise known as the home of The Royal Society - “The independent scientific academy of the UK and the Commonwealth... a Fellowship of many of the world's most eminent scientists … the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence.” They hold many events and lectures open to the public, tonight’s lecture was “Why philosophy of science matters to science.” One of my favourite topics. The lecture hall was full to bursting. Oh, I do miss things like this.

I picked up my luggage and caught a late coach to Luton airport where I planned to spend the night in readiness for my early morning plane to Morocco.

The coach ride and my time at Luton gave me a chance to think of all that I had done and seen so far on this trip, and of all the adventures to come. It had been a brilliant day with Alex, I really shouldn’t leave so much time between visits. I even came away with a lovely gift, a signed copy of his new book of poetry.