Spamalot and Eventually I Am Going to Get Banned from Historical Sites-a-lot

The Funsucker and the Wind-The-Frog families saw Spamalot the other night. For those of you that don't know it, it is a musical based quite heavily on Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail. It's very, very funny and the kids enjoyed it quite a bit. We had two sections of seats. For some reason, months ago, Ticketmaster wouldn't let me buy 8 seats in a row - only 4. So I went to the theatre box office and purchased 4 more seats, in the same row! But we were separated by a few seats. It was all good, the kids could pretend that they were there by themselves. I think I enjoyed the second act more than the first. Mainly because the first act was pretty much word for word from the movie and I knew what to expect. The second act had more things I hadn't seen before. We can heartily recommend it.

Earlier in the day, both families minus Chizz went to see Westminster Abbey. Chizz's work thing keeps getting in the way of fun. Apparently they like him to show up EVERY day Monday through Friday. So unreasonable.
I like Westminster Abbey, there is so much to see there. Even though I have been there about 4 times, I always seem to see something "new" or notice something different. It has all kinds of kings and queens graves and tombs. I also enjoy the audio tours because you always pick up some extra tidbit or two. They are very serious about their audio tours at Westminster Abbey. They give you strict instructions as to where it can be used, where it has to be returned and a list of horrible things that will happen to you if you even try to steal one (well, that last part might be a bit exaggerated). So we wandered through the Abbey, all at our own pace. The kids pace took them about 1/2 hour and culminated in the cafe. Of course.

One of the more interesting items at the Abbey is the coronation chair. Just about every monarch since the late 1200s has sat in that chair during his or her coronation. It is a high back wooden chair, with a shelf under the seat for the Stone of Scone, which was captured in battles with Scotland by Edward III.
Apparently the stone has some religious significance although no one can actually agree what it is. Some believe that the stone was owned by the Biblical Jacob, some believe it was brought by the ancient Gaels when settling early Britain, and still others believe it was the travelling alter of St. Columba when he did his missionary work in early Scotland. At that time, all the Scottish monarchs since 847 had sat on this stone for their coronations. So Edward decided to take it and built a chair around it and from then on all the English Monarchs sat on it. With the exception of Mary, who had a Catholic chair specially built and blessed by the Pope because she considered the chair 'Protestant' and wouldn't sit in after her brother Edward VI died. Apparently the chair had Protestant cooties. Incidentally the English government gave the Stone back to Scotland in 1996 after making Scotland promise they could use it for any future coronations. The chair has all kinds of markings and graffiti on it because until the late 1800s it was just in the Abbey and anyone could sit in it. "Hey Look at Me, I am being coronated!" After years of naughty choir boys and other ruffians scratched their initials and other markings in it, they decided to move it to a more secure location. Ya' think?

The Abbey and its grounds are quite large and you can meander for several hours, which we did. Through the cloisters, through their Chapter house, which lost all of its stained glass windows during the Blitz in WWII. There is an interesting museum where you can see the effigies of the monarchs that were used to craft their tombs.

At the end of the tour, you wander to the Nave of the Abbey. Here you can see the graves of Sir Issac Newton, Darwin, and Ben Jonson, who has the distinction of being the only person buried in a standing position at Westminster Abbey. He was a noted playwright, a contemporary of William Shakespeare but poor. Legend has it that he begged a 2 X 2 spot in Westminster Abbey for his burial and that is what they gave him.

The kids were interested in the memorials to the Unknown Soldier, Winston Churchill (he is not buried there) and the United States. I went over to look at the United States Memorial and that is when the brouhaha happened. I went past the point of no return with my audio guide. I wasn't leaving the chapel but I guess I broke the line of the sensor and my guide started beeping. It wasn't particularly loud until you consider you are in a church and people are being relatively quite. The beeping got louder. I tried to find someone at the drop off spot, but it wasn't manned. So I stayed there with my beeping audio guide until one of the vergers came around. He didn't look any too pleased at me because apparently I interrupted some of his more important verging duties, like giving tours, manning the gift shop or working at the cafe. He took the guide, punched in some keys and walked off. I don't think he said a word. Really, its not like I wanted another audio guide for my personal collection. Or did I?