westminster abbey & barnes to putney

On Jan. 23, I took the students to Westminster Abbey. No photography is allowed inside the church, so I don't have pictures, but Westminster is a fascinating and beautiful place. Some of the students found all the tombs to be creepy (it must have been all the tombs), and a couple chose to cut out early (their loss, I say). It was also difficult keeping everyone together: Westminster allows groups only if all the members stay keep together and if the leader refrains from making any comments that a hired tour-guide might make. Thus, between herding students of varied levels of interest and not being able to say much while inside, the experience was less than ideal. Still, some of the students really enjoyed Westminster. One of them remarked, "Wow. You really have to want something badly to build this." I concurred.

That afternoon, Shane and I followed Robert Wright's walk from Barnes bridge to Putney. Early on in the walk, we stumbled across a house Henry Fielding lived in. So, to celebrate, I cut a little caper.


The walk took us past a Wetlands Centre, and then to a boat-racing section of the Thames.


It was dusk at the end of the walk, which made for some lovely views of the river and the bridges that cross it in Putney.