At the year’s end, one last 2018 travel adventure

A view from St. James’s Park in London.

Alan Alda, one of America’s most beloved and respected actors, once suggested that you have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. “What you’ll discover,” he said “will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.”

As we awake to the beginning of 2019, no matter where we may be or reside in the world, it’s worth a moment of our time to consider the meaning of Alda’s words.

Last Friday, my wife and I returned from a 10-day holiday visit to London, our first time being British since 2007. Each time we’ve been to England – three times in all since 2005 – there have been new discoveries awaiting us, and this trip provided a wonderful opportunity to rediscover old things from a different perspective.

Upon arrival, we found ourselves in the thick of Christmas holiday revelry as we lodged in a charming, one-bedroom apartment on quiet Lamb’s Passage, an equal walking distance in either direction to the Barbican and Moorgate Underground stations. Within minutes, thanks to the efficiency of the Underground tube, we were able to arrive at a variety of destinations around London: Borough Market, the Tate Modern, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Leicester Square, Oxford Street and Westminster Abbey, to name just a few that we visited.

Our visit began with theater – we saw a wonderful performance of “Company” at the Sir John Gielgud Theatre, in which we met the musical’s star, Rosalie Craig, afterward, and showered her with praise. We followed it with our second Hamilton experience of the year (and third overall), a matinee at the Victoria Palace that we did on the spur of the moment.

We got a feel for British shopping during our excursion to Oxford Street, which included buying music CDs at HMV, clothes at Uniqlo and in perusing holiday merchandise at the elegant Selfridges. Nearby, we enjoyed a charming lunch at the Monocle Cafe in Marylebone. We made time for seeing the new “Mary Poppins Returns” film at the lovely Barbican Centre Cinema.

There were days spent at museums, such as the Queen’s Gallery near Buckingham Palace and the British Museum, which is one of the great museums devoted to human history and culture.

We also enjoyed a lovely walk through St. James’s Park, where we were welcomed by ducks, geese and pelicans.

Finally, we experienced the Holy Trinity of Anglican Church worship experiences, at St. Martin in the Fields, in Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Each Anglican Eucharist was special in its own way. I’ll fondly remember the beautiful four-part choir performing throughout much of the early-afternoon Eucharist at St. Martin in Fields on our first full day in London. Then, there was sitting in the Quire next to the Choir of Men and Boys during Sunday morning Eucharist at Westminster Abbey, a holy shrine steeped deep in British and Anglican history. Finally, there was Midnight Eucharist on Christmas Eve in the venerable and cavernous St. Paul’s Cathedral, where we were the only American couple seated in a row among Germans and Austrians and British worshipers – and feeling at home in our surroundings.

We returned to Westminster Abbey near the end of our stay and it was a pleasure to stand in Poet’s Corner as well as to see the new David Hockney “Queen’s Window” stained glass window.

London is a city in which I could never see myself getting bored. There’s always plenty of interesting things to explore and admire and be curious about.

It’s easy enough to get caught up in the city’s history, its art, its architecture, the Royal Family.

There’s plenty to explore. I know we’ll be back, again.

In the meantime, I look forward to 2019 and the New Year that awaits. Hopefully, it will be a year full of new discoveries and travel adventures. It is truly my hope that yours will be filled with new discoveries, too.

Safe travels and Happy New Year!