Arrived safely into London on the afternoon of the 19th and headed directly to my cousins’ in Worcester Park. It was nice to catch up with them especially this close to Christmas. As well as coming here to visit them, I had also arranged to visit an exhibition at the British Museum on Friday morning. I never tire of visiting London and I am just happy wandering round the streets as you never know what you might see.

I had discovered that St. Bartholomew-the-Great, which I’d visited in August was having a traditional German Carol concert on the evening of the 20th so decided I’d go along to it. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect so was pleasantly surprised to find it was a proper service along the lines of our ‘Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols’ but conducted in German. It was fun to sing the hymns in German! The church was packed and it was mainly lit by candles which added to the atmosphere.

On the Friday, after I’d been to the British Museum I headed over to Knightsbridge to visit the Russian Orthodox cathedral. See my separate post for information on the building and pictures. After my visit, I popped into their little shop which has some great CDs and various ikons for purchase. I then decided to come back for their service of Vespers. This lasted a little over 90mins but was really lovely to hear the choir and priest chanting.