Thanksgiving across the pond

We Americans sailed up the Thames to get to a Thanksgiving Day service.

In this photo by Tilly through the bow window, you see Tower Bridge flanked by architectural curiosities of a later age: on the left, the Shard, on the right, the Walkie-Talkie.  (I keep forgetting the latter nickname, had to search for it, so learned that its official name is 20 Fenchurch Street, whereas the Shard has no other name, except The Shard of Glass, in case you’re not sure what a shard is.)

The apparent Flying Saucer is only the reflection of a light inside the ship.

Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, and the reason to be thankful could be that the month of “No sun – no moon – no morn – no noon – no warmth – no comfortable feel in any member…” is nearly over.  But today, after many cold wet days, was bright blue.

We crossed the Millennium footbridge –

– to St. Paul’s cathedral, where Britain held a Thanksgiving service in honor of its former colony.  Most of the congregation may have been American, and I wondered whether I was the only dual-national.

The lady in the left foreground is the U.S. ambassador’s wife, listening to the opening speech by her husband.  He referred to the cathedral as “St. Patrick’s,” which could have delighted the people of another former colony.

 

8 thoughts on “Thanksgiving across the pond”

  1. Sailed (cruised) to the Bahamas for Thanksgiving. Just returned and learned of your own voyage.

    1. I;m not sure whether you mean my short voyage up the Thames to the Thanksgiving service, my recent “voyage” (by airplane) to Crete, or my 1976 voyage to the Bahamas, resulting in cover picture for Astronomical Calendar 1977: “Steering by the Stars”.

  2. At first glance of the photo I thought, “Thanksgiving Day service in the Mother Ship? Now that is more Guy’s speed!” Ha ha! Glad you all had beautiful weather for the occasion. Happy holidays to you both from the Horners! We love your blogs so please keep them coming.

    Peace,

    Kathleen

  3. Happy Thanksgiving! Thanks for the pictures. I’m thankful for the eclipse and you guys’ visit this year!!! That was very special!

  4. Thanks for a Thanksgiving Day chuckle. As a dual US-Canadian citizen, I have had many occasions to feel embarrassed over the past year, but this one at least made me laugh… In any case, have a happy day.

  5. Happy Thanksgiving, Guy. Before reading this post, I was thinking about how the United States of America is (are?) an unusual (unique?) nation in that our nationality doesn’t have anything to do with ethnicity (those who assert that it does can go to hell). In order to become a citizen of the United States you need to pledge allegiance to the ideals upon which our nation was founded. As the son and grandson of immigrants and naturalized US citizens, that means a lot to me.

    St. Patrick’s? Good Lord, I hope this ambassador never has to do anything important.

Write a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.