Day Six - May 10th, 2008

Today Mom was nice and let me sleep until about 8:30am. Since today was our shopping day we didn't rush out the door. We started off going to Portobello Rd. Lots and lots of booths and people. Of course we'd have to pick Saturday to go which means everyone else is there too. We wandered up and down only about a quarter of the entire market and then decided to move on.

We hopped back on the Tube and rode to South Kensington to find the church building before tomorrow, so we know where we're going. :D Sure doesn't look like any chapel we have in the States, but you do what you can. We talked to some people about calling Nic, got a drink and used the bathroom. Very refreshing. Then we walked to Harrod's and wandered through. They won't let you wear your backpack...you have to carry it. It doesn't look classy to wear a backpack. They had all different rooms and we only wandered through a few. The chocolate room, the ethnic foods room, the over priced handbags room and the cheese/butcher room. Crazy place, but I got some marvelous desserts in the chocolate room.

After Harrod's we walked up the street to Hyde Park. I love Hyde Park and we haven't even scratched the surface yet! So green! Little waterfalls and patches of flowers. There was a lot of people there too, but that's only to be expected on a Saturday afternoon. We relaxed on the grass and ate snacks for almost an hour before moving on. Just as we got up to leave it started to spit a little but never really began raining.

We walked out of Hyde Park, past Apsley House and the Wellington Arch, down the Princess Diana Memorial Walk to Buckingham Palace. Changing of the Guard is in the morning so we missed that, but at least there were less people there. We took some pictures and the decided to just head back to the flat to eat and call home. We just ate stuff we had in the fridge for dinner and talked only to Katelyn very briefly. And I must note that today Mom ate a whole yogurt and actually enjoyed it! Amazing! Now it's time for bed because church at 9am comes very early. And today's random thought is that the English love their monuments. They build large monuments for everything!

Day Five - May 9th, 2008

I snoozed again this morning until 8:15am and then finally rolled out, showered and pulled my hair up. It was supposed to rain today but never really did. It was just muggy and uncomfortable. We started our day by walking past Somerset House. I wanted to see the fountains but they were off because of something that was going on. So we didn't stay long. Then we walked up to Covent Gardens. It reminded me a lot of Pike's Market. Lots of booths and shops and people. I bought wooden flowers for me and the girls and some playing cards.

We ate a Cornish pasty for lunch which was very interesting but good, and then walked down to Temple Church. Very cool old buildings and gardens nearby. We walked past the Royal Courts of Justice so most of the buildings around Temple Church are lawyer offices so Mom and I didn't really blend very well. We wandered around this garden that only had the one entrance/exit. That was a pain.

We were done with all that by 1:30 pm so we decided to hop the Tube to Westminster. We walked by Big Ben and the Houses of Parliment to go to Wesminster Abbey. I have never seen so much stuff crammed into one space in my life! I wonder what you have to do to get a memorial in there. Be a king or queen for sure, but I figure you just have to be willing to pay a lot. Poet's Corner was my favorite spot in there. I included some quotes from some of the noteworthies buried there. A lot of memorials and effigies for people buried elsewhere but still important enough to merit a spot on the wall of floor. Some of my favorites were Edmund Spencer, Jane Austen, Shakespeare, Handel and George Eliot. We walked around the museum as well. Very interesting.

After we finished there we did a little secret walk around some obscure streets near St. James and Picadilly. Nice buildings. Upscale houses that home people like Princess Di when she was young, etc. I love the buildings here! So cool. Very old. Then we stopped by Tesco and got food and came home, ate dinner, called home, uploaded pictures from today and now writing in journal. It's been a full day of walking and I'm ready to read and go to bed.

Some random quotes from places in England

Quotes

"Is all our life then, but a dream?" ~ Lewis Carroll

"The first condition of human goodness is something to love; the second something to reverance." ~ George Eliot

"In the prison of his days ; Teach the free man how to praise." ~ Wystan Auden

"Where one burns books, one will, in the end, burn people." ~ Heinrich Heine (German Jewish poet)

"For evil to triumph it is only necessary for good men to do nothing." ~ Edmund Burke

"We are all worms. But I do believe that I am a glow-worm." ~ Winston Churchill

"Never was so much owed by so many to so few." ~ Winston Churchill

"It is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues...are created, strengthened, and maintained." ~ Winston Churchill

Day Four - May 8th, 2008

It was hard to get up again this morning because my body is still on Utah time. The shower is a trickle so showering every morning is going to be an adventure. We swapped our days around and instead of going to Windsor we decided to head to Dover because it's a sunny day. My legs are still kinda protesting from yesterdays abuse, but they'll stretch out.

We hopped the Tube to Victoria Station and had to run to catch our train to Dover. After leaving London the countryside is gorgeous! Fields of yellow flowers and green countryside. Rolling hills and orchards. We sat across from a guy named Michael. He's at University at Canterbury and a very nice guy. He kindly answered all Mom's questions, of which there were plenty. After getting off the train in Dover we took a taxi up to the castle and got our maps at the ticket booth. We had time to walk directly down to the Secret War Tunnels for the 13:20 tour. Very cool to walk through the underground world through which England's war effort was helped. They don't allow photography so we only got pictures of the entrances. There are three levels but they only tour 2 of them. The third if off limits.

After those tours we wandered around the castle complex which is enormous and took a lot of pictures. The admirality lookout was so windy I was afraid I'd be blown away, but it was our only view of the white cliffs. Then we walked up to the Saxon church and Roman Light tower. Very beautiful buildings! We walked along the burm around the church and took more pics. Then we actually made it into the castle's keep which is immense and remarkably well preserved. They don't have guided tours, so we just wandered up and down a ton of staircases. Mom loved it. :D I really liked the keep. We got to go up on the roof even! They are quite unconcerned for safety here. They assume that you're smart enough to follow signs and common sense. I love it! There must be a lot of stupid Americans, or we've allowed ourselves to be dumbed down. Here they don't have tons of people standing around to make sure you don't do something stupid. It's great.

After we finished at the castle we walked back down the hill towards the train station. A long, but fun walk, since we got to walk through town. I love English towns! I could take dozens of pictures of just one street after another. We got sandwiches at Subway (real authentic English food!) to eat on the train back into London. Such cute, quaint little train stops along the way. I took several pictures. The train ride was nice but seemed to get long at the end.


We made it back to Maida Vale pretty quickly and decided to walk to the church down the street. We ended up walking back through the Rec grounds across the street. The flowers smell so good right now! The air is perfumed by them. Both here and at Dover Castle. I took some pictures of the flowering things. As well as the church. Mom can't stand to do things on the fly, she has to have them planned all out. Funny. And I got my first blister today!

Day Three - May 7th, 2008

It was very hard to start today. I didn't want to get up since I haven't acclimated, but I did. The shower here was but a trickle which made for a long shower, but it was wonderful since I hadn't showered in two days. Finished getting ready and headed off to Regent's Street to pick up our Heritage Passes. Got off at Picadilly Circus and wandered around until we found the Visitor Centre. Found a nice market called Tesco's. Got a chocolate milk, a banana, and two croissants for breakfast. Got back on the Tube and went to St. Paul's Cathedral. Very massive and very impressive. Rather than wander around we headed directly up into the galleries. We hiked the first set of stairs to the Whispering Gallery (163 stairs) and talked across the gallery, which was cool, and then hiked the next 119 stairs to the Stone Gallery. Got some really nice pictures of the City since it was another sunny day. Then hiked the last 152 stairs to the Golden Gallery. The very top observation point that had incredible views! It would be off limits in the States. Anyway...came back down and wandered around inside the Cathedral to look at all the memorials of famous people. We went to the gift shop and then walked back out front to take some pictures. The whole front staircase was covered with people! It must be a popular lunching spot and the sun was out so, so were the people. It was incredible!

Back on the Tube to go to the British Museum. Once there we wandered around for about 30 minutes and the battery in the camera died, so we ended up walking over a mile to find a shop with batteries that would work. We walked back to the Museum and finished walking around inside. It's a beautiful building! The Rosetta Stone was really neat, as was the Enlightenment Room. It was a room full of books. My favorite. It was still early when we got done there so we hopped on the Tube and went down to Embankment so we could walk along and see some of the Victoria Embankment Gardens. All the flowers are in bloom right now so it's beautiful! We walked up Northumberland Ave. to Trafalgar Square. Holy crazy busy roads! I am so glad we didn't get a car in London! It's scary just being a tourist. The fountains were beautiful and the mist was cooling. We walked up Pall Mall to Regent's Street and bought food for dinner at the Tesco's Market. Soups, sandwiches, all kinds of little snack things. Then hopped the Tube back to Maida Vale. A busy but good day. Talked to Katelyn, Hailee and Dad for about an hour on Skype. Uploaded pictures and ate dinner. Wrote in journal and now it's time to go to bed. Yay!

Day Two - May 6th, 2008

Day two actually started on the plane, bu I'll start at the airport, Gatwick. Our plane was parked out in the dingweeds because it took us forever to get to Customs and through. We only spent about 10 minutes in the actual Customs line. It took us longer to get through the money exchange than it did through Customs. Our baggage was already on the belt so that was quick. We didn't have to declare anything so we made it out of the airport pretty quickly. But it did take us a while to find Brother Miller, since he didn't know which flight we were coming in on he needed to just drive around and around until we came out. It did take a little while to get to the Temple because of traffic, but we got their eventually, such beautiful countryside! Very picturesque! Really rural. The Temple isn't close to any city really and sits on 27 acres of land. We changed our clothes and hurried in to do a session. Mom got to participate, which was a good thing since both of us were completely dead and very nearly asleep. I fell asleep briefly a couple of times during the session. The temple was gorgeous inside, but outside it wasn't very decorative. The grounds were pretty.

Anyway...we took a taxi from the Temple to the train station in Lingfield. Very quaint cute little town. It looked just like it probably has since Queen Victoria was queen. I don't think the train station was every updated. We met a lady that was also at the Temple waiting at the train station into London. Her name is Amy and she's from the Philippines. Very sweet. She gave us a lot of advice. Riding the train was fun, but probably would have been a lot more fun without all the luggage!

The Tube certainly was a pain! We started out at Victoria and had to change at Embankment to catch the Bakerloo Line that comes out to Maida Vale where we're staying. I've never seen so many stairs and hallways in my life! You have to hike up, then back down to change lines which was murder with 3 suitcases and two backpacks. I'm not looking forward to doing that again when we leave London. At least we don't have to change trains again! Once in Maida Vale it only took us a few minutes to find our lodgings. Thank goodness our hostess was here or I would have sat down and cried. Mom and I were both completely wiped out.

We got to the flat at about 3pm so we needed to kill time before we could go to bed so we walked across the street to the Paddington Rec grounds. Gardens, tennis courts, large grass fields...Absolutely beautiful and the weather was warm and sunny so it was wonderful to sit on the grass after traveling as long as we had. We wandered down to the corner markets and looked before hopping the Tube to Baker Street to find some dinner. We came back and crashed after talking to family on Skype. Long day! Not one I want to repeat!

Day One - May 5th, 2008

I started this day at 2:50am. I got up and showered and dried my hair so I could lay on it and lean against it without it hurting. We left the house at 4:20am to head to the airport. Check in wasn't busy, but we ended up swapping some of my stuff into Mom's bad so we'd both be under the weight limit. We actually made it so both suitcases were 50.5 lbs! I was impressed. Checked in and handed off our suitcases and headed to security. That was only a few minutes but my belt set off the alarm, which was an easily solved problem. We stopped at Starbucks and got juice and scones before heading up to our gate. We only sat at the gate for about 30 minutes before boarding. I had window and Mom was next in and a guy named Matthew sat in the aisle seat. Mom made friends with him and I read most of the way. Taking off was fine but landing was a whole different story. I was nearly sick! Yuck.

Once on the ground my stomach settled quite a bit. We de-planed and wandered towards our next gate at Houston International. We stopped in Borders and I got a book and Mom and I got there crossword/word search books. They are cool. They mostly confuse Mom. We found a nice quiet corner near our gate and set up shop. I tried to get online but I guess you have to pay a fee to access their Wi-Fi. Rude! So we gave up on that and just chilled for a while. We ate lunch at a Texan BBQ place in the airport. Yum! I loved it, but it was a bit to hot for Mom's taste. After eating I tried to sleep on the floor for a while which was incredibly uncomfortable. We checked in at our gate about 3:15 and started boarding about 3:35pm. We boarded just after the first class and Elite customers since we were at the back of the plane. Thank goodness the plane wasn't full or our flight would have been awful. I stayed in the two seats next to the window and Mom moved over to a set of three empty seats in the middle, so she could lay down across all three seats.

We took off really quickly and my stomach stayed mostly settled. I did end up drinking quite a lot of ginger ale to keep my stomach happy. They served us beverages and peanuts not long after taking off and dinner followed not long after drinks. Then I just watched movies and tried to read and then tried to sleep. They had an interactive map that showed the progress of the flight and I spent alot of time watching that. The flight was so it made sleeping not very much fun, but I did get some. An hour of so before landing they served us fruit and a croissant for breakfast. And that takes us into Day Two since we spent all of Day One traveling.

England Journal

I decided that I'm going to post my England journal one day at a time, so my next post will be the first day of that fantastic trip!!