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!