LONDON - DAY 5

Yes, I am finally sometime to complete our London experience. Today is Sunday, so we are going to take it easy. We went to church. The church is located on a street that is mostly office buildings. Across the street from the church is the Natural history and a Science museum. If you are not careful you could pass the church without knowing it was there.

The ward that we attended was the Hyde Park Ward. The members were really friendly and the membership in the ward consists of many different nationalities. There were many visitors in attendance along with students from BYU and their professors who are studying in London for about 6 weeks. There are several American families who are working there and going to school. There was a special spirit there. I loved it. I tried to convince Bret to find a job here in London for a couple of years so that we could travel Europe and be in the mission field again. He wouldn't have it.

After church we went to Hyde Park because we wanted to witness Speakers' Corner. Speakers' Corner is where people get on stepladders and speak their mind on religion. See the photo below. President Hinckley mentions this corner in his book and some experiences he had when he was on his church mission here in London. It was quite entertaining. There were a lot of people in the park. The park is close to a lot of nice shopping like Harrods. It was Sunday so we didn't do any of the shopping though. We plan on shopping a little on Tuesday.

After a much needed nap we were hoping to take in a concert at Westminster Abbey. We thought that there was a concert around 5 pm, but no such luck. So we walked around the grounds of the Abbey and walked around St. James Park where there is a memorial walk dedicated to Princess Diana. It was nice relaxing day which included a much needed nap.

LONDON - DAY 4

Today we ventured out of London and visited Wimbledon Lawn, Tennis, and Croquet club.  Yes, that is the correct name as we were told today during our tour.  If you are not familiar with Wimbledon, it is where one of the major professional tennis tournaments of the year is played. This was a must see due to the fact that Bret loves to play and watch the game of tennis.  We took a tour of the grounds and saw court one and other side courts, as well as the every famous center court.  The center court stadium is not that big and while we were seated in there we didn't think that there would be a bad seat. Too bad that tickets are so hard to get. We also toured the media room where all of the players are brought for interviews.  Bret is sitting in that seat below.  Doesn't he make a great tennis star!

Here we are at center court.

While we were out in the country, we also went to see Henry VIII's Hampton Court Palace.  All of the palaces have tapestries, paintings and architecture that are outstanding.  Sorry for the nudity in the pictures.  I am not up on the history of art around this time, but you see a lot of art with bare chests and scantily clad women.  The gardens are really pretty and very spectacular.  They put my flower garden to shame.  Below are pictures of an outside front view of the palace and one of the murals that is painted on the ceiling and wall of one of the stairways. 

They have the best soft serve ice cream here.  It is a lot thicker and almost like a custard in a cone.  They top it off with a stick of chocolate. It is so good!

Both of these sites were out near the town of Richmond which was a neat area.  It is in the country, but it had a lot of shopping available and many cafe's and pubs.  We traveled by Tube and bus and were surprised how easy it was to get there, that is after Bret did a lot of research.  

LONDON - DAY 3

Today was another busy day sightseeing. We to Buckingham Palace to witness the ever so famous changing of the guards. That is a very pomp and circumstance event which Bret had a much better view of than I did. We have one of those sightseeing books about London which mentioned that the better part of the changing of the guards was done before the soldiers arrived at the palace at a different location. So he wanted to see that, but I didn't really want to, so I joined the hundreds of people who were waiting at the palace.

Changing of the Guards

Buckingham Palace

While Bret and a few other tour groups were waiting for the soldiers to come out of the specific area mentioned in the book, a policeman came out and told them that the soldiers would not be coming out this way today. So Bret decided to walk around towards the palace and happen to fall into an area where he had a great view of the ceremony. I was able to see it, but not as well as he did. I was in front of the palace up on the center fountain area and my view was sort of blocked by the gate and other people.  It was still fun and it is one of those sights you need to see when in London. 

We visited the Queen's Gallery, which is a museum that houses the royal treasures (art and furniture) that has been purchased through the years by the royal family. I found that very interesting and was glad that we stumbled upon it because that was not on our to do list. 

We wanted to visit Kensington Palace where Princess Diane lived while married to Prince Charles, but it was closed for the day. We hope to visit that on another day. The Kensington area is a very nice area, with a lot of shopping. I tasted my first gelato while shopping and forgot to take a picture of it. It was sooo good. Bret even liked it because it and he does not like many sweet tasting things. We didn't have time to go to Harrod's shopping, but we will before we leave. I hope to pick a scarf or something like that in my price range to bring home to my daughters.

In front of Kensington Palace

We are getting comfortable with the Tube and I wish we had something like that in Utah.  It is definitely the way to get around London.  Tomorrow will be an adventure.  We are heading to Wimbledon and Hampton Court and  will travel by the Tube and by bus.  

LONDON - Day 2

Today was a full day of sight-seeing. We left the hotel at 8:30 am and returned at 9:30 pm. We probably walked over 7 miles and rode the Tube (subway) multiple times to see all that we wanted to today. We visited the Tower of London, The Tower Bridge, took in a display on The British Wartime, went to London Bridge, The Globe ( a replica of the Shakespearean Theatre that existed when Shakespeare's plays were first performed), St. Paul's Cathedral (which was amazing), and toured the London Museum. We are so tired right now all we want to do is go to bed, but I wanted to give an update on our travels. Here are a couple of pictures of our day.

This is at the Tower Bridge.  

This is Bret with one of the soldiers at the Tower of London.

LONDON - Day 1

We are finally here after the long, cramped, and sleepless flights. We flew out of SLC to NY and then on to London. That equals 11 hours in a plane with a 3 hour layover in NY, ughh. We arrive at Heathrow airport in London and had to wait an hour for our transportation to our hotel, yeah we were a little annoyed by that, but once we arrived at our hotel (which is great by the way) we took a much needed nap. After the nap and a shower we headed out to get transportation and tour passes and to take in a little of the city. We went to Piccadilly Circus which reminds me of New York's Times Square and also to Trafalgar Square. We wanted to go into the the National gallery which is an art museum that has many works of art by famous artist, but it was closed, so we ate at the first restaurant we came upon which happened to be Italian and it was excellent. We hadn't planned on it, but we were so close to the London Eye that we bought a ticket and got on it. What a fabulous way to see London! It is the world's largest observation wheel. It is a gigantic ferris wheel and you are inside a capsule like apparatus ( there are 30 capsules all together) which rotates slowly, 30 minutes to be exact, allowing you a unique view of the city. I really enjoyed that. The photo is of Mr. Bret and myself while we are on the London Eye. You can see Big Ben in the background on the right. It started to get dark so we walked back to our hotel, passing Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. These buildings have fabulous architecture and history. We are planning to tour them later in the week.

That is an update of our travels here in London, not bad for being here 12 hours and functioning on only a 2 hour nap. Oh, by the way I did fry my hair straightener when I misunderstood that the converter plug was not the volt converter plug, oh well that is not going to ruin my vacation!