Saturday, March 9, 2024
This morning I woke up early and I was able to do some work with my email and my journal and my photos. I’m really pleased with how some of them have turned out. While I worked, I looked out the window in this amazing view. Maybe tomorrow I can get some better photos of it.
Everyone else woke up about 8am.
Around 9am, Grant and Emma took us to the station, and we went in to London. We got off at London Bridge, and from there we walked along the Thames towards Tower Bridge. From there we walked over the Tower Bridge and past the Tower of London. After a quick pit stop, we walked to St Dunstan, which is a church that was bombed during WWII. Carlos Macia gave me the tip about that place, and I’m so grateful for tip. The sun was pretty harsh, it’s really the kind of place that would have looked better with more moody light, but I did my best.
From there we walked down to St Paul’s cathedral. It’s beautiful and majestic, but they charge an arm and a leg to go in -- so we skipped it. England is weird like that. It’s the only place I’ve been that charges to go in a church.
By that point the kids were really hungry, so we hunted about for a place to eat. We were hoping for fish and chips because we’d promised our fried Chris Condon that we would eat them. I figured the cheapest place would be in a pub, so we popped into one but after sitting down and looking at the menu we realized that it wasn’t going to fit into our budget. So we sleepily excused ourselves and had a quick meal at a coffee shop. About five minutes later we walked by a display of donuts at a shop called Donut Time, and we all simultaneously stopped dead in our tracks. They were the most delicious looking donuts we’d ever seen. So we hopped in there and grabbed some donuts. They were amazing!
All of that happened right around St Paul’s, and from there we walked to the British Museum. It’s free and pretty amazing. They have the Rosetta Stone and a giant head of Ramses II, who lived around 1200 BC and was likely the Pharaoh when Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt. We could have spent a bunch more time in that museum, but today was just about sampling in the city.
On this trip in which we are seeking out the sacred, it’s interesting to me that some of the most sacred experiences we’ve had have been in museums. The great churches have all been so prohibitively expensive that we haven’t been into them. I’m sure that will change as the trip goes on, but so far we’ve loved the museum/visitor’s center at Omaha Beach, the Louvre and the British Museum.
From the British Museum we walked down towards Westminster. On our way we paused at Leicester Square, right in the heart of the theater district. It’s got these beautiful statues of Harry Potter, Mary Poppins, Paddington Bear, Gene Kelly from Singin’ in the Rain, and Bugs Bunny. Those last two are weird choices because they aren’t British, but oh well.
After even more walking we made it to Westminster Abbey. Betty was really looking forward to seeing it because she’s a fan of Princess Kate, and that’s where she and William were married.
After that and some pictures of Big Ben, we made our way to the Victoria Station. It was a ton of walking (around 8 miles), but it was a good day. I loved seeing so many things that I’ve only seen in the movies. One day is certainly not enough to see London, but I feel like we gave the kids a good taste.
After so many days of intense travel, I think we are all looking forward to the opportunity to rest on the Sabbath tomorrow.