THE FIRST POST!
Welcome to our first blog post! It’s a bit overdue (who’s keeping track anyways? It’s relieving to only have the impending blog post looming over my head during the day-and even then the only one making it loom is me) but better now than never! We hope to make them a little more regular, but between travelling, editing photos, and writing we can’t guarantee a routine delivery.
Feel free to imagine whomever you want writing these posts; currently Josh is doing the actual typing, but there will be posts just by Maria or just by me and we will identify the author-or not. As long as you imagine who you want writing it then you should be fine, but the writing style will probably give most of them away!
LEAVING OTTAWA
We officially departed early in the morning of Wednesday, January 6th. Cory and Gen graciously drove us to the airport and we set off! We flew in to Washington D.C. and had the whole day to kill in the airport. We spent it by planning for London and almost ended up getting two flight vouchers for volunteering our seats, but they didn’t take us up on our offer.
Our flight to London went off without a hitch and we officially left the North American continent for the next year! It must be a long time since I took a plane with meals because I don’t remember them ever being so good! We flew United Airlines and ended up being pampered with multiple waves of snacks, gourmet dinner and breakfast, free beers, and cold camembert!
JANUARY 7–9
We arrived in London early morning of the 7th and made our way to our dwelling at YWAM Urban Key. The folks there were really hospitable and a delight to meet. The time change hit us hard so we napped for a while before heading back downtown. When we grabbed our camera we discovered that our favourite fixed 50mm lens had broken en route and so we have been stuck with the basic kit lens as our only option.
We visited the Victoria & Albert Museum while exploring the Kensington area. Can I just say that I love that all the museums in London are free. We then went up to Wembley stadium for a birthday dinner with our favourite Norwegian, Froydis! (I realize Jared is also Norwegian but he is more Canadian so it doesn’t count.)
The 8th was a full London exploration day. I deliberately left the umbrella behind, saying to Maria “The forecast is pure sunshine, we won’t need this!” In faithful English fashion, we emerged from the tube to a downpour. The rest of the day spittered and spattered off and on with the forecasted sunshine in between!
Throughout the 8th we walked approximately 9 miles with various stops along the way. In order, we did: Changing of the Horse Guards at White Hall, the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, St. James’ Park, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, lunch along the Thames, London Eye, Book sale along the river, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London (night-time by now), a much-debated visit to the Monument of the Great Fire of London, St. Paul’s Cathedral (unexpectedly magnificent), The Savoy Hotel (see: Bev Oda), Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus for some late night theatre lights and buskers, and finally the tube back to our abode!
One of the best things about London are all the free museums!
The Victoria and Albert Museum
The National Gallery
The British Museum
Below is Nelson’s column at Trafalgar Square in honour of his tremendous naval victory over the combined Spanish and French fleets in 1805, thereby safeguarding England from invasion and securing their pre-eminence at sea.
England expects that every man will do his duty. — Admiral Nelson
London at night
“COOL GUYS ON HORSES” (MARIA)
We arrived at the perfect time for the ‘Changing of the Horse Guard,’ which is a million times better than Ottawa’s mere ‘Changing of the Guard’ because they are on horses and have swords and helmets. The rain arrived once again but was mixed with refreshing sunshine.
We visited Buckingham Palace (smaller than I imagined) and while looking for a trash bin (it seriously took us an hour to find one) I dropped my cup in the street while dashing across the road to make the light when a motorcyclist revs his bike and yells:Pick it up!
And so I awkwardly dash back into the middle of the street as the light goes green, grab my cup, and dash out of the way of that same cyclist-who is now mad I am in his way on a green light-and I look like a double fool.*
- A double fool is one who has appeared foolish and is then quickly made to appear foolish again.
LONDON FAREWELL
As we prepared to leave London for the British countryside and the King’s Lodge, we got to spend the last afternoon with our old YWAM friends, Froydis and Chris. We visited the British Museum, the British Library and had some nice coffee chats and a prayer for our travels. It had been eight years since last seeing these fine folks and it felt like we never left. Hopefully it’s not another eight years before we meet again! Good times had by all.
Next Post: Our old YWAM base where Maria and I met on DTS in 2008, a random visit to a random British town, and the end of our time in England!
