London with friends from all over the world.

On Saturday, we (as in Janice, Lisa, Doug, Kevin and I) took the morning coach to London. Lisa and Janice have never been to England before, Kevin and I spent almost a week sight seeing and Doug, well, he lives about an hour away.


Straight away we went to St. Pancras, not St. pancreas, to see platform 9 3/4 from Harry Potter at King's Cross station. 

Then we went to the world's first official 2012 London Olympic Shop.

We walked to the British library where the original hand written Alice in Wonderland, Guttenburg Bible, Jane Austen's writing desk and the Canterbury Tales are displayed. Last time, the Beowulf and Sir Gwain and the Green knight were on display but Kevin and I were really excited to see that Chaucer's Canterbury Tales had replaced them. I mean, we are living in Canterbury and the name of this blog kinda hints at the 600 year old work too.  Sadly, taking pictures are not allowed in the library.


Then we hit the big four: Big Ben, London Eye, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey which all happen to be right next to each other. Great for us. 

Westminster Abbey

Parliament

In front of Parliament.

Notice the raccoon hat. 

Onto Buckingham Palace where we hunted for the queen. She wasn't in. 


In London's biggest park, Hyde Park, there was a Christmas event called Winter Wonderland. Imagine a country fair except Christmas themed, complete with a santa land, the world's tallest, portable free falling tower (perhaps the world's most unsafe free falling tower. Drop Zone shouldn't be portable) and Christmas trees all over. 

That's essentially Winter Wonderland. Since, I don't have Thanksgiving this year, this really put me into the holiday spirit. Christmas music, here I come. 

The next morning, we went to the church, Hillsong London. Hillsong is a mega church based in Australia with thousands upon thousands of members. We were so excited to attend their campus in London which meets in the Dominion Theatre. The service was packed with about a hundred greeters and many people singing on stage. Everyone was so friendly; I guess carrying giant backpacks made up stick out as Christian tourists. Oh well. 

Sadly, our friends had to go back to Spain/Canterbury so Kevin and I were able to do some more exploring of this great city. We traveled to the tower bridge and saw it lit up which was pretty amazing.

That night we were able to connect with another UCSD friend, Miles, who is studying at King's college in London. He let us crash in his room that night because we were going to pick up Shelty from the airport the next morning!!!!


Here's some background on Shelty. Her real name is Chelsea. She loves Jesus, chocolate and then friends and family. We've been friends since junior high. She goes to school at Uni of Nebraska Lincoln.


I still am in shock that she is here in England with us. We joked this summer about how fun it would be if she visited but we had to stop ourselves because it sounded so amazing. Then about two months ago, we actually started to talk about it and it became a reality.


She arrived at Heathrow at 7:30am then we had a full, London day planned ahead. She made it all the way through without collapsing from jet lag. We did alot of what we showed Janice and Lisa on Saturday though we did mix up the order. Kevin and I are thinking of being London-in-a-day tour guides someday. 


We started with hearty English breakfast of sausage, egg, bacon, chips, and toast. Breakfast of champions. Then we walked toward Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, and the London Eye. 

Next was Trafalgar square and the National Gallery. 

Then to St. Pancras to see King's Cross, Olympic store and British Library. Then to the British museum. Keep in mind that she only slept for a couple hours on the plane and we have beein going this whole time. I guess her lack of sleep caught up with where when she said "Where's the Easter eggs and Easter bunny?" when she was talking about the Easter Island statue. I guess it could have been worse. Thai food for lunch: laksa and tom kha soup. Delish.


Then we walked to Oxford street, one of the famous shopping areas in London. Onwards to Buckingham Palace. The queen was in today. Her flag replaced the normal union jack flag.

Finally we walked around Hyde park and the Winter Wonderland before catching the coach to Canterbury.

After showering and a carby meal of pancetta mac 'n' cheese, we hit the hay. After this blog post, of course.