Monday, 16 October 2017

Lingfield Train Station

London!!! Elder Wallace and I got to go to London with Marjorie and Tyler. Thank you President Gubler. We are trying to keep the Mission rules and grateful we were permitted to go. We took the train from Lingfield station and traveled to Victoria Station in London. We were on the train at 9:20 am. Exciting and ready for our adventures in London. I just want to pinch myself thinking I was in here.

Tyler, Marjorie, Clark and I ready for the adventures
that London has for us to see.

Victory Station is massive. Many platforms and trains venues to figure out. People everywhere. I depended on Tyler in helping us find our way around. He has a great sense of direction. One of the first things we saw was the theater for 'Wicked'. We stopped and bought discounted tickets. We saved about 50 pounds per ticket. Our first tour was Westminster Abbey. The Corbetts had received a year pass and gave it to us. Thank You Corbetts!!! We could see Big Ben, the city clock as we walked to Westminster Abby. It is closed for the next four years and had scaffolding all around it. The London Eye was visible in the distance. Westminster Abby is one of the world's great churches, with a history stretching back over a thousand years. The Abby has been the Coronation church since 1066, and the setting for many other great events in the life of the nation, including sixteen royal weddings. It is the burial place of kings and queens, and other distinguished figures in the nation's history, from writers and musicians to politicians and scientists. We had a self guided tour with a radio which made the tour so interesting.

We wanted to see Hyde Park and see the England Mission office, church and visitors center. I was a little surprised because I wasn't expecting it. I was thinking we would see one of the first and oldest church of the church. It did not look like any church I have seen. It looks like an office building and has 4 floors. The 3rd floor is the England Mission office and the main floor is the Visitors Center with a chapel and gym on the same floor. The 1st & 2nd floor must have the other ward meeting rooms. Something interesting in England is the main floor of any building is the 0 floor. The first floor is our 2nd floor in USA. We meet the office staff and talked shop and visited with a senior couple in the Visitor Center. I know there must be a story behind the church being in Hyde Park. Will research it out! We found an upscale place for lunch called Eastside. Tyler and I had soup and a roll and Marjorie and Dad had sandwiches. The food was delicious and nice to sit for a few minutes.We knew we were going to have dinner later so we didn't want to eat a heavy lunch. We came out of the pub experience an orange glow and almost duck at 2 pm and the wind blowing. It was strange just like when we experienced the solar eclipse in Utah. Found out later it was the hurricane that hit Scotland and blew sands making the orange look in the sky. We are getting good at riding the train system. We went to see and shop at Harrods, a famous shopping mall in London. It has anything you want to buy. Marjorie & Tyler bought a few things for Christmas and two books. I bought a book. We saw a TV that is flat like a mirror and could hang on your wall and use WiFi to connect with it. You can put a picture of a painting on the TV and could double as a picture. Buckingham Palace was our next stop. I was impressed with the gold and black gate around the palace. I was surprised that there weren't more flowers. It was cloudy and I couldn't get a good picture of the Buckingham Palace so I copy and pasted one.

We set out to find a place to eat. We tried to eat Indian food but the place was closed. We found found a pub called Bag O' Nails. Sorry - No pictures. We ordered a shared meal with two sliders, two fish sticks, sausages, chips and sauces to go with the different meat. I love food in England. Another interesting thing is the English don't salt their food very much. I usually don't salt and pepper food much but I do here.

"Wicked" was Wonderful. I loved it as much the second time and the first time in Chicago. Amazing performances and talented and gifted actors and actresses. The end of a wonderful day and a goal come true.