3 November 2019
Hi everybody!
Dad conducted in Sacrament meeting today; he always does such a nice job. This afternoon I took a nap, which isn't unusual for a Sunday afternoon. I really enjoyed the Come, Follow Me lesson this week. It was fun to be reading in 2nd Timothy and find out that Timothy's grandmother's name was the same as Shelby's middle name! See 2 Timothy 1:5.
Not really a whole lot going on around here, the weather is warmer than last week, and I'm enjoying that. Dad's foot is still pretty bad. Tomorrow he's going to try crutches, to see if taking weight off the foot even more than with a cane, will help. I really think it will make a difference.
Last week, October 25th, was the 60th anniversary of when Gran and Granddad joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was about 19 months old at the time. Gran shared her journal entry with me that she wrote this week. I'll include a picture of it. I shared it with all my sibs too.
Love you all, hope you have a wonderful week.
Mom/Johanna/Nana
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More from our trip journals.
Sunday 10-13-19: This morning it's nice outside and not raining as we get ready for church. I decided to book an Uber ride to church since we wanted to be sure to be on time. The driver was very nice and drove us around the west end of Hyde Park which we hadn't seen yet and to avoid traffic. The heavy traffic today is due to a marathon race that's being run around the city and parts of Hyde Park. It's a huge event with thousands of runners, so many of the streets are closed for the morning. We attended the Hyde Park 2nd Ward sacrament meeting. We did make it on time and one of the members of the bishopric welcomed us. There were 3 speakers. The first was a sister missionary from Germany I think. Then another missionary from Africa spoke. The concluding speaker was the ward missionary. He is from the United States and is living there with his family which is a fairly common occurrence. One of the most memorable parts of the meeting for me was listening to the brothers as they blessed the sacrament. They didn't have any youth age priests in attendance so they were both older men. The first was an Asian looking man and his accent combined both British and Asian so it was interesting. The second brother was even older and had a wonderful speaking voice. I noticed Joseph react to how he spoke and when he finished blessing the water Joseph leaned over to me and whispered that he sounded like a combination of Morgan Freeman and Magneto, who is a character played by Sir Ian McKellan. His description was very accurate! The chapel is a bit different from most that I've seen. They have a second-floor room with windows at the back of the room sort of like a balcony that people can sit in as well. Also, instead of the typical accordion-style partition wall at the back of the chapel, they have a panel style operable wall along the whole side of the room that would open up into the gym/cultural hall. The building has an upper level as well as a basement which was very impressive to Joseph. The building footprint would definitely not work for the type of floorplan we have in our ward building. On the way out we spoke with a couple that was there with their daughter whom they had just picked up from her mission in Africa. They were on the way home to Arizona. We also met a group of sisters (family, not missionaries) that were all on vacation together. One was from Denver and another lives in the Boise area.
As we left the church we walked north towards Hyde Park and found a bike station since the weather was still nice. We tried to ride in the park but the race was still going on and they had everything blocked off so we cycled on the street back towards the river where we planned to meet Collin and Brittany. Along the way, we lucked out and were able to ride in the streets that were still closed to cars, but all the runners had passed by. So we rode bikes past Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, and New Scotland Yard.
Joseph riding along St. James Park enjoying the closed streets. And Ben at Big Ben.
London Eye and New Scotland Yard.
We parked our bikes directly across the river from the London Eye and found Collin and Brittany at a pub called Pub on the Thames. It's a big boat that's a restaurant and pub. We got our tickets to ride the river cruise boat to the east end of London to see some places we'd not been to yet. There was a street vendor right next to the dock that had cheeseburgers for sale and Joseph was ready to eat. The nice lady running it only took cash so we went back into the Tube station to exchange some money since we hadn't done that yet. Very good burger according to Joseph. The rest of us had lunch from the snack bar on the boat. On the boat ride, we sat next to two couples that were from the US also. They had lots of good travel tips and we shared some of ours with them also. They were very interested in the details of how to get to Abbey Road and we were happy to give them directions since we'd become so familiar with the area. The boat was full of people and the windows were fogged up so it was hard to see the sites outside very well. And of course, it was raining so we didn't go to the upper deck. It was nice to sit for a bit and talk. The people we were sitting with had just come from Paris so they had lots to say about that when they heard we were heading there also. We boarded the boat at Westminster Pier and departed at Tower Millenium Pier which is right next to the Tower of London. So that is where we went next. The whole area is amazing, and it's not just one tower. It's more of a castle or fortress with the original tower in the center. Other buildings surround it and the walls are incredibly thick! One of the first things we noticed is these animal statues that are made of wire mesh. Very impressive works of art. We decided to go see the Crown Jewels first in case the line was very long. As we walked towards that part of the fort we stopped to watch the guards changing positions. As we were standing there the guard that was leaving kicked a button that had fallen off of his or one of the other guard's uniforms. The button rolled all the way towards the crowd and past the barricade. It stopped just to the side of where Lynsey and I were standing and no one but me noticed it. So, I waited a few seconds to see if the guard would do anything and when he didn't I reached down and picked it up!! The new guard that had just taken the post was looking right at me, but he didn't react at all. So, I put it in my pocket and I consider that the best souvenir anyone could ask for. Then in the line to go in we stood behind a lady and her daughters that were from Indiana. That came up quickly because I was wearing my hat from the Indy 500 racetrack and she asked if we were from Indy also. The wait wasn't too bad and we saw all the crown jewels that were on display. Some items were out for use and other reasons. So much gold!! It is incredible how many valuables the royal family has. No one is allowed to take photos in there so we can't share what we saw in that way. We walked around the tower area a little more and admired all the buildings and sculptures.
Tower Bridge from the water and the Tower of London.
Wire mesh animals guarding The Tower of London and a guard that looks like a wax dummy, but is a real person and is now missing a button.
The line to see the Crown Jewels and the entrance.
Our next stop is Tower Bridge so we exited the Tower of London grounds on the south side next to the river and walked to the bridge. The crowds at Tower Bridge are big so when we were given the option to take the stairs in the north tower to the upper level we were happy to do that and avoid the line for the elevator. It's a lot of stairs (206 steps), but I'm still happy we opted for that since we could see much more of the structure that way. Across the upper deck, there are sections of the floor that are glass and we could walk across and take pictures of the roadway and river down below. It's a bit scary walking on the glass that high up, but they built it to handle the weight of six elephants so we figured we're fine. There was a sign that made that statement about the elephants. The glass is about 6 inches thick and only about 10 people can fit on each section at a time. We took some fun pictures and enjoyed the view of everything from up there for a while before going back down the 206 steps on the south tower.
Walking onto Tower Bridge, Joseph posing on the glass floor, and Brittany, Lynsey, and me using the mirrored ceiling to get a picture of the glass floor. Collin was not interested in standing on the glass floor.
Continuing across to the south we walked towards "The Shard" it's the tallest structure in London and was the tallest in Europe until just a few years ago. The top is somewhat open so it looks like it's unfinished and when you get to the upper observation deck you're in the open air. It takes 2 elevators to get to the top and they are both very high speed! 35 floors each and the elevator only takes about 30 seconds. Super smooth too, you hardly feel it when it starts and stops. The highest floor we could go to was 72. You have to walk up the stairs from the 70th. The top point of the building goes up a lot higher, but it's not open to the public. The view up there is spectacular and the clouds were up higher than where we were so we could see all over the city. Lots of pictures were taken and we even saw several military-style helicopters go by at our eye level. A few of them were the Chinook model twin-rotor helicopters that look like flying school buses. The top floor of the Shard has a virtual reality ride that simulates a slide-type roller coaster that goes outside the building. Joseph took a turn on it and his favorite part was at one point you come off the slide and look down into the nothingness all the way down. It's just a gap in the track and it catches you again to finish the ride. Joseph seemed to enjoy the ride and wasn't scared at all. After we'd seen all we wanted to we got in the elevator to go back down. On the 35th floor, we were delayed a while due to some maintenance issues with the elevator to the ground level. We made it to the ground and were glad we didn't have to take the stairs down from the 35th floor.
View of The Shard from Tower Bridge and Joseph ready for the virtual reality ride.
Joseph wearing his Nike jacket from Tokyo at the top of The Shard with Tower Bridge behind him. Tower Bridge and the Tower of London from the 72nd floor of The Shard.
After exiting The Shard building we walked towards the London Bridge. It's a new bridge that isn't falling down :) and isn't the one that is in Arizona now. The next stop for us was the "London Bridge Experience" tour which is actually under the south end of the bridge. None of us knew what we were getting into when we got in line for this. The entrance is underneath an old archway that is an existing part of the London Bridge that was built in 1831. The tour is an interactive guide through 2000 years of London's gruesome history. It's completely terrible what people have done and continue to do to others that they don't agree with. Very interesting, but I don't advise taking young kids to this tour. The actors (guides) were quite good and made it pretty entertaining and interesting. Brittany was interrogated under suspicion of being a witch because she said she could swim. We ran away from Jack the Ripper and learned how they prepared people's heads to be displayed on spikes on the bridge before making it to the scary part of the tour...
The second half of the tour was actually a haunted house that runs year-round, and again not for the faint of heart. There is an option to exit before starting the haunted house and Lynsey and Brittany decided to take that exit and wait for us out in the ice cream shop. It was a fairly typical haunted house with lots of scary stuff. Joseph, Collin, and I had a great time. Some funny parts are that at one point there's a walkway with a rotating circular screen around it. You have to walk through quickly or your vision and brain start to make you think that you are actually rotating. It's just a trick, but the longer you stay in there the worse it gets. Well, the walkway is very narrow and the woman in front of me panicked and froze up. She stopped walking and held onto the railing so I couldn't keep moving forward. I tried to be nice and wait, but she wouldn't move and I really couldn't see well at that point. So I started pushing her along towards the exit. She didn't seem to mind and I think she had her eyes closed anyway. I was glad to get out of it. The other memorable part was that they had everyone line up with your hands on the shoulders of the person in front of you so that no one got separated from the group. I was behind a young couple that was very easy to scare and at a certain part, one of the people working as a scarer actually touched the woman (which they aren't supposed to do) near her waist. She screamed and broke ranks and ran away. I was the very last person in line so I was able to watch everyone as they passed through the scary parts. Being the last in line I wasn't totally in the clear though. I was followed by the scarers a few times and had to watch closely behind me. We all made it out alive and were ready to eat. We took the Tube from London Bridge station to Camden Town station and walked to Feng Shang Princess for some Chinese food. We saw some interesting people that evening as we walked through the Camden area. The food was excellent and we had the whole place almost to ourselves since most people eat dinner very late in London. We picked that place because we'd been told that Paul McCartney has been known to eat there. We didn't see him. Such a busy day today and everyone is very tired so we catch an Uber home and go to bed.
To be continued...
Love, Ben
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