Recap 1

Whew! We finally made it to London, and we are having a fantastic time. I will start from the very beginning of our trip! (As I post this, it is 1:25pm London time and 7:25am USA time)

On Monday, we all met at the Jackson Airport at 10:30. After saying goodbye to our parents and Amy, we thought that we were headed out of town. Wrong! We went to our gate, and we saw that our flight had been pushed back 2 hours. We went to go find a Delta worker, and we became friends with LaToya. She informed us that there would be no flight to Memphis that day due to a mechanical issue on the plane. The best that she could do would be to put us on an American Airlines 6:20pm flight to Dallas and a 9:55 plane to London. We decided to stay in the airport in case another flight became available. Well lo and behold, the 6:20 flight was cancelled. They put us on a 7:25pm flight to Dallas with hopes that we would make our 9:55pm flight to London. Well after sitting on the plane for 30 minutes outside of the Dallas terminal, we missed our flight that night. They put us up in a Super 8 motel. It was disgusting, and I will forever hate American Airlines after all of this! We slept for 3 hours, and then headed back to the airport. After changing planes in Chicago we were finally London bound! The silver lining in all of this is two-fold: 1) we each were given 4 drink vouchers for the plane ride back; 2) we have not suffered from jet lag becuase we arrived at night in London! LaToya (our friend at Delta) emailed me to inform me that Delta would like to extend our trip by 1 day, since we missed a whole day due to their error. Yay! We are now flying back on the 20th, instead of the 19th.

When we arrived in London, it was 11:45pm. Instead of trying to figure out the bus/tube late at night, we decided to catch a taxi from the airport to our hotel. On our way to the hotel, a police escort passed by us. We like to think that we were in the presence of royalty!! :) About 30 minutes and 60 pounds later, we arrived at our hotel! It is so charming. We are staying in a section of London called Victoria. Our hotel is so cute, it is part of a white building and it has a black door and red flowers in the window flower pot. The owners are Indian, and they are very nice. We all slept great, and were ready to explore London the next day!

On Wednesday, we started our day by purchasing Oyster Cards which get us onto the Tube. We headed to St. Paul's Cathedral in East London. After that, we walked to the Tower of London. It was not at all what we expected. It was more of a castle, than an acutal tower. In the past, many executions (including Anne Boleyn) were held here. In the TofL, the crown jewels are kept! It was so much fun looking at them, and they are beautiful. We then hopped on a river cruise and headed west on the Thames River. We got off at Westminster Pier and walked across Westminster Pier. We were greeted with a jaw-dropping view of Big Ben and Parliament. After taking about a million pictures, we headed to Westminster Abbey. The line to go inside was extremely long, so we viewed it from the outside. The church was so beautiful. They still had press stands and other things set up from the wedding! We ate lunch at a pub not far from the Abbey. English food has not impressed me so far! From there we headed to Trafalgar Square where we went inside the National Gallery. Trafalgar Square reminds me of Columbus Circle in New York. We then walked to Picadilly Circus and Leicester Square. It really reminded me Times Square. It was dirty and had many different kinds of people. While here, we purchased tickets to go see Wicked!!! We then walked to Covent Garden, which we all thought was a real garden. We were slightly confused when we never came across a garden! It is just another section of London. We headed North of Covent Garden, and we really enjoyed that. We got away from the hustle and bustle, and saw a more residential area. It was very calm and peaceful. We then went to Regents Park. We loved that!! We found out later that this is where the majority of 101 Dalmations was filmed. We walked around and relaxed. We had sat down under a tree to rest for a few mintues, and when we got up Marthas' head hit a branch and broke the branch! It may not be funny to you, but it was hysterical at the time. Ha. We then headed back to our hotel to change for the night. We ate dinner at Wagamama's Noodle Place and it was delicious. We walked around Jubilee Park which is near the London Eye, Parliament, and Big Ben. To see all of those sights at night was great. We headed back to our hotel for the night!

We started off today with communion at Westminster Abbey. It was byfar one of the neatest things that I have ever done in my life. We entered through the entrance that they used for the Royal Wedding which was awesome. We saw the place where Kate and William were married, and we also saw her boquet! It was a beautiful church. They led us past all of that, to a smaller chapel to have communion. The chapel was completely made of stonework, and it was gorgeous. The service was very reverent, and it was a great way to start off the day. We then went to buy our EuroStar tickets for tomorrow so that we can go to Paris! It started raining, and that was no fun. We bought some lunch things at a small market and we carried those to Buckingham Palace. We were there to watch the changing of the guards, but they cancelled it due to the rain. We stood under a tree outside of the Palace and ate our lunch. So fun! We were soaked and freezing, so we headed back to the hotel from there.

Yesterday the weather was beautiful! Even thought it was chilly and windy, the sun was shining all day. Today has been a little different. It is freezing and wet. We are happy that we had least one beautiful day in London! I have felt this surreal feeling the whole time that we have been here because I do not feel like we are in another country! They all speak English and we can easily get around. There has been no "culture shock" yet. London reminds me a little bit of Chicago, but on a larger and grander scale. It is a city enriched in history, yet modern at the same time. It is very clean, and people seem to take pride in their city.

We have had a great time, and we can't believe that we have only been out of the country for 2 days. It seems like it has bee weeks! I am so blessed to be able to be on this trip, and it has been worth every penny spent. Tonight we are going to see Wicked, and I can't wait. Martha and I have seen it on Broadway, but Bekah hasn't seen it yet. She knows all of the songs because I sing/play them all the time!

We are headed to Paris in the morning, and I will update you as soon as possible! Thank you for praying for our traveling and safety. Please continue to pray that the Lord would put His angels above us! I have a cold, so I hope that goes away quickly. We can all praise God because my back has done great this trip!!! It has only bothered me a little bit, and I am in the least amount of pain that I have had in months. God is good!!!

(sorry for any typo's or incorrect grammar...i'm not editing this bec
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Kristin Anne Stentiford