OUR DAY IN LONDON

Big Ben (above) and Trafalgar Square (below)

We witnessed a "tender mercy" this morning as we boarded the shuttle to take us to the train station where we would catch the Eurostar to London. A young Japanese couple were the only others in our group. He spoke limited English and no French. Our tour guide spoke English and French. Bob noticed that the Japanese couple didn't understand the instructions, so he asked them in Japanese, and everyone was relieved to have the "missing link" in the communication. We looked out for them during the entire trip, and it was nice to have a connection with them. I was even able to show them the stamp in my passport that says, "Narita" (Japan), and compare the train station to the "eki" in Japan. In fact, the Eurostar reminded me of the Shinkansen (bullet train) we had taken in Japan. We enjoyed seeing little villages as we left the French countryside. A small church with a steeple was at the center and was surrounded by small houses. I saw it multiple times. It served as proof that God is at the center of their lives.

We loved London! It seems to be a great mix of old and new. The streets are more wide and open, and the architecture is beautiful. I noticed a lot of stone sculptures on the buildings and was reminded of the stone carvings on many of our temples, such as sunstones, stars, etc. Our ancestors came from England, and perhaps learned and appreciated the stone work of their home land.

We "hopped off" our bus tour at Buckingham Palace just in time to witness the changing of the guards, which is a long, belabored process, and not as precise as the West Point drills, I might add. We later discovered that this only happens once every two days, so we were very fortunate to witness it at all. The palace, as well as Big Ben, Westminster Abby, London Bridge, Tower of London, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge, and Trafalgar Square were all spectacular. The tour buses did a great job of telling us about the sites. We also enjoyed a Thames River Cruise, which gave us a better view of some of the sites.
Parliment. Notice our coats; it was rainy and cold the entire day.
St Paul's Cathedral
Bob by an interesting phone booth
We had English Fish and Chips with vinegar at the "Sherlock Holmes" pub, and dinner at the "Slug and Lettuce" pub. Both were cultural experiences and the food was delicious. I've never seen so many different types of beer, though!

Our train back to Paris pulled in at 11:30 PM, and we had planned to get a taxi since we hadn't yet tried the metro station. However, the lines for taxis were hours long, so we decided to be adventurous and try the metro. The man at the ticket counter told us which trains to take, and I had asked the hotel person which metro station was closest (Grandes Boulevard). We did great until we emerged from the metro station and discovered that there were at least five exit/entrances to the Grandes Boulevard metro station! We tried several routes to get home, and when we found another Best Western hotel, we went in and got directions to ours. (I had picked up a brochure with our hotel address and small map, but they didn't include all of the smaller streets, and street signs are sparse.) In the four days we were in Paris, we never did walk out of the correct station exit to go directly to our hotel!

I want to mention another sweet experience we had on our last flight to Paris. We sat by a very nice French gentleman, who spoke perfect English--so perfect that I thought he was from the United States. He told us about his two little girls, ages 18 months and 3 years and how the three-year old loves to sing and memorizes songs so quickly. I gave him a pass-along card and told him about the Children's Songbook and the wonderful songs it contains about families and nature, etc. He knew about Mormons, but asked a few questions about the missionary program. He also helped us with a few French words, places and customs. Those two hours flew by--no pun intended!