LONDON FUNDON

It is early on Tuesday, and the kids and Sarah are all asleep.  I decided to come to the hotel lobby for a bit of blog catch up.  Wow, what a time we are having!  Last night, Sarah and I needed to do laundry, and so we let the kids begin the blog.  By the way, London Laundromats are not cheap:  it cost us 5 pounds for one load of clothes and then another 2 pounds to dry!  In American dollars, 2 loads of clothes set us back about $25!  Our clothes are not clean, and my wallet is much thinner!

Here is Aubrey’s take on things thus far:  “Today was a great first full day in London! My favorite part I have to say was M&M World because I’m just a kid and it’s a fact that kids love candy, especially when there  is 4 floors of all things M&Ms!  We went on a peaceful boat ride on the Thames river, which was great. We also went to the Churchill War Room which was an underground war shelter from World War 1 and 2. It was very interesting and fascinating. We saw Big Ben and the London Eye which seemed to move REALLY slow! We saw the London Bridge and went under it on the boat and it surprisingly DIDN’T fall down [which was good because I was worrying]! A great day in London and hopefully a better one tomorrow!”

Here are some of Will’s thoughts:  “London’s great!  So far we have been to two pubs: one traditional pub for our first meal in London where we all had the real deal fish and chips (with a nasty green pea mash). More about the other pub in a minute.  Then we had dinner at a place called Garfunkels and the food was ok (not great) but not bad with a milk shake that was milk with a dash of  ice cream (weird but that’s what they gave me so that’s what I ate). Now today we had a buffet breakfast at the hotel and then went on a tube ride [the tube is the subway] to get our London Passes.  The place where we were to pick them up wasn’t open, so we got to M&M World just in time for the whole staff to greet us to the hit song, “Happy” (“Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof.”  Once done there, we got our London Passes and started to tour.  Once we finished seeing the national gallery, we went to grab something  for lunch that was light but good, then we did all the Churchill War Rooms.  We had dinner and it was awesome!  We ate at a German pub and ate lots of great German food like a 350g meat ball and different sausages.  Tomorrow will be just as good or twice as good.  WILL OUT ~ LONDON RULES ~ PEACE.”

Sarah’s going to take a pass on the blog for now.  I’ll coax her into writing something later.  Here are some of my thoughts thus far!  Wain’s turn:   Hi there from the land of fish and chips, Beefeaters, royalty, and jolly good times!  We Wesberrys have moved our adventure from Iceland to the land of Great Britain.  We had quite a smooth day of travel on Sunday and got settled into our room at the Crown Plaza in London on the west side of the city.  After getting settled in, we went to a wonderful little pub about 8 minutes away where Sarah got a cider, I got a beer, and we all enjoyed real fish and chips!  Yum.  We then wandered back to our new home-away-from-home that is only blocks away from Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, and so we spend the bulk of Sunday afternoon there, enjoying the gorgeous, balmy 75 degree weather and seeing what Londoners do for the afternoon.  The park is green and vast with the smells of picnics and flowering plants, and it was lovely. 

We walked to the Speaker’s Corner where on Sunday afternoon, people come bringing their little step ladders to take a stand or preach about all kinds of topics.  I was expecting to find a cast of characters who were more like Disney actors who wore various kinds of period clothing who would give speeches and talk about things from different periods of British history.  Since there were so many things dedicated to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in the park, I thought surely someone would be doing some Victorian era bantering.  Boy was I surprised!  There were a good number of fire and brimstone street preachers telling everyone to repent or face the wrath of God.  There were agnostics and atheists arguing with them. Then there was this one man, probably in his mid 60s, a slight framed British citizen who had a large crowd around him, and he was addressing the topic of Syria and the need for new ways of thinking there.  There were many non-British and non-American people there who were shouting back at him.  This whole scene freaked out Aubrey, but Will was quite fascinated by it.  Sarah and I were as well.

Sarah and Aubrey found a bench out of the fray and the chaos, but Will and I listened for a bit until I felt like things were getting so heated that it might be best for us to find the park bench Sarah and Aubrey were enjoying.  It was difficult answering the question that came from Will, “Dad, what was that all about?”  The whole experience at the Speaker’s Corner revealed something significant to me: the people who were shouting were very passionate, but they were not in the least bit interested in who was listening to them.  The people who were listening to those on the little step ladders were not the least bit interested in listening and really hearing what was being said.  There were was disconnection on the surface, but as I wandered through the crowds near each group, I observed others talking face-to-face with one another and at least modeling a form of engagement that was more sincere. From a pure oratorical (and even homiletical) point of view, I found the Speaker’s Corner to be so intriguing and yet so sad, sad because one is led to believe the myth that genuine connections are being made there (real listening happening, problems being addressed and solved, understanding growing), and yet in reality it was all a bunch of “us” verses “them.”  

 

We then rented bikes and rode them all around the parks and found a memorial playground dedicated to the memory of Princess Diana, and the kids enjoyed time there for a bit.  A really funny thing happened there.  This tiny little girl, maybe three, manages to get away from her mommy as mommy is trying to change her.  The girl runs to a grassy area near us, squats down and tinkles right there near Aubrey, who at this point is wide eyed and about to burst in laughter.  As all of this happens, the girl’s mommy is saying, “Ohhhhh nooooo!  You have a loose bottom!  What are you doing?!  Not right here in the paaaark!”  Hilarious. 

As the day was coming to a close, we walked back to our hotel and on the way back stopped at a very special place for me: the Lord Baden Powell House which includes a large statue in memory/honor of him.  The house used to have a scouting museum but that got moved a couple of years ago.  It now has some sort of hotel with a nice little café on the ground floor that looks kind of like a student union center at a college.  I got my picture by the statue and had a wonderful time remembering so much that I experienced and learned during those wonderful years of my life.  Good times.  Great memories.  We then wrapped up the day with a supper at Garfunkyls, a little place right across the street from the hotel.  It has the feel of an Applebee’s and the food was okay—not great but okay.  We learned pretty quickly that soft drinks here are very expensive: 2.75-3.50 (pounds!).  We crashed pretty hard and slept in a bit on Monday.

Tuesday started with a wonderful British breakfast at our hotel: eggs, sausages, mushrooms, beans, grilled tomatoes, fruits, coffee, juices, and all kinds of cereals!  It was delicious and the perfect start to the day.  We took the tube down to the area to pick up our London Passes and got there before the office opened.  So to kill a few minutes, we wandered around Leicester Square and found M&M world which was colorful and exciting.  Will and I were the first to go through the doors, and we were welcomed like royalty.  It was so fun. 

Next came touring the National Galleries where we feasted our eyes upon some amazing works of art.  There were halls and rooms filled with pieces by Rembrandt, Monet, Michelangelo, and Van Gogh (just to name a few).  It was so moving and truly inspiring.  There was a moment when all of us were looking at a Rembrandt depicting a vision from God, and I got such a rich feeling that what we were doing together as a family was really, really special.  What a moment of God’s grace.  Afterwards, we enjoyed a light lunch on the steps of Martin in the Fields Church.  We toured the church afterwards and even went down to the crypts below and discovered a little chapel in honor of a priest who served there years ago.  He was a real pastor’s pastor, and the kids loved the granite communion table and some works of art from Africa in the corner of the worship space that depicted Mary and Jesus, Joseph (holding a hammer and saw), and a prophet. 

We then made our way to the Churchill War Rooms.  We had about a 30 minute wait in line, but once we got in we discovered that it was well worth the wait.  The tour includes using phone-like audio devices that are connected to each room on the tour.  There are more than 30 points of interest that have audio presentations.  It was without a doubt one of the best presentations of history I have ever experienced all centered around the strong figure of Churchill.  It took about 2 hours to go through it, and the kids stayed engaged the whole time.  Truly amazing, and gave me such gratitude for all that our “Greatest Generation” did for us in the world.

After that experience, we took a nice river cruise on the Thames and enjoyed our very own family flotilla.  We got water and snacks and enjoyed the scenery of London from the water.  It was a perfect time of relaxing.  We then wandered towards the Tower only to discover that it is closed, and so we took some time to enjoy a lovely church near there called All Hallows by the Tower.  The thing that stood out for me there was the many ways they paid tribute to people who were on the sea, sailors, those kidnapped by pirates, and those in the military.  We wandered around the streets some more and were getting hungry and cranky as the blocks passed by and the time wore on.  The kids were hanging in there the best the could, but they were about at their limit.  Just in time, we wandered upon a German Pub that lifted our spirits.  We ate sausages and schnitzels, fries and red cabbage, and it was great.  I got a Monday special that included a large pint of beer and was a happy traveler.  After eating we made our way back to the hotel for rest.  When I got back and check-in on Facebook, Josh Mitchell sent me a message.  He lives in London and wants meet up for a drink or food.  How wonderful it is to hear from him, a fellow B-L Panther from South Carolina whose family worshipped one pew in front of us for years at good old B-L Presbyterian. 

London is giving us many fantastic memories.  We are all learning and growing, and our time together as a family has been just perfectly perfect.  More adventures today!