London

While we were in England, we got to go into London and have a short visit. We went with Kaye Jonda and her two grandchildren Jon, and Liesle. We took a 10 minute taxi ride from the temple to Lingfield Station. We arrived at Victoria Station about 40 minutes later. The station is huge. There are thousands of people rushing to and fro. London also has hundreds and hundreds of taxis. One really smart thing they do is they have queues. That is, they have places bared off where people line up. The taxis also line up and then riders and taxis are paired up. It's very convenient.

After we arrived at the station we stopped and had lunch which we ate at a little park. We ate a typical English Pastie. This looks like a turnover, but instead of fruit, it is filled with various fillings. Ours was the traditional meat, potato, and carrot with sauce. It was good, but I like piroshki better. Of course, that's what I'm used to.

After lunch we walked across the street and went to the Apollo Victoria Theatre where we saw Wicked. I loved the performance. It was soooooooo good. I loved all of the costumes, the sets, the music, the singing, the acting, the story and well, everything. It was such a great show. The only thing I didn't like was that some parts were too loud. Other than that, it was outstanding.

It was so cool to see Wicked in London.


The following day we went back into London, this time with the addition of Kaye's husband Pierre. We had just a few hours to look around London town. We saw some of the famous sights like Big Ben, London Bridge, the Houses of Parliament, Scotland Yard, the London Eye, Kensington Palace, Windsor Cathedral, and a few others. We had a very short and very incomplete tour of the Tower of London. All of the following pictures are at the Tower of London. I was surprised to see that it is huge and not just on tower. In fact, there are many towers there.

A Beefeater walking with a worker.

Some of the modern buildings seen across the river.

This is a huge cage that houses quite a few Ravens. Legend has it that if the ravens leave the Tower of London, the White Tower will crumble and a great disaster will befall England.

I enjoyed seeing some of the crown jewels of England. Although our time in London was so short because of commitments to temple work, I was glad to be able to have this little quick glimpse of the city.