Saturday and Sunday, August 4th - 5th

My parents arrived the morning of August 4th, and we met them at Starbucks on Villiers Street, just outside Charing Cross Station. After a bit of inertia, we finally managed to get lunch and sat down to eat in the park on Villiers Street. Lunch wasn't anything particularly exciting - sandwiches for us, bagels for the kids, some fruit. Interestingly enough, while we were on Villiers Street, we saw two guys taking pictures of themselves in front of the PwC offices there. I'm not really sure what was going on, if they were enthusiastic PwC employees, wanna-be PwC employees, or just confused tourists. (Those offices aren't my normal offices, although I do work there about once a week or so.)

We then headed off to the Tower of London. This was one of those "must-see's" that I had been holding back on, as I figured other people would want to see it as well. We took the Beefeater guided tour, and yes that's a real Beefeater - apparently, to be able to do the tours you have to have twenty-some odd years of experience in the military, have achieved a certain rank, and be dismissed with a satisfactory record. At any rate, he took us around, showed us some of the sights, and told us some of the history of the Tower, which was built in 1078 by William the Conqueror. After the tour, we got in the queue for the Crown Jewels. As with many of the historical sites and treasures here, no photography was allowed. However, once you're in, you can circle around and look at the Crown Jewels as many times as you like. Maggie was particularly struck by all the glittering diamonds. All I can say is that I hope she marries rich. She kept saying, "Wow. Pretty!" Afterwards, we wandered the courtyard for a bit, although not for too long, as we decided to try and catch Evensong at St. Paul's.

We ended up rushing across town, making it to the service just in time. Partly my fault, as I went the long way around when coming out of the Tube station. St. Paul's is as beautiful as ever, although the service was spoken this time, and not sung. I'll have to remember to check the website in the future for whether or not they sing in the service. It's just a different experience altogether when they sing. Still, it was enjoyable. I suggested to my dad that he take some ideas back for incorporation into Faith's building project.

My parents had made a few comments about the fact that they had to wake up at 4:00 am to arrive in London, so after St. Paul's we decided to call it a day. We rode the train back to Merstham, while my mom and I went into Redhill and got some groceries. Other than Sunday, which was generally a day of lazing around, this was by far our shortest day.

Sunday, as I said, was fairly uneventful. We went to the little local Baptist church in the morning, and then came back for lunch. Dalton, my dad and I went to the station to drop off our recyclable glass, while Michelle, my mom and Maggie went walking down Orpin Road (a nearby street) for Michelle to show the quaint little houses and their gardens to my mom. Afterwards, one of our neighbors offered to take them to Fanny's Farm for tea, so they went and had tea and scones, while the men folk hung out at the house. And that was that - we had dinner that evening, and then went to bed.