London outside the screen

I'm back to playing catch up again as I am already back in the USA, but I still have to let everyone know about my incredible trip to England with my mom. Then, I will finish up this blog with thoughts on my semester and on my return to the US. 

On May 1, my mom joined me in Berlin where I showed her around for two days. On May 4, at 7:30AM, we hopped on a Lufthansa flight that would take us to London, England.

As far back as I can remember, England has been a place of myth and legend in my mind. What I knew about England I knew from reading in novels and history book, or from watching BBC movies and TV shows. Since I was 16 I have obsessively been into Jane Austen's books and movie adaptations, as well as most other period dramas. My obsession with Doctor Who had given me a taste of modern England, and researching for my novel, which is based on Roman Britannia, gave me a taste for the more ancient history. It was unbelievable to finally be stepping foot in a country I knew so much about, only to find it different than I had ever expected.

Our first two days were spent primarily wandering the London streets, strolling through Hyde Park and St. James's, and meandering along the Thames.

Flowers in front of our hotel by Paddington Station

One of the Queen's swans in Hyde Park

Weeping willow in St. James's Park

Buckingham Palace

Big Ben in the distance

Big Ben!

Westminster Palace that Big Ben is part of.

Me in front of the Eye

221B Baker St. - the famous address of Sherlock Holmes. There is a Sherlock Holmes museum here now.

Below is pictured St. Paul's cathedral which mom is standing in front of. This is where Kings and Queens have been crowned and where the royal weddings take place, most recently the highly televised wedding of William and Kate.

But apparently they don't have this one. (I also got to watch Doctor Who LIVE on  BBC One on Saturday night!!!)

The Globe Theater, Shakespeare's original theater (rebuilt)

Tower Bridge - It was the only bridge in London not destroyed in WWII because German pilots used it as a landmark.

Tower of London

Adorable pigeons bathing in a fountain!

For the Harry Potter fans!

HMS Belfast was a battleship in WWII and has been open to visitors since the  1970s.

 I did a lot of theater in high school, and so we could not go to Londond without going to see a show. We were in the fourth to last row in the theater to see Wicked, but it was completely worth it.

On Monday we attempted to visit the British library but it was closed. That was possibly the saddest moment of my life, because, being an English major, English literature excites me more than most things in life. We were, however, able to return on Friday during our one day return visit to London, and I basically cried my way through the exhibit it was so good. The library had on display the oldest surviving copy of Beowulf, writing in Jane Austen's hand, as well as Wordsworth's, Oscar Wilde's, Napoleon's, and Ben Jonson's, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Magna Carta, the Lindisfarne Gospels, as well as the oldest extant copy of the New Testament. That was hands down the most incredible thing I experienced in London.

We also visited the British Museum where I was able to view the Sutton Hoo mask, another priceless artifact that I had known about for years but never seen for myself. 

Sutton Hoo mask - circa 650AD

And, of course, we could not miss our on fish and chips, which we ate at Dickens's Tavern.

On Sunday evening, mom and I took the Underground out to Hounslow, a poorer and more ethnic area of London. Mom's friend Rosemarie had helped to start a church for Indian people who had immigrated to London, and we participated in worshiping Jesus in Hindi (the language of India). Afterward, we joined in a time of fellowship eating good, homemade Indian food. We met an incredible young woman named Sarita who shared her testimony with us and showed us the charity shop she worked in that the church had started for the people in Hounslow. It was wonderful to get away from the touristy part of London and experience something completely different. It was incredible to see how God was working in the lives of the people of this church.

After three lovely days in London we headed off with our bags to London Waterloo station to take a train to meet our friends from Bristol who we were going to stay with for three days. London was nothing like I expected, but, at the same time, it was everything I expected. Now I will know what to picture when I read any of those books set in London.

Mom with our bags in the Waterloo station as we wait to catch our train to Bristol.