Family, Fun and Fireworks

The last three days in London have been a blur. On December 31 we got up and headed to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard. It turns out that lots of other people had the same plan. We stood for over 90 minutes waiting for the 40 minute event to take place.

We rested in the afternoon because Brett was 100% committed to bringing in the New Year at the London fireworks. When we arrived they already had enough people at that location and they had blocked off access. We hurried up the street looking for a way to the embankment. We finally found a place to stand. It was 9:30 p.m. We did everything we could to keep ourselves entertained

for 2 1/2 hours. Brett told us that the London fireworks were out of this world but his words had not prepared us for the all out show. It was worth the wait. The trip home was

almost as eventful as the fireworks show.

On New Year's Day we went to Westminster Abbey for Evensong. On the way we ran into London's New Year's Day parade. It is no Rose Parade! My favorite float was the Alice in Wonderland float created on a trash truck. I was so glad to go to Evensong. It is so very different from the non-liturgical Church of the Brethren. It looked likes lots of tourists go to Evensong to avoid paying the money to visit the cathedral. One man in the row behind us fell asleep during the middle of the service and fell out of his chair. In the evening we went to see Billy Elliot.

Today we visited the Tower of London. We saw the Crown Jewels and saw endless amounts of armor. We even tried on a bit of it. We could have spent more hours there. Then we visited the Tate Modern. I enjoyed the Andy Warhol exhibit and the view of St. Paul's Cathedral from the balcony. There were all kinds of tube closures for repairs. It made for a very difficult day of traveling through the city. By the time we got back to our hotel we fell asleep immediately. Brett still had his coat on.

Tomorrow we are taking a train to Norwich to see Brett's University and home.