England

I just spent a wonderful week in England. Russ and I had an amazing time learning about the history of Great Britian. Here are a few tidbits we gleaned from the travel books and tour guides. Please excuse the plagiarism.

It was Julius Caesar that named the island "Britannia" in 55 B.C., and approximately a century later the Romans invaded and quickly overran the English and Welch lowlands. The Romans controlled the area for some 400 years, until their troops were withdrawn during the decline of the Roman Empire. It was the Romans who planned the area that London occupies, today, using it as a hub of a roadway system stemming to both the Welch and Scottish borders.

Following the Norman invasion of England in 1066 (the battle of Hastings), the Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror, was crowned king and made London his principal residence. London became the capital of England as a result and has remained so ever since.



Our first morning we visited Westminster Abbey. It is the coronation site of all the kings and queens of England (except Edward and Edward VII). The abbey was founded in AD960 as a Benedictine monastery. On Christmas day in 1066 William the Conqueror was crowned King in the Abbey. The building houses the coronation chair, which was built in 1301 and is used during every coronation since. Many of England's sovereigns are buried here. It is where Princess Diana had her funeral, and it's most recent fame is that it was the location of Prince William and Kate's wedding. It is absolutely beautiful, with amazing stained glass windows, vaulted ceilings, and amazing arches throughout.
Next to the Abbey is "Big Ben". This bell weighs 13.5 tons and is housed in a 316 foot clock tower.



I have always wanted to see Les Miserables. I never dreamed I would get the chance to do so in London. It is an amazing musical about forgiveness, sacrifice, repentance, and standing up for what's right. The music was so touching. I've had it going through my head ever since I attended the play.

Trafalgar Square, one of the three major crossroads of London. A guide told us that the square used to be covered with pigeons. They now come and blow horns four times a day to shoo the birds, and there is a 2,000 pound fee if you are caught feeding them.
Here's a picture of the London Eye. I didn't ride it, but went past it several times. It was built in 2000 and was supposed to be taken down in 2002, but it became London's most paid for attraction and was so popular that it is now a permanent fixture.

Tower Bridge

McKay had a quiz on Longitude, Latitude, Prime Meridian, Equator etc, the week before I left. I was excited when I realized I could actually take a boat to Greenwich and stand with one foot in the Eastern Hemisphere and one in the Western Hemisphere. Greenwich was just like every Jane Austin type movie I've seen with grassy rolling hills and beautiful English Gardens everywhere. I had to hike a little to get to the Royal Observatory, but it was a magnificent view. I was thrilled to keep my promise to the kids that I would take a picture standing on the prime meridian. (I was too cheap go inside and pay to stand on the brass line, but one employee told me these cobblestones were still technically the prime meridian - so I figure longitude, is longitude, brass line or not). On the boat ride up the Thames to get to Greenwich the guide pointed out the red ball on the roof the Royal Observatory that drops everyday at 1:00pm, which the world can set it's watch by.

One of my favorite sites was the Tower of London. Much of the history of England could be written from the records of this ancient fortress.


Incredible tours were given by these Yeoman Warders, or better known as beef-eaters. Beef-eaters have been guarding the Tower since Henry VII appointed them in 1485. They still do special ceremonies with the guards to pass along the special pass word each night to the guard at the front gate. Today these yeoman still live on the grounds with their families. They have to have served in the military for at least 22 years before having this honor.
I couldn't leave the tower without seeing the Crown Jewels. The royal sceptre, contains the earth's largest cut diamond, the 530 carat Star of Africa. The crowns and other regalia used in all coronation ceremonies were also on display, the silver spoon still used today to pour the holy oil dated back to the 1300's.
The legend says that if ever the ravens leave the tower the Kingdom will fall. In times past, young boys would be paid to feed the birds and make sure they stayed around. Now one of the Yeoman is the ravenmaster who makes sure there are always at least 6 ravens on the premise. They now clip their wings, and have some extra on reserve, to make sure they take no chances.
Most of the executions took place on a hill outside the fortress, but a select few (seven to be exact) were privileged to be beheaded inside the walls on tower green. Here is a monument to those seven, who include Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, two of Henry VIII's wives, and Lady Jane Gray, the nine day queen who was only 17 years old.

Here is the British Museum. We had just a few minutes before we headed North, so stopped by just long enough to get a glimpse of the Rosetta stone. The stone was carved in 196 BC with a decree in three languages, Egyptian hieroglyphics, Egyptian Demotic (a cursive Egyptian script) and Greek. When the stone was found in 1753 it became the key to deciphering hieroglyphics. I'm not sure why we didn't take a picture of the stone. It may be there was a glare on the glass.

I loved all the window boxes and beautiful gardens and parks. It was just as I had imagined. The weather was perfect, a little rain and mist just to remind us we were in England. Our hotel was near Hyde Park, I had fun imagining President Hinckley at Speaker's Corner, sharing the gospel as a missionary.
I couldn't resist. We enjoyed walking around Russell Square - in England you never ask for a restroom or bathroom, it's always, "Where is the toilet", all the signs say "Toilet" and if the restroom is in use it says "toilet engaged".

This is the Russell Hotel, we didn't stay here, but enjoyed walking around the area that was named after Russell.

After a quick train ride (about 3 hours) up North to Hartlepoole we were greeted by mom and dad. They drove us to the North Sea to see the waves splash on to shore.
The next day we went off to explore Raby castle. It was closed for tours that day, but we had fun walking around the grounds and exploring - and taking a gazillion pictures.

This castle was once the seat of the powerful Nevills. Charles Nevill supported Mary, queen of Scots in the 1569 uprising against Elizabeth I; when the Rising of the North failed, the estate was confiscated.




Then we were off to Barnard Castle. It is in ruins now, (partly because some of it was plundered to build Raby castle,) but is located in a small town that is quintessential English countryside. Here's a view of the Tees river.
in 1838 Charles Dickens stayed here while doing research for his novel Nicholas Nickleby.






We enjoyed some famous fish and chips and vinegar. Russ even splurged the extra 20 pence to buy me some ketchup. It's basically fried cod with french fries. Very tasty.

After exploring castles we went and toured the Bowes Museum. It is a vast French inspired chateau built in the late 1860's. John Bowes was from this area, but went to Paris to buy and manage a theater. He fell in love and married one of the leading actresses. When they found they couldn't have children, they devoted their life to building and filling this museum. We enjoyed seeing a demonstration of an extraordinary 18th -century life-size, mechanical silver swan in action. It sits on a stream of twisted glass and catches and swallows a silver fish.

While here we also learned that McKay had a little incident with a friend and been hit quite hard in the head. So I'll always remember offering prayers and calling Dr. Uncle Gene while touring and viewing the great art and artifacts of the Bowes museum. Fortunately, McKay was fine, unfortunately the Bowes both died before the museum was completed, but what a legacy to leave.



Eggleston Abbey. After King Henry VIII declared the Church of England to be the official religion of England, he raided many of the catholic abbeys and took all he could to build his own cathedrals. It was fun to imagine what this one would have looked like back in its glory days.
We enjoyed touring mom's garden area. She has a lovely sunroom that looks out onto her garden. A great place to be inspired as a missionary
We spent the next day in York. It was delightful to explore because much of the city's medieval and 18th-century architecture has survived. York was the military capital of Roman Britain. After the Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century, the Saxons built upon the ruins of the fort, but were soon defeated by the vikings who called the town Jorvik and used it as a base from which to subjugate the countryside.
(We went to a great museum that detailed the life of the vikings and re-created a 10th century viking village. It also displayed many relics found in recent archeological digs.)
The Normans came in the 11th century and emulated the Vikings by using the town as a military base.


We were looking forward to seeing York Minster, the largest medieval cathedral in England.


The cathedral is still used for services today.

Much of the ancient city wall is intact. We enjoyed walking along the paved path along the top where you can relive 1,900 years of history. The wall was crossed periodically by distinct gates or "bars". We liked to sneak a peak into some amazing "back yards" while we were up high with such a good view.


The shambles was once the city's street of butchers. It was often very dirty and unkept, hence the term "it's in shambles". Today it is a quaint street that still has a medieval feel to it.



We had a cornish beef pasty for lunch. Since the restaurant that served Yorkshire pudding didn't have any seats available, it was the next best thing.
Russ and Dad hiked up the tower of the minster for a better view.
I loved how accessible the public transportation was. I felt like a pro on the subway after a few days of navigating around London while Russ was in meetings. Before the trip was over we had ridden on a plane, a train, a subway, a double decker bus, an iconic black taxi, and best of all, a car with dad driving on the other side of the road.
I loved feeling a part of history. It seemed everywhere we went was either the hospital that Florence Nightengale trained her nurses, or the street where Sherlock Holmes fictional character resided, or the bells that Ebaneezer Scrooge complained about hearing. We saw the dock where the Mayflower docked, the home where Beatrix Potter wrote her Peter Rabbit tales etc.

I loved hearing the British accent. Some words we hope to always remember are: mind the gap, and "way out", instead of exit (terms repeated many times while getting off "the tube"), deviation ( a detour), everything was brilliant and lovely, rubbage, etc.

It was a wonderful week. I'm extremely grateful for all those who very lovingly watched our children while we were away. Knowing they were in good hands made it possible for us to enjoy a wonderful European honeymoon get-a-way even more.