A Matter of Time

Well, it is with some irony that I am getting to my first post as we are preparing to leave London. I have been having a difficult time getting my internet to work and in addition, have not had much down time.

We arrived in London on Tuesday morning and headed straight to the hostel for a short nap. Before falling asleep, we set the alarm. I had set my watch for Amsterdam time but could not remember if I had changed it back the one hour. Sure enough, it was an hour off of the ipad so we set the alarm so we would wake up in plenty of time to meet Kayla at 5:30 for dinner.

Imagine my surprise when we arrived at 5:20 and she said, "about time!" Apparently I had set the watch back and the ipad did not have the right time as I did not realize it was not connected to the internet. So, lesson learned, right?

Well, not quite. That night I woke up at 3:15 with a little anxiety about whether we had changed the alarm clock to the correct time since we had an early (and expensive) morning tour that I did not want to miss. So turning on my little light, I checked the watch and then checked the alarm. Unfortunately, they were an hour off. So, had we actually changed the watch? Was it the alarm clock that was off. Meg and I decided to see which one was different from the ipad and come to find out, they both were!!! (Still no internet) So, I got dressed, went down to the lobby to double check the time. The watch was correct, the alarm was not. Thank you guardian angel for waking me, but it might of been better overall if you had swept away my foggy brain. Jet lag is not pretty! (and yes, I am blaming it. And for the fact that the shirt I put on to go downstairs was inside out. Yep. Classy.)

Our day tour was very good. We started at Windsor castle which was nice, but I kept thinking that if you have seen one spoiled monarch's home, then you have seen them all-- and Louis XIV had them all beat with Versaille!

Next was Stonehenge, which I had low expectations for. I had seen the pictures that showed how far away you had to stand behind the ropes from the stones. Instead I was very pleasantly surprised. We were quite close to the stones and although I would have preferred to walk among them, I was still very impressed and pleased. It is definitely more majestic in person.

Our last stop was in the city of Bath. It was quite pretty. We toured the old Roman baths which were really neat to get to see. When they "re-did" the town a couple of hundred years ago, they used and rebuilt the new baths over the old one. Today you cannot get in them, but they were still very beautiful.

Lastly, because Megan was feeling a little peaked, we went up to the Pump Room to partake of the healing waters. Our guide said that they tasted awful but to me, they just tasted like warm mineral water. Unfortunately there was no immediate cure, but she has slowly recovered the last few days and I feel certain it was a direct result of our sips of water. :~)

The next day we slept in a bit (as the cure had not kicked in yet) and then went to St. Paul's Cathedral. Can I say, "WOW!" It is magnificent. We had not been able to see it during our last visit to London, as it was closed for repairs, and I am especially glad we got to see it this time. They offered an audio guide tour, which we did, and it was very informative. Then we climbed 530 some stairs to the the balcony that goes around the outside of the dome. The view was beautiful. The dome is 365 ft. tall, one foot for each day of the year. The church was built by Christopher Wren and considered his masterpiece. I agree.

I lit a candle for Lori as she is always lighting candles for me and for my family....then I realized it was not a Catholic church but Anglican. I think I got confused because was so intricated than therefore looked like a Catholic church and they were serving the Eucharist. But I think the candle should still count! :~)

After St. Paul's we met Kayla at Westminster Cathedral. They also offered a tour and it was a lot of fun to see the tombs of so many famous people. Queen Mary and Queen ELizabeth are buried together although Elizabeth is on top and the marble figure on the tomb is only of her. Hmmmm...... Not to be outdone is the tomb of Mary, Queen of Scotts, who is buried directly across with orders by her son that her tomb should be nicer than Queen Elizabeth's. Her son was chosen to be king since Queen Elizabeth did not have children and I don't think he seemed very grateful.....

That takes us to today and we are on our way to Milano. I will try to post pictures later... so check back. :~)