re. blogging from home

Hi everyone,

Well, home at last! It's been a week and I am still recovering, from jetlag and a weekend wedding in Queensland!

Just to catch up with all that Lyndal and I did since my last blog - in Bristol and in London and also I realise looking back on my blogs, I didn't even tell you about our time on PEI!

First to PEI - where Lyndal and I flew after we left Glenn in Toronto. It was really a wonderful experience to see all the well known sights to those who have read the "Anne of Green Gables" series. We saw all the places L. M. Montgomery was associated with that were used in her novels. We spent 2 nights here then flew out to New York and on to England.

Bristol - we had a wonderful 3 days with Narelle. She borrowed a friend's car and drove us on Saturday to Bath, which I had been to but Lyndal hadn't. We had morning tea in the Pump Room, not a cream tea, unfortunately, but still very nice. Later, we went on to Laycock, a very interesting National Trust village used as the village of Meriton, in "Pride and Prejudice", for all you Jane Austen buffs. Then we went a bit further north to a village called Luckington, where Narelle had discovered the house used for filming in "Pride and Prejudice". Next day we went to church with Narelle, which was really a great time of fellowship with other Christians. Then, we went down to the docks area of Bristol for lunch at a nice pub, then walked round to the SS "Great Britain". What a fascinating ship that has been so well restored (spent about 2 hours here).

Next morning Lyndal and I caught a taxi to take us to the Bus station to catch the London bus at 11 a.m. Got to London at 2:00 p.m. Had to catch the underground from Victoria to Gloucester Rd., which was a nightmare - lugging a heavy suitcase up and down stairs and then when we got to our appartment we found that our room was on the top floor, up 4 flights of stairs! We did some food shopping as our appt. had cooking facilities, but got take-away Indian as we were too exhausted to cook!


Next morning it was raining so we decided to do some indoor things. We walked to the V. & A. Museum which was just 2 blocks up the main road, then walked another 2 blocks to Harrods and had some retail therapy there! Really creepy shrine to Princess Diana and Dodi Fayad on the 1st floor near the escalators - lots of people looking at this. Had a late lunch then back to our appt. for a rest and some toasted sandwiches for tea.


We bought tickets on the "Big Bus" which had a stop round the corner from us in Gloucester Rd. So stayed on the bus till it got to the London Eye and we got off and went and queued for about an hour to get on that. Then we walked over the river and up to Trafalgar Square and then back down to Westminster Abbey, which I hadn't seen on my last visit to London in 2004. Lots of history here! Back on the "Big Bus" to Gloucester Rd. and dinner at what we thought was a fish and chip cafe but turned into a fancy restaurant at night (nice meal, though very expensive).
Next day was fine but a there was a chill in the air in the morning. Used our "Big Bus" 2 day ticket to get to Buckingham Palace to watch the Changing of the Guard. We got a really good position near the main gate where they marched out of at the end of the ceremony. After this we walked around to the Royal Mews beside the Palace and had a tour of that, then picked up the bus again to go to the Tower of London. Unfortunately we were too late for a Beefeater guided tour so we decided to come back the next day. We went on the ferry back to Westminster Bridge which was included in the price of our bus ticket. By now it was getting late so we just caught the tube back to Gloucester Road, as it would have taken too long in the bus.
On Friday we got the tube to Leicester Square to get our 1/2 price tickets for a West End show, but, as with New York we couldn't get in to see what we wanted so had to settle for "Chicago". The tickets weren't cheap either - about $90! We caught the train back to the Tower and did the tour there - had some lunch here, then back on the tube again to Oxford St. for some shopping (crowds of people here). Our show was at 4:30 so we went back to the West End for our show which was pretty disappointing. Sat next to some Aussies, though. By the time we got back to our hotel we were pretty tired, so just eggs and toast for tea and an early night.

Saturday morning was a lazy time of just doing some laundry, posting back parcels to Australia and starting to pack. After lunch we went to the National Gallery - saw some wonderful paintings there, then back to our hotel and the internet cafe to do some emailing, then had a nice meal at a local restaurant (we were really spoilt for choice in our area).

Our last day in London, and we decided to go to Hillsong church at the "Dominion" Theatre in Tottenham Court Road right near the underground station. So we did that which was good to be with other Christians in London. Back to our hotel to have some lunch then pack up and wait for our shuttle bus to take us to Heathrow airport for our 9:30 p.m. flight home.

Got home at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday - boy was it good to be back home!

That's all till next year when Glenn wants to go back to Louisville, Kentucky for the National Quartet Convention!