Last Post From London

Well time sure does go fast as a blur sometimes. I am making a quick post before bed. Our wakeup call is at 4:00 AM. We need to be on the subway by 5:30 so that we can make our 8:00 flight out of Heathrow. We arrive in Kiev at about 1:30 PM. Kiev is about a 3.5 hr. flight from London and two timezones away.

I'll give you a quick recap of our last day here.

Our hotel serves what they call a "Full English Breakfast", which is an egg, toast, ham, bakes beans, sausage, and fruit. Definitely not low-cal fare.



The world's smallest elevator is located in London, England, in our hotel. The 3 of us barely fit into it together. When we had our luggage we had to make several trips. It is also the world's slowest elevator.

This morning we went to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. In the winter, it takes place every other day. If it rains it gets canceled altogether. They say it is because of their big fuzzy hats.

The palace is a 15-min. walk from our hotel.



The queen's flag is flying over the Palace. That means that she is there, and there are no tours of the palace allowed. Ironically, it seemed like we were the only English-speaking people in the crowd.





Afterward, we came back so that Mark could do some schoolwork and I could recharge the camera.

Later we took the bus to Westminster Abbey. We had intended to take a tour, but they were actually getting ready for a worship service called Evensong. So we went to that! It was cool. I think it is my highlight of our time in Londom. It is hard to describe, I will only say that the choir was wonderful. It was an intimiate service, which is remarkable considering the setting. It was very fascinating seeing the sepulchres located right in the walls of the church on all sides. We saw some that went back to the 1500's. There were no pictures allowed or I would show you.



The service laster an hour. Afterword, we went down to Parliament and saw Big Ben.



Then we crossed over the Thames and went to over by the London Eye. It is an emourmous Ferris wheel like think. But do not call it that they do not like it. The "cars" are enclosed gondolas. The wheel takes an hour for one revolution and it never stops, even while getting on and off.

Well need to go we have an early flight.