This morning we woke up at 4:15am. I actually went to bed at 10:30pm last night and was asleep by 11pm. However, at 11:30pm Natalia knocked over an empty glass (didn’t break) and I jumped up. Wouldn’t you know that I couldn’t fall back to sleep until after 2am. Nikki picked us up at 5:15am and drove us to the train station where we took the Eurostar to France. Arriving at about 10:15am we were trying to figure out how to catch the open-top tour bus which was our only real plan for the day. Ady is so good with languages! She used her French to ask a vendor in the train station who pointed us to the street where we found the bus. It is once again hard to comprehend the price of things when doing the exchange to dollars. The dollar is so weak in London and Europe. The tour bus for the four of us for the day was 88 Euros which comes out to just under $200 in dollars. We rode the bus for a while and then took advantage of the hop-on/hop-off all day part of the tour to grab some lunch. Natalia ordered some eggs, Claudia, Ady & I all got sandwiches, and we had one bottle of water between the four of us … 50 Euros … $100 for lunch! CRAZY! We also stopped later in the day and had 2 lates, 2 hot chocolates, and one crepe … 27 Euros … about $55! INSANE!!! The only thing I can liken it to is what people from Latin America must feel like when they come to America and realize how weak their money is to the dollar. I have had to stop doing the math, get what we need, and just enjoy the cultural experience. Otherwise we wouldn’t do anything & I would be in a psych ward. The good news is that our friends in London were gracious enough to let us stay in their flat so we saved a ton of money that would have been spent on hotels. Anyways … the bus tour was absolutely incredible and worth every stinkin euro! We saw just about everything; so many incredible sites! What an awesome, historical, culturally-rich city! We took the yellow and green circuits and saw the Opera House, Musee du Louvre (cool after reading and watching the DaVinci Code), Notre Dame, St. Michel, the Trocadero, The Arc de Triomphe, the Place Vaaban, St. Louis, The Concord, The Madeleine, and of course, The Eiffel Tower. It was spectacular! We got to walk through Notre Dame and see many sculptures depiting Christ and figures from Church History. It was an absolutely magnificent sanctuary! To have visited two of the most famous churches in the world on this trip was very special. I was really happy that we had that experience – especially the girls. Perhaps one day we will be able to come back and spend several days really soaking in the city rather than the drive-by. I was telling Ady that the more I visit other cultures, the less attractive the American dream/culture becomes. What other countries lack in media and technology, they more than make up for in rich history and tradition. There just seems to be a much deeper sense of friendship and community – something unnatural which takes so much intentionality and effort to instill in people and achieve in America. Just an observation. On the way home we rode first class. No, I didn’t splurge! For some reason it was cheaper to get first class coming home. Perhaps they needed to fill seats. We enjoyed a nice 3-course meal on the train. We were just enjoying our coffee when a bottle of water slid across the table and knocked Ady’s coffee on her lap. She got a nice, big brown spot on her tan pants. Bummer! She was a good sport, though. We arrived back to the flat around 11:30pm. Ady and I packed up our luggage. Tomorrow we’re off!
Last night I finally, finally slept good. In fact, I slept so good, I decided to keep going through the entire morning. When I woke up at 1pm, the girls had gone to the park with the London ladies. Ady was taking a nap on the bed. After showering, getting ready, and having some breakfast, I enjoyed some peace and quiet reading from two books – Soul Shaper by Tony Jones, and a few readings from The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis. I also spent some time journaling. When I finished Ady and I spent some time talking, and then I decided to walk down the street to get a coffee. As I was walking out the door, the girls returned from the park. They had a really good time. I walked down to main street and enjoyed a latte at Cafe Nero while I read a paper. I then walked down the street to continue sipping my latte and reading outside on a bench. After about 10 minutes a guy sat down next to me and straight away began rolling a joint. It was comical to me how nonchalantly he just rolled it up and started smoking it right on a busy street. After a bit I returned to the flat where the girls were watching the movie Nanny McPhee. We are now just chilling out. Clare and Abigail have gone to the store to pick up some items for dinner. We are having sausage and mash for dinner. Looking forward to continuing this relaxing day.
Didn’t have time to blog yesterday, so I’ll do it now. We headed off for church at around 10am. When I arrived we were greeted by several folks from the church, many whom I had met last year while here on my missions trip. One person I was glad to see was Babs – an 80-year old woman who knows my grandfather. After an opening liturgy and some worship, I gave a talk I called “Faith, Fellowship & Fruit.” After church we had tea, and the people bought me out of the 10 books I brought with me. We then headed off for lunch with Clare, Angela, Abigail, Sue, and Nikki at Nando’s. Good times! Following lunch we hopped on the bus and went to Hillsongs Church in the Dominion Theatre. It was a typical Hillsongs service, and the worship was great. After taking the bus back to Battersea we grabbed kebabs for dinner and ate them at the flat. Very yum! Definitely want to have them again before returning home.
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