Day 15: Time to say Goodbye

We called Marlin Apartments home for 2 weeks.  We were on the 5th floor (6th floor to North American counting).

It was perfect for our large family.  It had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and this great room.  The 2 sofas were both hide-a-beds, plus we had a pack & play crib for Ali.  The kids loved the big TV, and I loved that we had a kitchen and dining table.

Our view of the water.

This was the footbridge we crossed every single day.

Here's the bridge from the other side.

Canary Wharf is an up and coming area as it has become the second financial district of London.  It has lots of yummy restaurants and fun shops for all the busy stock brokers and bankers.

The Underground (or Tube) was our best friend.  We bought Oyster cards ahead of time for Len, Kaleb, Noé, and myself and had them sent to Canada.  Gavin, Teague, Hiram, and Ali were allowed to ride for free with another paying customer.  This worked out great as we still paid a small fortune.  However, for 2 weeks of travel it wasn't too unreasonable.

Here's our stop.

Canary Wharf!

We were able to just use the Jubilee line for most places we wanted to go.

We didn't feel like cooking our last night, so we made a delicious dinner of crispy baguettes, creamy English cheddar, scrumptious salami, with apple and strawberry cordial to drink.

Oh these kids and their silly faces!

Noé wanted me to take a picture of her plate as she thought it looked very French.  It reminded me of the sacrament (it's really not wine though!).

We finished the meal with our favorite Mr. Kipling treats- French Fancies.  We also love his Cherry Bakewells (that the Stiles introduces to us), his Bramley Apple Pies, and his Viennese Whirls.  (I am craving English food now!)

We loved visiting you England and we hope we'll get to see you again soon!

Day 14: St. Paul's Cathedral

On our last full day in London, I had a beautiful and humbling day of worship.  Leonard and I attended a "Sung Eucharist" at St. Paul's Cathedral.  I felt the spirit so strongly that I was brought to tears (crying so hard snot was running down my face- so embarrassing!).  Christians have been worshiping in that spot since 604, yes for 1,412 years!!  It was so wonderful to be with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and to hear so many voices proclaim him to be the Savior.  It was awesome to feel God's love so sweetly.  To repeat what the choir sang so beautifully, Alleluia!

View of the front.

View of the back.

Can you see the old woman from Mary Poppin's singing "Tuppance a bag"?

Notice the 5 statues at the top?

I love taking pictures of flowers, even those made of stone.

St. Paul.

We were able to meet up with one of the missionaries from Leonard's MTC group.  Elder Osterlund went on to serve in Montreal, Canada, while Leonard went to Marseilles, France.  Daniel lives in Sweden with his wife and their 4 children.

He was in town for the weekend with his youngest daughter.  What an awesome date!

They hadn't seen each other for 22 years, but they said it felt like no time had passed.  I had never met Daniel before, but it felt like I did because I had heard many wonderful stories of him.  It's nice having friends from all around the world!

One more red phone booth (I just love these!).

This gate was nearby and I had to take a picture because of the 2 animals on top.

One more lion,

one more unicorn,

and where we got back on the tube we found this dragon.

Oh London, it's going to be hard to say goodbye to you!

Day 13: Buckingham Palace

There are so many palaces just in London, but the one that the Queen calls home is pretty remarkable!

We had to get a picture of Canada Gate (there are also gates from Australia and South Africa).

Some of the beautiful flower gardens surrounding the front of the palace.  I loved the red, white, and blue color scheme.

Another shot of the palace including Queen Victoria's Memorial.

The view from the palace is of the lovely St. James's Park.

Me and the kiddos getting ready for our tour.

It's the small details I love, the carved crown and rose on the stone gate...

another crown on the steel gate.

We couldn't take pictures inside, so here are some from the internet of just a few of the State Rooms we toured (I think we saw about 18 rooms).

The Grand Staircase.

The White Drawing Room.

The Throne Room.

The Picture Gallery had many gorgeous works, but my favorites were the ones by Sir Peter Paul Rubens, like the one of a summer scene above.

The Queen and her men, 3 generations of heirs to the throne.

Since the Queen celebrated her 90th birthday this year, there was an amazing display of her clothing for each decade of her life from the 1920's to the 2010's.  This was her sweet christening dress.

These were the dresses she and her younger sister wore to their father's coronation.

Her wedding dress.

Her coronation dress.  She had symbols representing each of the countries in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth of Nations embroidered into her dress.  The design included the English Tudor rose, Scots thistle, Welsh leek, Irish shamrock, CANADIAN MAPLE LEAF, Australian wattle, New Zealand silver fern, South African protea, lotus flowers for India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and Pakistan's wheat, cotton, and jute.

This dress wasn't at Buckingham Palace, but it was the one I loved that was on display at Kensington Palace.  The Queen is the most photographed woman IN THE WORLD!!!  and she has a beautiful wardrobe for that job.

After the tour inside, we also got to visit the gardens outside.  There are 39 acres of beautiful nature.

There were some renovations happening on the back facade, but it was just as lovely as the front of the palace.

Len and the kiddos getting ready to see some royal nature.

The sky above was picture perfect!

Now, how do we get invited to one of Her Majesty's garden parties?

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Roald Dahl's birth, the palace had this "life-sized" mural of the BFG, who met the Queen in the story and spent time at Buckingham Palace.  He can hold all of my kiddos in just one of his hands!

London also had a BFG Dream Jar Trail set up this summer with 50 jars set up all over the city.  The only one we saw was this one "Reach for the Stars" by Sir Richard Branson that was near Hyde Park.  In the above mural you can see a couple of dream jars on the right of the BFG.

Back to the garden.

I would love to have 39 acres for my family to roam around on.  Shoot, I'd be happy for 1 acre.

Time for some silly faces!

The kids always prefer taking these pictures.

Land, water, trees, bushes, flowers, birds, bees, squirrels, yes please!

It was quite the peaceful place.

This gate leads to the bridge to go to the island where the bees live.  The Queen produces enough honey for all the palace needs and even some to share with her royal visitors.  Leonard dreams of his next job...

On our way out we could have bought discounted tickets to visit Windsor Castle.  I would have loved to go in September to see more of the Queen's beautiful fashions, but alas we were flying to India 2 days later.

Noé's shirt was quite appropriate for today's activities-

If you can be anything, just be a Princess!

Our other little princess getting her daily beauty sleep.