We had some fun treats when we were in York, England. Naturally, Wesley had an ice cream cone. There is practically nothing better than European ice cream. And practically nothing makes Wes happier.

We had to have pasties (pronounced with a nasal “a” sound) at least once in England. They are little handheld pies, usually savory but sometimes sweet, that come from Cornwall. Historically the miners would take them down into the mines for their meals. John and I split a sweet peaches and cream pastie and it was delicious.

We also absolutely had to stop for afternoon high tea. Cream tea is tea with scones; high tea is bigger and better with finger sandwiches, scones, and pastries. We went to Betty’s, which is THE place for tea in York. (You know this by the very long queue you have to stand in before getting inside.) John didn’t want to do tea again so he took Wes to McDonald’s while I had tea with Carissa.

She was the perfect companion for tea. She dug right into the finger egg and cress sandwiches and enjoyed chamomile tea with all the dignity of a real British lady.

At night we took the train back to Leeds and returned to our Marriott hotel. We enjoyed just chillin’ at “home.”

The kids relaxed in bed…

…and played with balloons that some nice shopkeeper gave them at the end of the day.

One night we brought back subs from Subway and ate them in bed. And chips too.

Wesley played a lot with this electronic toy that was an absolute life-saver. In fact, when we were checking out of the hotel in Bath we couldn’t find this toy. I stayed after everyone had left and searched high and low until I finally found it underneath the bed in Grammy and Guy’s room adjacent to ours. I knew our trip would be a lot harder without this toy!

And one of the best things about staying in a hotel: snuggling in bed together, watching TV.

Sometimes when the kids needed entertainment I would sing songs with them. I have a clear memory of singing songs with them in London while waiting for the ferry from Canary Wharf back to our hotel. It was in an enclosed (warm and dry) space, and the other people were watching with amusement. Here my kids are doing “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” in our hotel room one night.

One of York’s famous areas is The Shambles. It’s an old street lined with buildings that overhang the cobblestone, and it used to have a lot of butchers who would hang their meat for display. Now there are no butchers, but a lot of quaint shops and restaurants.

We came across a street market on Friday.

Notice the man in the hat. It’s called a flat hat, and surprisingly lots of British men wear them.

So when we came across a vendor selling them, John picked up his sole British souvenir. Very handsome, no?

We visited three museums in York. The first one was the York Castle Museum.

The name is misleading because it’s not a museum about castles, but it is near the remains of the original castle in York.

This is how it used to look, when water surrounded it.

The museum is really a museum of everyday life from the early days (say, 1600s) up to nearly-modern day. Honestly, this museum wasn’t our favorite. It bordered on cheesy, but it had some interesting points. I liked learning about how the women used to live in the days before the technology I’m so used to, like this:

The place is famous for its life-size recreation of a Victorian-period street. We paused for a picture next to a (fake) horse on the street.

Strollers weren’t allowed, so Wes had to hang out in this backpack (because he was asleep when we arrived and we didn’t want to carry him).

There were some nifty displays of armor and weaponry that John found interesting, and some relics from the 1980s and 90s that took me back to my childhood. We also walked through the York Castle Prison museum, which was kind of gloomy.

We didn’t stay much longer than an hour at the Castle Museum, and then we moved on to the Jorvik Viking Centre.

This place was a mixture of strange and interesting. The first thing you notice (OK, are overwhelmed by) is the SMELL. They want you to feel like you’re part of the typical Viking life of 975 AD, so they enhance your experience with “sensory stimuli” including the typical smells of the time. WOW. I can’t even describe the stench, but I still remember it.

One of the unusual parts of the museum experience is a ride through a reconstructed Viking settlement which includes Viking voices speaking in Old Norse. It was a little like Disneyland, but on a much, much smaller (and smellier) scale. No photos were allowed, though.

We also spent some time looking at this recreated archeological site. It was kind of cool because everywhere in the dirt beneath the glass were ancient Viking relics, like a dice, comb, knife, coins, etc. The kids had fun running across the glass and getting their wiggles out.

Dice

Leather shoe

Comb

We also learned lots about the Viking people from their skeletons. People were not in great health!

We saw coins.

And then we had one of the museum workers dressed up as a Viking make us a coin of our own to take home.

The final place we visited in York was called York’s Sweet Story. It’s a museum dedicated to chocolate (are you so surprised we ended up there?).

York is famous for its chocolate. It is the birthplace of the Kit Kat, for instance, and has about 300 years history of making chocolate confections.

We started with a chocolate tasting, then learned about the history of chocolate (how ancient Mayans drank cocoa water and it was considered a delicacy; we got to taste some…it’s called “bitter water” for good reason! Yuck), and the history of chocolate making in York. Interesting stuff.

(chocolate tasting)

We ended up in this ultra-mod room with interactive displays about chocolate until it was our turn to see the chocolate making demonstration.

The demo was one of the highlights (because it’s always fun to see chocolate made, and fun to taste it, too).

Our confectioner:

I stood with Wes near the front. He liked watching, and he also liked looking at himself in the mirror above the counter.

And, of course, Wes LOVED the piece of chocolate he got at the end!

York was good. We spent two full days here. On Sunday morning we checked out and took a taxi to the Leeds-Bradford Airport to leave England and begin the second leg of our adventure–in Spain!

On Thursday we left Bath, England and took a train to Leeds, which is about four hours north. We were using BritRail England passes, only available to tourists. It costs a bit of money but offers flexibility. We just showed up at train stations and hopped on the next train to wherever we wanted to go. First we took a short trip from Bath to Bristol, and then a long train to Leeds.

There are a few different train companies in England and we used about three of them. Each one was different. The train from Bristol to Leeds was different than others we had ridden. It was a long train, going from southern England to Scotland. Above every seat was an electronic strip that indicated some seats were reserved for certain legs of the journey. So we had to find seats, together, that were open for the duration of our trip. We managed it. And we managed to get the kids to sleep for a least a small portion of the trip.

We actually wanted to spend two or three days in York, which is a smaller, historic town near Leeds but it was so expensive ($200+/night for cheap accommodation) that we opted to stay in Leeds instead. It’s only about a 20 minute train ride between the two places. I used Priceline to book our hotel. Sometimes Priceline can be a real gem. Instead of $200+/night we booked a Marriott in downtown Leeds within walking distance of the train station for $78/night.

Our hotel:

I think this was my favorite hotel we stayed at. Our room wasn’t giant (two double beds with a little port-a-crib squished against the wall for Carissa) but it was nice and comfortable. It also makes me feel better that we got a good deal on it.

When we arrived the mini fridge was stocked full of treats and drinks with a sign warning us not to move anything unless we were willing to buy it. An electronic sensor automatically detects if something is moved, and it charges it to your bill. We asked them to come clean it out and turn off the sensor, and then we had room for all the stuff we actually needed to put in there, like our many liters of milk and pots of yogurt.

What can I say? Wes loved having a big double bed with down pillows all to himself.

Carissa was fond of her crib. This was the only hotel that gave us a baby blanket to use with the crib in addition to just a sheet. It was a nice touch; Carissa loves blankets.

The kids also loved playing with the many, many pillows and cushions, transferring them from the bed, to the chair, to the floor, to the crib, and back again.

Our first night in Leeds was spent getting groceries at M&S (love that place; it’s a department store with clothes on the main floor and a posh grocery store in the basement) and eating dinner at McDonald’s. McD’s was such a welcome break from typical British food. However, the menu was different than ours in America. They served American-style glazed donuts in cases on the counter instead of the cookies you see here. They had different styles of sandwiches. And when I asked for a hot fudge sundae (a McD classic, right?) they were confused and gave me a caramel sundae, which is all they offered.

Kids looking at the second floor window at McDonald’s at the buses.

The next day, Friday, we took the train to York. We could never figure out which platform had the next train to York (the electronic signs show the final destination, not the next stop) so we always had to find someone to ask.

At the Leeds station:

With Grammy and Guy:

The York station:

We really liked York. It’s old, founded by Romans in 71 AD, and the original city walls still stand and you can walk along them.

You can see famous York Minster in the background:

It even has the old arrow slits in tact, used for shooting arrows at enemy attackers.

Our attempt at a group photo, but Carissa just wanted to hold the camera.

Some of the sights along the pleasant walk from the train station towards the York Minster. (That’s the nice thing about York: you can walk to everything.)

The big attraction in York is the York Minster. It’s home to the Archbishop of York, the second-highest office of the Church of England. I saw a lot of Gothic-style cathedrals when I was a BYU student touring England, but I never saw the York Minster, and it is one of the best. Seriously stunning. Probably second only to the Canterbury Cathedral (which is home to the Archbishop of Canterbury–THE highest office of the Church of England). Seeing the York Minster was one of the highlights of our entire trip.

One of the best parts of our visit was that it was during a live organ concert. There is nothing better than walking through an ancient Gothic cathedral with the organ music reverberating all around you.

There was a cool line of statues depicting kings.

Wes examining a coffin.

Carissa slept through the whole time.

The York Minster is famous for its East Window, the largest example of medieval stained glass in the world. But it was under renovation. Instead, they had a huge digital picture of the window hanging in its place.

Some cool architecture on a door to the Chapel House.

Part 2: museums, treats, high tea, and getting ready to go to Spain!

On Wednesday of our trip to England we took a day trip from Bath with Mad Max Tours to see a few nearby sights: Stonehenge and Avebury, plus two quaint villages called Lacock and Castle Combe in the Cotswolds.

I had read about the tour group in Rick Steve’s guide to England, and we felt it was a good, affordable way to see these places.

I visited Stonehenge as a BYU student years ago, and I clearly recall my professor saying how difficult it was to see Stonehenge in good weather because of its location. It’s often very windy, which only makes a typical overcast and rainy British day even worse. Sure enough, when I went in college, it was cold, windy, and rainy. Kind of miserable.

However, we hit the jackpot this time around. Wednesday had the most beautiful weather of any day we had in England–blue skies, sunny, semi-warm. This was one of my favorite days of our whole vacation.

We started the day by taking a taxi to Bath city center to wait for our tour van to show up. While we waited I crossed the street to take a look at this beautiful park. It seemed to cost money to get inside but it was pretty to perch Carissa in front of.

Our tour group was about fifteen people, and we all fit in a big van. John took this video during our drive. I’m not sure if maybe he didn’t realize he was filming at first…

After about an hour, we reached our first stop: Stonehenge!

Stonehenge was probably built between 3000 and 2000 BC. The “why” has different theories. In any case, the way it was built is pretty fascinating. I mean, from what I could catch from the audio tour guide, which Wesley held onto for most of the visit. I actually heard very little.

Stonehenge is in the middle of vast, expansive countryside with sheep in the neighboring field. The day we were there happened to be stunningly beautiful, with big open skies and gorgeous white clouds.

The Stonehenge stones themselves are roped off and you walk around them. My most favorite part of the whole visit: running with Wesley in circles around Stonehenge. It was good for him to get his wiggles out and good for me because I missed exercising. Plus, how often do you get to jog around one of the most famous historical landmarks in the whole world? We had fun and I wish I had video to prove it.

But I do have family pictures.

We stayed about 45 minutes to an hour and then it was time to push on. The countryside scenery:

Next stop: Avebury!

Avebury is comparable to Stonehenge, only it’s not. It’s the largest prehistoric stone circle in all of Europe, but the stones are smaller, and you can walk right up to and touch them.

One of the coolest things about Avebury is that it’s built (purposely) above an earth energy pattern called geospiral which charges the stones with magnetic energy. Our guide pulled out what I could call a diving rod–an L-shaped copper rod that he held up to the stone. We watched as it appeared to move on its own, and then we got a chance to try it ourselves. Surprise! The rod moved without me making it.

We hung out in Avebury for too short of a time. It’s a lovely little (LITTLE) place that you would enjoy strolling up and down along its country roads. For such a small place there seemed to be a number of tourists. Wes and I took a little wander and ended up at this church (St. James parish). The wonderful thing about churches in England is that usually you can just stride inside, which we did, and had a look around. The oldest part of the church dates from about AD 1000. The graveyard outside had some very old tombstones.

After Avebury we drove to a village in the area known as the Cotswolds called Lacock. Never heard of it? Me either. But have you seen the first and sixth Harry Potter movies? Harry Potter’s childhood home was set in Lacock.

And don’t tell me you haven’t seen the famous 1995 BBC production of Pride and Prejudice… The lovely town of Meryton that Elizabeth and her sisters window shop in and meet the dashing Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham was filmed in Lacock. (I admit, I recognized the street right off the bat, I’ve seen that film so many times.) Try to picture it without cars and modern people walking around.

A few years ago some film studio(s) put a lot of money into the town of Lacock to hide all the electrical wires underground and change all the street lights to period-correct lamps to make filming easier. Now all they have to do is clear out the cars and throw dirt down on the pavement and, voila!, you have instant 19th Century British atmosphere.

We ate lunch at the very old and historic The George Inn. I think it dated back to the 1600s.

Our food was good, and we were hungry, but it is so sad to look back at our receipts and realize how much everything REALLY cost, after the conversion from pounds to dollars. I think our lunch here (two plates plus an orange juice) was about $40. We spent so much money in England on just food. But that’s just how it is. Things got MUCH more affordable in Spain.

St. Cyriac’s Church (which made a brief appearance in the first HP film in Godric’s Hollow).

Ceiling of the tithe barn, where people in the olden days were required to deposit their tithes.

Lastly we visited the small, quaint village of Castle Combe. When I say “small,” I mean it. It was about two streets big with a population of about 350.

Castle Combe is called “The Prettiest Village in England.” It was virtually unknown until one day a news story ran giving it this title, and the very next day it was overrun with tourists. Thousands of them. But it really does live up to its name. It’s a lovely little place. “Warhorse” was recently filmed here.

Standing beside a letter box (mail drop).

The group spent some time inside this church, but Carissa (and later Wesley, too) and I stayed in the churchyard to enjoy the serenity. A stream was flowing behind the church, and it was very peaceful and pleasant here.

I love this part of England–the phone booths.

We didn’t stay long here. Here’s a sampling of the typical narrow roads we drove on to get back to Bath.

Once back in Bath we paused for a meal at one of the more famous places to eat: Sally Lunn’s.

It’s famous for their giant scones (more like American scones–fried round pieces of bread) served with jam and clotted cream with tea. We tried it and, honestly, weren’t overly impressed.

Wes mostly ate salad.

And Carissa? Well, if you knew how much she adores whipped cream you would understand how she fell instantly in love with clotted cream. Yes, we let her eat the whole pot. Because we are bad parents like that.

This was our final evening in Bath. We did laundry (in our bathtub) that night, and the next day we packed up, got on a train, and headed north to Leeds.

On Tuesday we checked out of our London hotel and took a taxi to Paddington Station to catch a train to Bath. Taking a taxi in London is expensive, but it was a nice change to see the London streets from, well, street level instead of using the underground. We crossed the bridge we had been walking along on Saturday, right past Big Ben and the houses of Parliament.

The train to Bath takes just 90 minutes. The train actually had TV monitors on the seat backs that you could tap to see our location, elevation, etc. (as well as news and TV programs if you wanted to pay for it), and Wes had fun with that. Ever since John got a tablet Wes and Carissa have both learned how to tap screens to make them work magic, and they’re pretty good at it.

The scenery in England is lovely. Lots of green, hilly fields and quaint old buildings. We saw bright golden yellow fields everywhere but I wasn’t sure what type of agricultural crop it was. My mother-in-law asked someone and she said it was rapeseed, which we would know as the maker of canola oil. It was stunning.

Bath is a fairly compact area with lots of interesting things to see within near walking distance of each other, so we made sure our hotel (the Bath City Hilton) was centrally located and within walking distance of the train station.

It WAS within walking distance of the station, but it was a bit of a walk. John and I didn’t mind it but his parents didn’t appreciate the scenic stroll while lugging baggage. Bath really is a beautiful city to walk through but I felt bad that it was hard for them.

We finally arrived to the Hilton–Carissa was dead asleep by now, and Wes was winding down for nap time–and we were told that they had overbooked and moved us to a different hotel. This was probably the last thing my poor mother-in-law wanted to hear after walking all that way, just to be moved someplace else, and she made sure they knew it.

I didn’t mind, personally. The Hilton transferred us to a 5-star hotel called the Macdonald Bath Spa Hotel. It was a little further from city center, though, so the Hilton arranged for free taxi service during our entire stay in Bath. My mom-in-law was satisfied.

When we arrived we had to wait for them to sort out our room needs, as there was some misunderstanding between them and the Hilton. We requested adjoining rooms with my in-laws, and of course we needed a room with space for our two kids. We hung out in the lobby, Carissa sound asleep on my shoulder, and we chatted with the butler. Yes, there was a BUTLER.

At last our rooms were ready and I got to deposit both kids on the posh King-sized bed for their naps.

And then I had the most peaceful hour of our entire trip as everyone else left for lunch and I stayed in the nice and quiet hotel room for an hour of relaxation. It doesn’t take much, sometimes.

The hotel was nice, although maybe not quite five star quality. (Then again, have I ever stayed in a five-star hotel?) Our room was small but it had a nice balcony overlooking the front gardens.

At one point during our stay we walked from the city center to our hotel, and it was a nice walk. We walked along the famous road where Jane Austen once lived (in one of the homes on the left), and at the end of the road you can see the Holbourne Art Museum.

We turned down a side street before we reached the Holbourne, though, and walked up a steep-ish hill to our hotel.

It used to be a private school and was later turned into a hotel. The gardens were lovely and English.

There was a leafy garden house (seen here with John and Wes) out front that had a fountain.

The hotel’s exterior:

I didn’t think to take pictures of our room (and if I sound like a nerd for documenting our hotel in such detail, that’s just how I am about hotels. And I always write reviews about our stays on Tripadvisor.com), except for this picture of the kids playing, and the next picture of John doing laundry one night in the bathtub. We had bought some detergent at the grocery store in Bath and cleaned our clothes the old fashioned way and hung them all over our room to dry. No laundromat nearby, and it wouldn’t have been practical to go do laundry with our kids anyway. So we did our laundry twice this way while in England. (It worked fine, but I have to say, it was super nice to have access to a washing machine once we got to Spain.)

The very best part of the hotel, hands down, was the spa. Not that we used the actual spa ($$$$), but we did use the pool area each night we were there and it was the best I’ve ever seen at a hotel. The pool itself was nice and big, as was the indoor hot tub. But my favorite was the outdoor hot tub, which was big and had a waterfall thing.

(Not my picture.)

And instead of just a sauna, they had two sauna rooms at different temperatures. They also had an aromatherapy shower, steam room, salt room (where salt sprays from the ceiling and you sit in it a while; good for the skin?), and an ice room, which I walked inside once but didn’t dare try (you splash ice on yourself and take a cold shower; refreshing?).

Anyway, the pool and spa area alone made our stay at this hotel worthwhile.

But I digress. The afternoon we arrived in Bath, once the kids were awake, we took a taxi downtown to THE Roman Baths.

Bath is a beautiful, old city. Here is the cathedral that we didn’t have time to visit.

Ceilings in the Roman Bath Museum:

The museum didn’t allow strollers but they provided baby carriers. Carissa was not, I repeat NOT, happy to be forced into one of these. Poor John could barely hear the audio tour.

She was much happier once we finally abandoned the carrier and let her wander (and use my audio tour).

The main bath area:

Bath was anciently known as Aquae Sulis (“waters of Sulis”). Sulis was their goddess. People would come to the baths to bathe and to worship. There was a temple overlooking the baths. This is remnants of the pediment on the temple, featuring the face of the god Gorgon.

Another interesting tidbit was the curses that people would toss into the baths, believing that the goddess Sulis would read them and avenge them their wrongs.

The baths were famous and popular in part because of the natural hot springs they were built upon.

But some of the water still needed to be heated, so Romans came up with a heating system involving stones and hot air called “hypocaust.”

When we started our tour the weather was cool and wet.

But by the end the sun had emerged, warming everything nicely. When the sun shines in England, there is no place more lovely. Even the ducks came out to swim in the baths.

We enjoyed our time learning about the Roman baths and the ancient people who once lived there. By the time we finished it was nearly 6 pm—and, it turns out, the whole city of Bath basically shuts down at 6 pm. We were fortunate to find this coffee shop café open and willing to cook us food for dinner.

After stopping at the grocery story for snacks, laundry soap, and milk (which we were ever on the hunt for for our kids) we took a taxi back to the hotel. John and I ended the night with an hour at the pool before doing laundry and preparing for our next day’s adventure: an all-day tour of Stonehenge and the surrounding area.

On Monday, our fifth day of travel, we decided to take a day trip to Windsor and visit Windsor Castle.

We activated our BritRail England passes and took the train from Waterloo Station to Windsor-Eaton. The advantage of buying the BritRail pass is that instead of buying a specific ticket for a specific train, you can arrive at the station and catch whatever train shows up next. It’s only good for a certain number of days but it’s flexible, which was nice for our family and our unpredictability.

Here we are as our train to Windsor pulled up.

The kids LOVED everything to do with the trains. (Even now, at home, Wes will sometimes say, “Train tonight” like he wants to go on a train.) Our train to Windsor was a good first overground train to ride because it wasn’t busy, and it wasn’t a long trip (under an hour).

I had been to Windsor as a BYU student ten years ago, but the experience was different this time. First, this time it was raining. And second, we had our kids to juggle. And by juggle, I mean take turns holding/swapping them in and out of the stroller while they slept.

At least Carissa is small enough still that we can carry her for a little while. We took turns. But John held her a lot.

This is a bird’s eye view of the castle:

We took pictures on the grounds, but photos weren’t allowed at all inside the castle. I guess that’s how they make so much money off their postcards and coffee table books. The grounds were lovely. I didn’t remember seeing such pretty gardens last time.

We saw royal guards up close.

(Must be such a boring job, standing there, totally still.)

In the first picture of the guards above notice the gentleman walking on the left–he was The Man with The Keys. Strollers aren’t allowed in Windsor Castle unless physically needed. When we passed through security before entrance, the nice lady looked at Wes in the stroller and asked if he needed to be in it. We said no. She asked, But would it be easier if he were in it? We said yes. So that’s where The Man with The Keys comes in. He let us in special doors openable only with his key that led us to elevators. I felt like we were going behind the scenes of Windsor Castle. But Wes had to stay in the stroller the whole time, which he didn’t like.

We saw some neat things:
– Queen Mary’s dollhouse

It’s a giant dollhouse that was built in the 1920’s to an exact 1:12 scale and includes miniatures of famous paintings, books, and china created by the artists, authors, and craftsmen especially for the doll house. It showcases a new gadget of the day–a vacuum–and the bathroom toilet even flushes. I don’t remember being especially interested in it ten years ago, but I thought it was pretty cool this time.

– St. George’s Hall

I remember seeing a special on PBS about the kitchens at Windsor Castle and all the work that goes into holding a royal banquet there. This is the hall where such banquets are held. It was cool to see it in person (minus the table and guests shown in this picture from the Internet). They measure each place setting and the distance between chairs precisely so it appears impeccably perfect. Nothing too good for the Queen.

After we finished at Windsor Castle we headed down the street for lunch. Windsor has such a pleasant shopping area, I wish we had more time to stroll. But lunch was fantastic, and it had mostly stopped raining.

We ate at The Drury House (“Windor’s Oldest Established Restaurant for Over 100 Years”). It was built in 1645.

It was small and cramped, but the food was good. It serves traditional British fare. I ate chicken pot pie, which was homemade and came with potatoes, carrots, and peas (the Brits eat peas with everything, it seems). Guy had fish and chips. Donee had yorkshire pudding. John had some sort of meat. Wes ate a salad, and Carissa had french fries (her go-to favorite).

It was tasty, but my favorite was the cream tea. In England tea is a common afternoon snack. It’s served nearly everywhere. Cream tea usually involves a pot of tea for one, a scone (American biscuit) or two, and strawberry jam with clotted cream (which is a cream as thick as sour cream, but mildly sweet). This was my first time ever enjoying afternoon tea (I can’t say I’m surprised I missed out on this as a BYU student; Mormons don’t do tea), and I loved it. We ordered peppermint tea, which is herbal. I love hot drinks, and I love scones, and I love clotted cream. A match made in heaven. John never really understood why afternoon tea is so great; it’s just not his thing. But Guy is a total herbal tea-head, so we made time for afternoon tea together other days after this. YUM. Probably one of my favorite English experiences.

We shopped a little and bought some Walker’s shortbread (so much cheaper than at our local grocery store in Utah), but we had to hurry to catch our train back to London.

Carissa relaxing on the way home.

That night we ate dinner across the river at Canary Wharf again (at Zizzi’s) and packed, preparing to check out of our hotel the next day and travel to Bath.

Our third day in England (fourth day of travel) was Sunday, so we went to church like usual.

The unusual thing was how long and how much effort it took to get there. I remember this from when I was a BYU student in London. I took two trains to get to the stop nearest the chapel (which was actually an elementary school) and then we had about a ten minute walk from there. It took a while and cost money.

Likewise, from our hotel in southeast London, since we decided to attend the Hyde Park ward (which is kind of the main LDS hub in London), we took the bus to the tube station, then took two underground trains to the South Kensington tube stop nearest the chapel. From there, we walked through a tunnel that leads from the tube stop to the Science Museum, which is directly across the road from the Hyde Park chapel. It took over an hour and we were late to church.

We weren’t the only late ones, though. We joined a small group of people waiting in the foyer to be admitted after the passing of the sacrament ended. The chapel was full so we ended up in the very back of the overflow in the cultural hall. The bishopric had to send men back to set up more chairs for us. We joined our stroller with about ten others lining the back wall of the cultural hall. (At least we have a British brand Maclaren, so it fit right in.)

The church is being remodeled in preparation for visitors during the 2012 Olympics. They’re updating the golden steeple on top, and inside in the foyer they’ve added a Christus statue…

…and multimedia presentations like “I Am A Mormon” videos.

After church we headed across the street and spent an hour at the Science Museum. I had walked past it so many times as a BYU student but had never gone inside (and it’s free).

Then we headed down Brompton Road towards the Knightsbridge area–home of world-famous Harrods department store.

It was a lovely day for a lovely walk, and Knightsbridge is one of the more beautiful parts of London.

Harrods is famous in part because of its motto: Omnia Omnibus Ubique–“All Things for All People, Everywhere.” And once you walk into its million-square-foot space, you know they’re not exaggerating. It’s impressive.

Harrods wasn’t really our typical Sunday-type activity, but it was so close to church that we decided to stop in, take a few pictures, breathe in the expensive air, and have lunch. It was one of my favorite memories from London.

We walked through the world-famous food market. This is just one small, small part.

Harrods has 32 restaurants alone. We ate our Mother’s Day feast at the Georgian.

I wish I had snapped a picture of the buffet. It was amazing. And delicious. And expensive. But my mother-in-law was treating, so we were able to enjoy it.

They had traditional British food like Yorkshire pudding. Everything was great, but the dessert was really great. Loved the chocolate mouse pops and bread pudding with warm custard. Some of our desserts:

From Harrods we took the tube to the British Museum. It’s famous for its ancient Greek and Roman artifacts and the Rosetta Stone (below).

Wes appreciating the history.

We didn’t spend so very long at the museum because we were all a little tired. From there we walked to nearby Russell Square park so the kids could run their wiggles out. I love that London has green parks everywhere. Gardens are very important to the British. This was a nice, peaceful park for a Sunday afternoon.

We took the tube from the Russel Square station and headed home. Carissa playing with Legos in our room.

And then it was time to begin our final full day stationed in London.