We went into London on Friday and I got Elaine and Matthew onto the double-decker bus tour and I took off on my own and wandered to Gap and Starbucks (I know, very American of me!). I got a hold of a friend of Steve's who works for the Bishop of London, and whom I had met on a previous trip to England. We had lunch in the Bishop's library - not everyone can say they've done that before, eh? I then wandered over the Millennium Bridge, visited the Tate Modern for a bit, and saw Shakespeare's Globe theater. The 3 of us met up, eventually, in front of St. Paul's cathedral and then we went in for a tour and climbed the gazillion steps to the top of the tower. My legs were shaking by the time I got back to the bottom - I still claim I climbed over 750 steps that day in total, no matter what the others say. :)
(Millennium Bridge looking towards St. Paul's cathedral)We then stayed for the Evensong service and had reserved seats in the choir loft. It was an AMAZING service, the best one I've been to yet. God reminded me again of the power I have in Him. What an awesome God we serve! After the service we took the bus to another part of town and met my friend, Paul, for dinner. Then we all wandered down towards the river to see the "sights of London" lit up at night. Then we headed back home to get some sleep for our big day on Saturday.
(A. Hathaway's cottage)On Saturday Paul drove us to Stratford upon Avon, otherwise known as Shakespeare's birthplace. A very cool town that I had been to before but enjoyed seeing again. We toured Shakespeare's house and Anne Hathaway's cottage (his wife), ate by the river even though it was pretty cold and windy, and spent a good bit of time looking for parking. Then we headed to Oxford for a quick walk around the town. We searched high and low for a fish & chips place for Matthew and Elaine but couldn't find one there. So, we stopped on the way home and ate it at Steve & Jan's.
(Fish & Chips!)Sunday was a very eventful day for me as I spent the majority of the morning in the Emergency Dept. in England. This is one of those times when being a nurse is not helpful - I spent a couple hours debating with myself what to do, went through the whole gamete of what could be going on, and decided that I should be seen just to make sure. (Just a note for everyone reading this: If you are debating with yourself that much about going to the ED, that often means you should go. FYI.) So, I sucked up my pride and went and figured that despite how embarrassing it was, it would make a great story some day! The doc there thought it was probably just low blood sugar and I concurred with his diagnosis (see, nurses are the worst patients, it's true) and then we went home. So, I got to experience the health care system in England and it wasn't bad.
Still, I wasn't hungry and didn't eat lunch. By the time we had to leave for the airport I felt like death warmed over and there was no way I was going to fly back to Switzerland. So, Matthew and Elaine went back but I stayed an extra day. It actually worked out well and I enjoyed my extra time there. I got back to Switzerland on Monday evening and am back to school again. Oh joy.
PS - Stay tuned for my next post (in a day or so) about my adventure in the train on Tuesday - like I said, it never ends!
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