Well friends, we're back in Florida...but not for long!  We just returned from a weekend in London, England.  Although taking four days, two of those days were completely covered in traveling across the "pond" and back.  It was a wonderful treat to see a European country, but almost a blurr as we tried to make the most of every minute while needing to give our bodies rest (as those same bodies are not as young as they were thirty years ago when we first married)! 
London is drenched in historical surroundings with incredible architectural contributions.  Christopher Wren's St. Paul's Cathedral (where Prince Charles and Princess Diana were married in 1981) is a masterpiece worthy of an entire day's tour as well as Buckingham Palace....the list of future tour possibilities is quite extensive; however, I would enjoy touring England's countryside as well.

The Brits love their tea times and pub gatherings throughout the City of London.  We visited two of the pubs and loved the atmosphere as much as the delicious food and were made aware of some of the language differences.  Upon ordering coffee at the local Nero Italian coffee shoppe, we were asked if the coffee was to be "in" or "take away"....I guess "to go" isn't the correct lingo used in London! 

Riding on the opposite side of the road is quite different as having your driver on the right side of the vehicle.  I think it was the correct decision to take taxis and walk throughout the City!  As an added note, there are walkers and bike riders everywhere.  With the traffic congestion, many individuals take public transports, walk or use their bikes.  Even children ride bikes to school each day. 

The public parks are absolutely beautiful and are used extensively throughout the day and night.  The City is well lit and appears a safe area to walk to your destination throughout the evening.  Some of the sights we were able to take in were; Westminster Abbey and Parliament Square; Buckingham Palace and the changing of the miliary horsemen (changing of the guard is every other day and unfortunately not the day of our tour); St. Paul's Cathedral; the Tower of London (used as a royal palace in times past, then as a prison and a place of execution.); the Crown Jewels including the Cullinan I, or First Star of Africa diamond mounted in the head of the Sceptre with the Cross consisting of 530.2 carats along with other beautiful diamonds set in the crowns of the monarchy; and finally a cruise from the Tower of London on the River Thames (pronounced "Tims").

As an added delight, Gary bought tickets for the London theater production of "Dirty Dancing" performed at the Aldwych Theater in London.  Our seats were wonderful as were the acoustics, the orchestra and the performance of the actors.  All in all, many sights were seen although we were working on a time crunch.  Additionally, I get the feeling London is not a city full of practicing Christians.  There are individuals from all walks of life and London personally reminds me of a seaport city.  Every country in Europe is represented thus meaning every religion and culture has made its way into London. We had French waitresses, a taxi driver from Bulgaria, English concierage and a luncheon companion on our tour from Thailand.  I will say, the young man from Thailand didn't object to Gary's request to pray over our food at lunch....and I left some information regarding The Sounding Board in the cab when I had a mini-conversation headed back to the airport with a taxi driver who obviously believed in nothing.

God is good and my prayer is that something we said or did will cause another person to think, question and call on the Name of the Lord.