Monday: Wicked! This was my first time seeing this play and I LOVED it! The music is classic and the story is so well done!
Wednesday: the Harry Potter Studio Tour! We did this on the first day of our 'free travel' weekend (some of us decided to stay here in London). The whole tour absolutely blew my mind. It was absolutely magical! There really are no words to describe it.
Kaylie and I - soo excited to be there!
Visiting Dumbledore's Office
Playing Chess
Flying in the Weasley's Car with Amanda
Riding Hagrid's motorcycle with Jaden (Yes, ice cream is a recurring theme with me :) )
Eating our over-priced, but delicious chocolate frogs!
Thursday: crazy people (Soane museum, Jeremy Bentham), dead people (Highgate Cemetery, John Keats' house), and ghosts! (Amanda and I saw Ghost the Musical) On our way to the musical, we randomly found the movie premiere of Prometheus in Leicester Square!
Friday: wandering. I spent most of the day on my own, wandering around to a few things I hadn't seen yet. I started on Charing Cross Road where there are lots of antique books, then I made my way to Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square, up Regent's Street to Hamley's, then over to Harrod's and up Exhibition Road to the Hyde Park Chapel! It was so refreshing to be on my own and it was invigorating to navigate the big city by myself!
The Hyde Park Chapel was my favorite part of the day. I went on a whim, just to see it before I headed home to crash since I was so exhausted. I knew what street it was on, but not exactly where, but I found one of the maps that they have scattered around the city and it showed me right where to go!
I decided to go inside and poke around for a bit and I was greeted by a couple of Senior missionaries, one of which was Elder Brooks! Yes, we compared family histories and he is a long-time Londoner, so we're not closely related. It was really fun to see an Elder Brooks with such a thick British accent!
Elder Brooks took me through the new visitors' center that opened about two weeks ago! The story of the Hyde Park chapel was fascinating. Before WWII, it was an apartment building, but it was completely destroyed in the Blitz. Around that time, President David O. McKay told church leaders to look for some land in the central London area. They found this spot and even though there were no church members within seven miles, they bought the land and built the chapel. Today, it is surrounded by the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum, and the Natural History Museum, right on Exhibition Road. During the Olympics, Exhibition Road is going to be converted into a pedestrian road to accommodate tourists. I feel like it just goes to show how our prophets are inspired. :)
Saturday: I saw Les Mis again! Remember how I was disappointed the first time? I felt really guilty about it and I really wanted to have a good experience since it is my favorite musical. I am so glad I went again! My seat was on the second row of the balcony, which helped SO much. I was able to see the depth of the stage and it was amazing! I was able to really get involved with the characters and I had chills through the entire show. As it was ending, I thought about how BLESSED I feel to be here. People would pay hundreds of dollars to see Les Mis on the West End and I had just seen it for my second time in a month. I hope to never take these amazing experiences for granted.
Funny story from Saturday: I wandered a bit more before the show and I found London's Chinatown! When we went to Chinatown in San Francisco they had the BEST fortune cookies, so I went looking for them. In one store, I asked one of the ladies working there, and she was so confused. She kept pointing to other cookies that they had and didn't understand that you put a fortune inside and folded it up. Guess that's from the Americanized Chinese? :)
Got to say I love the car picture :)
ReplyDeleteIt's probably one of my all-time favorites from the trip ;)
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