London and Cambridge!
Wow! What can I say? Last night I jokingly said to
my hosts that living in South Africa feels like living on a farm compared to
London! On Monday when we got to London we were collected by Megie's cousin
Richard. He came to fetch us in his HUGE four liter Jeep 4x4. We were so
pleased that he he had offered to do so. When we saw what a drive it was from
Heathrow the Worcester Park, we realized that we would never have navigated our
way to Craig on the trains and
tubes.
We arrived at Craig's place at
about 6h30 and got our stuff settled in, had a shower and a shave and then hit
London at about 9h30 (one can get a much cheaper Zone 1 - 4 all day travel card
if bought after 9h30). We got onto the overland train from Worcester park to
Waterloo station. Once at Waterloo we started walking!!! Courtney was such a
fantastic little trouper. In short, for those who know London, we walked from
Waterloo to the London eye, along the Thames river to the Millennium Bridge, up
to St Paul's Cathedral, then back along Fleet Street past Temple Court and the
Justice Courts (off course we passed the West End theaters), then at Charing
Cross we caught a Tube to Sloane square to meet our friend Richard Steel, and
then caught a Tube back to Waterloo station and then the train back to Worcester
Park. All in all it was a FANTASTIC day!!! We got to see the most incredible
sights, see some fantastically interesting people (Courtney loved all the
people with different colors of hair - green, blue, pink etc. etc. She was also
enamored with all the tattoos and body piercings, particularly a young guy on a
bicycle with tattoos from head to toe and stretched ear
lobes!)
Some of the sights and
attractions we went to:
We went on the
London Eye
National
Theatre
Tate Modern Art
Gallery
Millenium
Bridge
St Paul's
Cathedral
Temple Square, the Templar Church,
the Temple (Dan Brown here we come!)
The
West End (theaters, the Savoy Hotel etc.
etc.)
The London
Underground
Yesterday I made the trip
out to Cambridge, which is were I am now. It is just before 8am and I am
sitting in a flat at Wesley House in the Rank building. At 8h15 I will be going
down to the Wesley House Chapel for worship with the staff and students. I was
wonderfully hosted by Rev. Dr. Philip Luscombe and his wife Laurel last night.
Before that one of the students (George, his wife Fran and their son Adam)
invited me for a cup of coffee and then helped me to find Kings College.
Cambridge is perhaps the most beautiful city I have ever been in! It has such a
wonderful spirit of learning about it. I find Grahamstown to have been a lesser
imitation of this. The University itself is spread out across the city in
various Colleges. The buildings and chapels are the most fantastic Medieval
architecture. There is an all pervasive sense of history and belonging to
something noble and great about the
place.
Wesley House is just as
wonderful. The library is fantastic. I found that I had so much in common with
Philip (science and theology, the fact that we both first read science,
ministerial formation etc.)
This is
truly a place that I would love to visit again! I hope to be able to post
selected photographs in a day or
two.
As you can see, I have not had
internet access thus far. Yesterday I did sign up with a wireless provider at
the train station. So, I hope to be able to make use of that today to post
these two entries and check my
mail.
Come back for more!
It's all been said above....
Posted: Wed - March 23, 2005 at 08:01 AM