Thursday 25 June 09

It seems only appropriate, since we started this trip - and this blog - with the day that never ended to finish up with one of the longest days any of us will ever have had.

Our Airport Transfer vans are set to pick us up at the hotel at 5AM (even though I had checked in and let them know that we were going to Terminal 4, not Terminal 5). Ah well, if John Wesley could get up at 4AM each day to be ready to preach at a 5AM worship service, then we can probably do it once in order to go home. Of course, some of us had to get up before that, in order to wake the others, but that's mere quibbling, right? Right.

So, at 3:30AM the alarm chirped in my ear and it was up, shower, dress, and get ready to knock on doors. I was surprised at how quickly the doors were answered at 4AM given how much more trouble I usually had at times like 7AM or even 8AM (perhaps it really is time to go home).

Our final packing was completed, so about 4:30 I thought I'd ring the boys' rooms to make sure they really were up and about. Great idea, but no answer in either room, this could be trouble. The whole point of phoning this time was to avoid all the stairs (as I may have mentioned, Heidi and I were in a room down a level from the ground floor, while the boys were on the third floor, or what we would call the fourth floor in the States, as they start with ground, then 1, then 2, etc.). Well, there's nothing for it but to head up all those flights. Wait, what's this? They're all in the lounge off the hotel lobby (except Matt, who was still in the shower when the rest of them came down). Brilliant.

In fact, everyone was down with all their luggage well ahead of 5, so then it was simply down to waiting for our vans. At a few minutes before 5, I took a look out to see if they were there, and to see what the weather was like (probably 10C / 50F and partly cloudy, just fyi), and I saw two VW Transport vans go by on the other side of the road with the drivers looking at addresses on the buildings. Most likely they're ours, so we get ourselves ready, grab all the luggage and head out on the porch. I went all the way down to the street just to be able to flag them down if they weren't coming along the small access road directly in front of the hotel.

They weren't.

In fact, they had the wrong address (89 rather than 86) and had been circling the block for a little while before seeing me and stopping to ask if we were their passengers. We were, and we quickly loaded up and headed off for Heathrow.

We had a very quick ride, as there was almost no traffic on the roads yet, but our driver told us that if we had waited another hour, it would have added yet another hour to our driving time. We arrived just before 6AM for our 850AM departure.

All of us made it through the kiosks to get our boarding passes - except Heidi and Chris, so we went to the regular line and everything was fine. No telling why it didn't work, but we all got our boarding passes, so no harm, no foul as they say.

Next up: Security, where Chris once again set off the metal detector with the plate in his collarbone. Ian, standing directly behind him in line, watched with some angst the whole wanding and patting down that might well await him as well (after all, he had nearly the identical plate holding a nearly identical break). It was not to be. Ian cruised through without a beep, so I followed happily, only to be stopped and frisked as something set off the detector. I opined that it must be my magnetic personality, and the security guard actually chuckled and said it was quite likely. Take that, TSA!

At any rate, given our early arrival, a gate had yet to be assigned for our flight, so it was time to find food and drink. Not much of a variety in Terminal 4, sadly. We had Costa Coffee, Starbucks, and Garfunkel's Restaurant as our options. At least there was caffeine available!

Once they had announced our gate (#7), we headed down there to chill until boarding. I grabbed a few pounds ( not weight) and headed back to where we had seen some PCs with internet access and blogged up the activities of Wednesday, my time running out as I checked to be sure the blog had really posted (it had), and then returned to the gate to wait.

And wait.

Yes, another "slight" delay. Boarding was scheduled for 7:50AM (an hour before departure), but didn't really start until 8:20. It's not looking good for an on-time arrival. Still, boarding went quickly, and we were on the plane with doors closed just about at our scheduled departure time.

By my calculations, our takeoff was at 9:45AM - less than an hour after scheduled departure, but that's really the time for leaving the gate, so we're well under an hour behind at this point.

The only real trouble there was on the flight back was that they had to reboot the entertainment system 3 times. The announcement covering that last reboot told us that if that didn't fix the problems, it was something that simply couldn't be handled at 38,000 feet, and they'd have to apologise. I didn't notice any real complaints, so it must have worked - at least for the most part.

We made up a lot of time - looking at the moving map of our flight, we noticed that we had taken a significantly more Northern route than we had on the way over, perhaps that avoided some stronger headwinds. At any rate, after a quite uneventful flight we landed safe and sound back in tropical Detroit (and there was no doubt it was tropical when we exited the plane and felt the air in the tunnel to the airport proper).

Items of interest at this point included: kids noting that suddenly their cell phones had service again; Judy informing us that she had sat next to the same guy as she had on the flight to London ten days earlier - and that he had slept the whole way both times; no one having much trouble filling out their landing cards; well you get the idea, there wasn't much of moment at that moment beyond getting out of that airport and back to our families.

So, we all got through the second security checkpoint with our newly-reclaimed luggage with no trouble and headed for the exit. Wait, where are Matt and Greg? They got pulled off into the secondary inspection room, so I stayed back to make sure they got through. It looked to me as though there was a tip that someone tall was doing something bad on that flight, as everyone I had noted as being tall on our plane was either coming out from or going in to that secondary inspection room.

Finally, both of them were out, and we got our group photo taken (thanks, Paul!) and off we went to be picked up and whisked away back into the bosoms of our various families. There's no place like home, you know, even if it's not in Kansas, and you don't have any ruby slippers.

Well, there's the story. Or rather, there's the bare bones of what we did and where we went. Now it's up to you to find one or more of us and get the details, to get the bird's eye lowdown on this caper, to get the inside story, to ... well, you get the idea. Ask us about it, but don't be surprised if we talk a lot longer than you had expected.

This was a great trip, and we all want to thank you for your support, and I want to thank all the travellers for being so great the whole time, and to thank their parents for letting them come along with us on this great adventure.

Grace, Peace, and Love,
Charlie

Wednesday 24 June 09

Not everyone broke their fasts this morning (probably not a great idea, but they chose extra sleep instead), but all were ready to head out shortly after our planned 8:30. The tubes were extremely slow this morning, but we finally made it to Tower Hill, bought three families' worth of tickets, and in we went to the Tower of London.

The plan was to meet back at the entrance at 12:30, but we saw all the kids arrive early, so we joined them and headed out along the Thames (just above Tower Bridge) and back around to the tube station. We caught the tube to Westminster, coming out just at the tower of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament where many excellent photos were taken. We then walked along past Parliament, past Westminster Abbey and the church of St. Margaret (with a surprise pastor listed on the sign!), and on up the road to Methodist Central Hall. One million Methodists donated a guinea each to build this building way back when a million pounds was enough to build huge church structures.

Down to the basement we went for lunch at Wesley's Cafe - everyone had good food and a nice respite from all the walking we've been doing these past few days.

Once we were finished, it was a shortish walk up to Trafalgar Square to see Nelson's column, the various fountains, the lions, and all the pigeons. Sadly, there were no bird seed vendors, so we couldn't cover anyone with seed and watch the pigeons land and eat. Ah well.

So - up to St Martin in the Fields church where the London brass rubbings centre is now located. Many of the travellers made rubbings (I'm not telling who did them, as they may be secret gifts for a later date - don't even bother asking.) while others watched, shopped, or visited the spectacular sanctuary above. Very much worth visiting if you're in London.

Next up was shopping in Picadilly Circus. Some of our crowd wanted Wimbeldon shirts, and we had been told that Lilywhite's was the last word in sports stores, so there we were. Sadly, so was the heat, as their A/C seemed to have died. It was upwards of 35C in the store, and it's 6 storeys tall, so there was plenty of sprinting up and down the stairs trying to gather everyone.

Eventually the shopping was done and it was time to go back to the hotel. Or was it? No, not for everyone. How could one go shopping in London, and not get to Harrodd's, after all? We certainly couldn't, so a group of 10 or so headed off for the famed store. All were stunned at the store, and even more stunned at the prices. Still a (very) few things were bought, and now we can say we shopped at Harrodd's.

I did receive an interesting text message whilst I was buying a book for the trip home, but that's another story.

Once back at the hotel, it was time to figure out dinner. The lads were all for a quick trip to Burger King, while the lasses were a bit put off by the thought of American fast food for their last dinner in England (and that's quite understandable). Accordingly, we headed for a Pasta and Pizza restaurant called Garfunkel's. The food was excellent, although the service left something to be desired at a couple of our tables. Still, it was a good meal.

After dinner, I hit the Internet Cafe to catch up the blog a bit more, then it was home and everyone packing and actually sleeping before the 4AM wake up calls for our 5AM pickup.

Good grief - it's really nearly over!

Tuesday 23 June 09

Well, time to see if everyone can get up and around on their own - we are quite spread out through the hotel. Some in the basement, some on the ground floor, some on the third, and the rest on the fourth. Of course, they're in two different stairwells, which don't connect, other than on the ground floor, so it's set up for great convenience. Oh well, what's a few stairs among friends?

At any rate, most of us made it down for breakfast - English or cornflakes - and we all got there in time for our appointed departure. And depart we did, heading for the tubes and our appointment with destiny, or rather with a guide at John Wesley's Chapel in City Road. In a surprise move, we actually arrived early for our 10AM appointment - ahead of our scheduled guide, in fact.

The upside to that was that one of the two ministers of the chapel - Rev. Jill Potter - gave us an interesting talk about the history of that building, but more importantly, the history of Methodism as a separate denomination. Very cool information here that none of us had previously encountered. Once the guides had arrived on site, we got a quick finish to the chapel introduction, and then moved on to the Foundery chapel and John Wesley's grave in the back. Following that, we split into two groups to tackle the house attached to the chapel, and both groups got excellent tours of the place.

Next up was the Bunhill fields across the street. This is a famous cemetery for dissenters or non-conformists - including Susannah Wesley (the mother of John and Charles), Isaac Watts, Daniel Defoe, and many other luminaries. Unfortunately, most of the graves were inaccessible, as the gates to the footpaths through the fields were padlocked. Interestingly, we were "heckled" about Methodism by a chap walking through to have his lunch in the fields. He found Methodism unacceptable, as it was founded by the man who "invented electroshock therapy, and that's evil." We had a very civil discussion, and parted, while not friends, certainly not opponents. One can hope that he might reconsider - we'll be praying for that.

Walking back up City Road, we stopped at the food court in the Marks & Spencer store and bought sandwiches, drinks, salads, all that kind of stuff for a picnic lunch at the Aldersgate Memorial site by the entrance to the Museum of London. In spite of the fact that I misinterpreted the placement of the 5 items or less signs, the checkout ladies let us all go through so I could buy all the lunches; it was very kind of them, and we didn't really inconvenience anyone. Not only was the food welcome (& good), but we had a pretty significant devotional period there, right in front of random Londoners and visitors. I think it was a good witness that there really is something to all this Christianity stuff. Check 2 Corinthians 3:3.

Now it's time to head back to the hotel to get ready for our matinée of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap. Unfortunately, we ended up at the wrong end of Paddington station, and had to really run and push through things to get to the theatre. Not only did we have a bit of a late start, but the two lines that made the quickest connexion were both down. We still made it a couple minutes after the curtain rose, and the ticket folks asked - are you the group of 14? We were, and they gave us a quick recap of those couple missed minutes and got us in our seats in time to enjoy the play - which we all did, but we can't tell you who it was, as they have sworn us to secrecy!

At least we now had plenty of time to head back to the hotel and relax a bit before our dinner at The Albert, a public carvery in Victoria Street, not far from Methodist Central Hall. We arrived in two slightly separated groups, but all sat down at the same time to a wonderful, traditional carvery dinner (turkey, roast beef, roast pork, and all the sides!) with starters and/or desserts for all. To get a full picture of the dinner, you really should ask one of the travellers who had the chocolate fudge chocolate cake how the dessert was - the looks on their faces almost made me want to have something sweet (but only almost!).

After dinner, we had a fun tube ride home, talking about the various places we could visit tomorrow - our last day in London. We put together some options, and we'll finalise the schedules in the morning, once everyone has slept off their sugar rush- and sleep deprivation-fed anxiousness. The great thing was that everyone realised that they were getting a bit snippy with one another, and that it was because they needed rest.

We're scheduled to meet at 8:30 AM to head out on our last London adventure, so stay tuned!

Monday 22 June 09

Another glorious day in sunny England. We've decided that the tourist bureau of England should pay us to be here - we've completely rearranged the weather patterns of this sceptred isle, and that all for the good, mind you.

At any rate, we were up, broke our fast, took one last walk around the top of the hill, and headed into town to the train station, where we found that everyone had arrived right on time. Unfortunately, the train had other ideas, and arrived about 10-15 minutes late.

We all got on after some very heartfelt good-byes, "stowed" our luggage, and found our reserved(!) seats for the ride to London. It was a bit of a slow one with many stops, but the scenery was good, and many bracelets were created en route.

Part of the entertainment consisted of a group of schoolchildren at the other end of our car. One particular lad, Charlie by name, seemed completely incapable of listening to answers and instruction, so we heard his name quite often. "It's a good job you're not in charge, Charlie, or we'd have been off this train an hour ago," was one of my personal favourites. At any rate, we eventually pulled into Paddington station and found our way to the exit. Of course, that exit was blocked by turnstiles asking for cards which we didn't have. Oh, it was actually a request to show our train ticket, just to make sure we had really paid for our journey - no worries - and off we went.

Our hotel, the Orchard Hotel in Sussex Gardens, is mere blocks from the train and tube station, so we dragged our suitcases and checked in. We settled in briefly, and then gathered for a trip to Subway - the restaurant, not the tubes - for a late lunch, then on to Hyde Park to wander and explore.

The chap at the front desk told us which corner of Hyde Park was near the Hard Rock Café (our dinner destination for the evening), and though it was not the corner I had remembered, we went along with it. More on that in a moment.

We hit Hyde Park with a will, and found all the people watching to be brilliant. We saw the statue of Peter Pan, the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, all kinds of stuff, and were headed for Speakers' Corner when a slight miscalculation found us in the opposite corner - near Buckingham Palace. We thought we might as well just have a look, so we did, and got as much as we needed there. Then it was off across the park for Speakers' Corner - it was mostly fenced so we couldn't get there, but Jeff gave us a rousing speech on why Manchester United is overrated, and how it's all about Liverpool Football Club, then we walked out to find the Hard Rock Café.

Well, you're probably expecting to read that the fellow at the desk was wrong, and that I was right. That's exactly the case. We had another long walk to get to the restaurant - and there was a fairly major queue outside when we arrived. As we had told the travellers, it's always been an hour to an hour and a half wait, so this wasn't unexpected. They all headed over to the shop and museum while I put my name in for some tables. "What, fourteen now, with no booking?" Yep, that's it. "Hold on please." "OK, how about ten minutes?" Good grief, God is watching over me again!

Of course, it wasn't really a ten minute wait, more like six.

Everyone had a great meal, and off they went for the shop again. Once that was done, we started to walk home. Started to, I say, because at this point I revealed the wonders of the London Travel Card! Each of us had unlimited tube travel within Zones 1 and 2 for three full days. Who could ask for anything more?

We sat down to a meeting shortly after returning to set the rules for London and assign buddies to watch out for each other at every travel junction. Once all that was well and truly understood, the boys and I all headed to the Internet Café for a half hour of email, Facebook, and blogging.

We also sent a message to Andrea Deck, who's living here in London, to try to connect while we're here too. We shall see. The café closed at 11, so back we went for some sleep so we could head out at 9 for our first London excursion - Wesley's Chapel in City Road. Everyone was so excited that they hardly slept (or so it seemed to us).

More next time.

Saturday+Sunday 20-21 June 09 + comments

Well, folks, thanks for all the traffic and all the comments - it helps us to feel connected to home as well as to each other as we roam through jolly old England.

Just a note to parents and others who might be involved in picking up travellers on Thursday. My parents will be in the North Cell Phone Lot, and we'll call them when we get to wherever we finish with the customs and TSA folks. It sounds like that's the best place to be, so I thought I'd pass that on. You can check with Jack Van Becelaere if you want info on that lot.

OK, as I said in the last post, there is just too much to tell about the weekend to make a coherent blog - even with Heidi steering the tale. So ... I'm going to give a quick thumbnail and make you find out more when we're back. As to a Second Sunday, I know we'll do something like that - although it may be a thank you tea with a presentation; that's all to be decided yet.

On Saturday, everyone was up smartly and packing had been done as requested, so after breakfast it was a quick matter of settling the bill and getting on the bus. This time, our driver had come early by accident, but we didn't leave until our appointed time.

The departure was a bit tear-filled, I'm afraid. Your travellers really made an impression on Kate and John, and she didn't let us go without a photo on her lawn (and she got an impressive number of hugs along the way). We'll be back there next time if at all possible.

This was a long ride - about 3.5 hours - so we had a quiet trip until we got near to Newton Abbot and stopped at the Services to eat our lunches and stretch our legs. A quick call to our friends Sydney and Dorothy arranged for the host families to meet us as the coach stop across from the train station near the church. There was a wedding going on at the church, and we thought it would be bad form to interrupt.

We pulled in and there they were awaiting us. We hadn't really worked out which travellers would be with which families, but that sorted itself out beautifully. "Who's interested in cricket?" Up went two hands. "Who's interested in golf?" up went two more. "Who are the three girls together?" off they went. All was done that easily, and everyone went off - most with smiles, a few apprehensive looks, but excitement was the order of the day.

Next morning at church we got the run-down. Everyone had had a wonderful time, and thought they had the best place to stay. We did get one complaint from the Dad of one family, though. He said his biggest problem was that they weren't going to be with him nearly long enough. I think all the travellers felt the same way.

Sunday afternoon was as different as Saturday evening, then we met for the evening service.

You can be more than proud of your travellers as they led in a wonderful worship service which was appreciated by all.

Then it was time for more varied activities until we were to meet at 10AM Monday at the train station. But that's another day, so it has to wait for the next post.

Sorry about that, church. (Yes, that was a somewhat obscure old TV reference.)

More tomorrow!

Friday 19 June 09

Everyone awoke promptly and we all broke our fast (well, Matt continued fasting until lunch, but that's another story).

Very interestingly, Emma's room seems to be haunted - the doors open and close themselves from time to time, so we asked Kate if the place were haunted. She said that she used to think so, but it had been years since anything had happened. Still, there had been some ghost hunters who had stayed in the place when they were investigating another Stratford site. Kind of spooky, eh?

Interestingly, today's site is the Old Rectory, which is the subject of a small book by John Wesley which details the haunting of his father's house. Very cool.

At any rate, it's an early start, and we have yet another flawless pickup by Johnsons - with yet another Malcolm, who is also a Yorkshireman, so he even knows where Epworth is! Nice.

Our anticipated 3 hour drive is accomplished in a somewhat sleepy 2.5, and we pulled in with the kids still trying to wake up to see a bus with a sign in the windscreen reading "MPUMC" - a North Carolina church was just finishing a tour as we arrived.
Oh, and our arrival was earlier than expected so we had our tour before lunch rather than after lunch. Peter Brown took us through the place, trying valiantly to engage the kids with his stories, and getting some real participation.

We'll be happy to tell you about the rectory, but since we're heading toward closing time here in the café, let me just say that both Peter and I were disappointed that the hymn Samuel Wesley had written was no longer displayed - along with the copy of the musical setting our church had provided them - and Peter shared the story that Charles Wesley had sung that hymn (Behold the Saviour of Mankind) when visiting prisons in the early Holy Club days.

Next was a nice lunch of sandwiches and spring vegetables soup with tea and coffee. Very nicely done, and everyone enjoyed it.
After a quick tour of the physic garden, we were off for St Andrew's church, which was under renovation. Fortunately, the side with the main entrance and Samuel's tomb was still accessible.

We had a bit of devotional reading in the sanctuary, then the kids got Judy to stand on the tomb, where John had preached when the pulpit of the church was denied him. Quite a thrill all around.

Walked back to the coach and headed home through much more traffic, but we still made decent time, even with a little stop at a services for some drinks.

We got home and updated the blog for the prior day just before that place closed - great to see all the traffic and comments: please keep them coming!


Heidi and I got a few photos of the Shakespeare sites that hadn't been much visited, then it was time to go over Sunday's worship service. That was handled quickly, and then it was off to Garrick's Inn for dinner with Kate and John (our hosts).

Dinner was great, and Kate and John were thrilled to have been asked along (as were we that they would come with us). Once again, had a bit of trouble with the American MasterCard in the British system, but the phone was able to handle it and all was well. We had a great talk with John and Kate on the way home, and everyone retired for the night - after they finished packing, because come morning, it's off to Newton Abbot to stay with our host families of the congregation of the Avenue Church.

It's all very exciting, but some of us are a bit nervous to go stay with strangers. I try to explain that these are all our friends, whether we know them yet or not, and there is more anticipation than angst, so it seems to be working.

Oh, by the way - we've confounded the weatherman at every turn. Each day we've had dire forecasts of rain, cold, clouds, etc. Nonetheless, it looks like I'm coming home with a tan - yes, I had to go to England to get a tan. Bizarre, no?

OK, we may have more time tomorrow to catch up on the weekend, but let me tell you, it was simply fantastic. You're all in store for more stories than you can shake a stick at, and they're all going to be great. You can't wait!

Thursday 18 June 09

Well, I awoke in a panic at 8AM - late for everything! Oh, it's only 6AM. Never mind (sorry, Heidi).

Stunningly, our driver's name didn't start with "S" - his name was Malcolm, and he's a Yorkshireman now living in Warwickshire. Perfect that, as his task was to get us to Warwick Castle in the middle of Warwickshire, and that he did perfectly.

For some reason, the folks at the ticket office didn't know anything about our pre-paid vouchers, but after trying to get them to work, they sent us in free of charge (we don't want you to have a bad time, so in you go), asking us to follow up with the vendor when we return to the States. Bravo, Warwick, Bravo.

Once in, our lads were accosted by a medieval looking fellow with a clipboard (?) who asked them if they wanted to help to wind the world's largest trebuchet for a public firing about an hour later. Three of them signed up (Greg, Jon, and Chris) and it was spectacular. They even received a huge round of applause from the assembled masses once the shot had gone off.

We then had our lunch in the Undercroft restaurant, finishing just in time to catch the falconry exhibition - including a bald eagle - which was also quite spectacular.

Then it was time for everyone to climb the towers, visit the armoury, perhaps tour the dungeon, all that great castle kind of stuff.

At 2PM, we had seen most of the place, and returned to our coach for the ride back via Kenilworth Castle. It was a most impressive place, although Cromwell and his boys had wrecked it at the end of the Civil War (yes, they had one first - look it up!).

Once home (about 3:30) we hit the internet café for yesterday's update, then met to head down to the river front for a dinner of fish and chips (or chicken and chips in several cases). It was a traditional English dinner, and it was a hit.

Then, it was time for our Shakespeare play - As You Like It - and we did, we did indeed. This was a very enjoyable play, and the production was excellent - acting, staging, singing, fighting, everything. You know it's good when no one complained at all, and everyone even followed what was going on, and that was the case tonight.

Sadly, the café is about to close, so I'm going to have to close for today (didn't think I'd even get here in time for anything, so I'm feeling lucky right now). Probably won't have a chance for a day or two, but please, keep leaving your comments, they are much appreciated.

Cheers!