TheLionRampant.net

First off, we’re back from our weekend away in London. It was wonderfully fabulous and if you’re not interested in hearing more, I suggest you come back another day to read other things we’ve written (or take a browse through our archives). A few pictures are located here for your enjoyment.

We hired a car for our trip and left early Friday morning. We drove over to Glasgow and south on the M6 and rather than spending a few short hours in London before we had to arrive at the peoples’ home at which we were staying, we decided to spend those few hours in Oxford. This is exciting for me on so many levels and caused me to clap for excitement when we made the decision. For those not in the know, I spent three months there on an exchange programee (the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies), and had the time of my life; I still keep in touch with the 6 women with whom I lived, who now live in the States, UK and South America. I guess the travel bug bit us all! Anyway, we had a lovely time although I had to feel my way around the city, not having a map with me. And as Bryce says, neither of us had a ’staging area’. Whenever travelling, I need to mental prepare (or stage) myself for the experience and since we made the decision last-minute, I didn’t have the opportunity. He also didn’t have the opportunity to be led slowly up to all of these Oxfordian monuments (the Bodleian library for instance as you quite regularly round a corner and find it in front of you). We had pasties in the covered market followed by Ben’s cookies, which are heavenly. We also enjoyed the 2nd hand floor of Blackwell’s Bookshop. It was fabulous.

We then drove down to Ealing, a borough in west London, to stay with some lovely people, Graham and Katie Weeks. They graciously put us up for the weekend and fed us some lovely food! It was great to meet and be with Christians and find an instantaneous ‘comfortability’ with them. Saturday, Bryce went off to a presbytery meeting with Graham and I went into London. Having forgotten my tourist book, I acted even more touristy by asking everyone where certain things were! My first stop was Portobello Road Market, where I picked up a fabulous silver candelabra, a funky skirt and a cute silver sugar spoon for my mom. I then went to the Victoria and Albert Museum; I loved the feel for the time that you get when there and enjoyed the flattened musical instrument decorations. I then found my way to a Wagamama’s where I immersed myself with my ramen and a book, to avoid looking like a complete loner eating by myself. I then went to the National Gallery, where I’d spent some time before. I love their collection of Dutch master and impressionist painters. Van Gogh’s Farms near Avers is one of my favourite pieces there, by far and I was disappointed the gift shop didn’t have a print of it. My feet aching, I enjoyed a cup of tea until meeting up with Bryce for a fab dinner in China Town.

Sunday, we went to IPC Ealing, which both Bryce and I found extremely refreshing. The congregation was so very welcoming and they had a lovely service. We particularly enjoyed the strength of the singing and speaking with people from all over the world who attend there. It was great to meet the pastor, Paul Levy, as well and hear more about the IPC. We had another lovely meal after the service with the Weeks and then headed back to Edinburgh; we then decided last-minute that it’d be nice to visit Grace Church Hackney as we had heard good things about it. It, too, had a lovely service and we again were encouraged. We left London around 7 pm and rolled into Edinburgh in the wee hours of the morning, with several stops for caffeine, sugar and cat naps. All in all, a fabulous weekend and I hope we can quickly get back into the swing of classes and studying!

*I realise of course that our Scottish readers will probably never read this blog entry due to its title. It comes from a hilarious song that Graham Weeks played for us called ‘a song of patriotic prejudice’, whose chorus begins with the title of this blog entry. It of course was as tongue-in-cheek as most good English humour and we quite enjoyed it. This, of course, does not mean that we necessarily agree with Flanders and Swann’s song, but being that we were in the south of England this weekend, it seems only fitting to use it as our title. (End of disclaimer).

This entry was posted by Ashley on Monday, January 30th, 2006 at 8:35 pm. This entry was tagged with Living the Gospel, travels. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.