Queens Gate, London: 2/2/-2/6

This week church was so fun! It was fast & testimony meeting so it was neat to hear all the testimonies. After church we went to a couples house for dinner. They share an apartment with another couple. We sat on the couch while the wife cooked dinner. We offered to help, but she insisted that we are guests and guests don't help. They are a young couple who have only been married two years. We were so hungry and I think she could tell because she brought out a huge basket of bread. Then not only was there butter but jam, and Nutella too. It was so yummy. I was with three other girls and we could not stop eating the bread. The missionaries arrived shortly after and two other ladies from church. We had all sorts of drinks too. Dinner was a yummy dish that had chicken, onions, and corn beef. After dinner we got to participate in a fun dessert activity! I will post the video below. We got a long list of attractions and sites that we must do before we leave. We ended up staying at their house for 6 hours! It was an absolute blast. We tried Marmite. It is basically a British spread that is made out of yeast. It was not my favorite, I prefer the Nutella of course!

This week we went to Warwick Castle & The Commandary.Warwick Castle is a medieval castle developed from an original built by William the Conqueror in 1068. Warwick is the county town of Warwickshire, England. In good weather it is almost like a fair. Local people here can get a season pass. They have people dressed up as Kings & Queens, booths set up, & food. When we went it was rainy and so many parts were closed.

This is approaching the castle from the outside.

We got to go up to the top of that structure. The wind on the other side was crazy!

(Hannah. Me, & Lindsey)

We did find the playground. It said ages 12 and under...whoops!

They had the inside set up with wax figures. It totally made the castle experience just so much more real. I sometimes even turned the corner and though they were real.

Mainly I took this picture for Emily, it is Queen Elizabeth's Saddle.

Sometimes I feel like I have walked into an episode of Downton Abbey.

The backside of the castle.

(Me, Hannah, & Hali). It is hard to see but we had climbed up to the top of one of the towers.

Arm-wrestling like the two wax figures behind us.

They had all sorts of fun wax scenes set up.

Commandery/Worcester Cathedral
The commandery is a historical house. During the Civil War many soldiers came here for refuge.

Remains of the old city walls

Here is the original city entrance:

We went to Hampton Court Palace. This palace was built for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, a favorite of King Henry VIII. In 1529 Wolsey fell from favor and the palace was passed to the King who expanded the castle. King William III rebuilt the castle. In 1694 expanding the castle stopped and it left the castle in two different architecture styles: Tudor and Baroque. This is one of the two surviving palaces owned by King Henry VIII.There is a real tennis court and a maze in the garden. It has not been inhabited by the British Royal Family since the 19th century.

Here is most of our group... we got these oh so fashionable robes to walk around in.

Just some selfies in the garden

(Saren, Jillian, Me & Hannah)

Me & Hali trying to read a book in our robes.

Posing on the stairs

Center of the Palace...courtyard area

View of the gardens from inside the Palace.

Courtyard

Kitchen

They have real food out on display. Many school children were here on fieldtrips in their uniforms learning about the Palace.

Wine Cellar

Outside in the garden

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I know this is so creepy but I couldn't resist! Look at these precious men out for a stroll in the gardens.

Taylor Swift at the O2 Arena. So when I found out Taylor Swift was playing while I would be here I got on with Hali to order tickets. We were so excited that we forgot to get seats by each other. I never thought that I would attend an event such as a concert ALONE! I thought maybe in years from now if my husband passes away I would have to, but not when I am 20! Especially not a Taylor Swift concert. So we got ready to go and I had to prepare myself that I may be sitting alone! We got there and the arena is inside of a building. It was a 40 minute tube ride to get there. We had to enter in separate portals so split up immediately. We do not get cell service here so everything has to be planned out really well. We made a meeting spot and luckily both made it to the spot. We scoped out both of our seats and found out I was on a aisle seat. It was perfect because Hali sat on the stair right by me! It ended up being an amazing concert.

Here is just a sneak peak of the characters we saw while waiting to get in the arena:

The tube workers went on a strike. Conveniently the strike started as soon as the concert ended. So there were 15,000 people all waiting for buses. It was crazy. After waiting for about an hour we hear an announcement, "Ladies and Gentlemen the tube has now opened back up." It was a miracle we went running to the tube station (just about a 20 second run). We got to the station and it was still closed. Apparently somebody thought it would be a funny joke. So we got back in line and continued to wait. Then we heard another announcement, this time we could see it was coming from transportation employees. We ran to the tube, rushed down the escalator and got on the one and only tube line open. It dropped us off at some random place. We walked up out of the tube and found a bus stop. It was a long wait but finally the bus came. We were so relieved and anxiously waiting for our stop. We knew that our stop was where the bus terminates and so were not worried. Well after about one hour of riding the bus we realized we should have only been on 15 minutes. We had both been so tired we missed our stop, apparently the bus didn't terminate. So we got off on the next stop. After we got off we realized it was not an area for two girls to be so late at night. We have become really good at "pretending" we know exactly what we are doing. We don't want scary people to know we are lost and tourists. At this point we were desperate just to get on any bus. We ran into a lady and she told us the next bus is in a half hour. We walked to the next stop and waited for the right bus. It came and again it dropped us off at a random (but safer) location. This happened twice more. It was a hassle and we really don't know how we could have fixed what happened. We were lucky to be with each other, and lucky we had the scriptures on our phone to pull out when we got scared! (no joke). It also was pouring rain! We made it home at 2:30 a.m. 4 1/2 hours.

We were looking like hotties by the end of the night.

Henry V was the play we got to see this week. We woke up at 6 am to go wait in line for tickets. We got tickets! We went back to the theater for the matinee. We then went a 3rd time to see Jude Law come out!

(Jo, Betsy, Me, Hannah & Kelsie)

It happened to be Chinese New Year here. (London has the biggest Chinese New Year celebration outside of Asia). During the big celebration we had church and dinner with the couple. I still walked through China Town the night before!