WEEK 4: A Visit to London

A busy week, rewarded by a fun adventure!! We did more painting, repairing, cleaning and work.  There are LOTS of farm properties here, we haven't even seen them all yet!  But we enjoy serving. The profit for the farms we are serving on go to the missionary fund and the humanitarian projects around the world, so when we get tired and say, 'we signed up to do what?' we just think of what we are doing it for, and we are happy!  We painted more barn doors. Steve likes to do the top, high places, and I prefer to paint the lower bottom half.  

Steve painting more doors!

It's fun to go exploring this country after working hard all week! This weekend, Sister Pat Foy's 3 sisters and brothers-in-law came to visit, so they invited us to go explore with them!

This is the group!

We rode the train to London, as it's easier than driving and finding places to park! For 17 pounds, we got an all day pass, which reminds me of the subways we rode in New York, only this is much bigger! We hopped on and off trains to get us to the different sites, but we had to go UP and DOWN, UP and DOWN, UP and DOWN stairs- like 3 levels up and down! very exciting!

Tower of London

The Tower of London is a tower that was built in like the 1100's or 1200's, by William the Conqueror, for protection against all of the people he conquered! Or something like that- but he fortified the tower by building 3 additional layers of protection, the castles, ramparts, and the moat. It was all pretty intimidating! The iron gates guarding the entrances are still working and weigh 2-3 tons! 

Tower gates


I thought the whole thing was fascinating! They also have long holes at the gate, to pour hot oil down upon the intruders. Lots of good and evil went on at the palaces. There were kings/queens to dethrone, children 'heirs to the throne' to get rid of, and the many "off with their head!" scenarios. It must've been a very hard time to live! The warnings from the Book of Mormon, about having an unrighteous king have been played out over and over here. But it is beautiful to look at now!  I can't even imagine how long it must've taken to build these massive places! We had a very entertaining and interesting guide to take us around and enlighten us with what happened here.  This gentleman is called a "Beefeater", a name given by the  peasants to the royal guards. they were feed beef, to keep them strong. the peasants didn't have beef to eat.

Our guide

Here is a picture of the outside wall. Notice the rectangular slits around the outside wall? If an 'undesirable' got too close, a sword would come out of those slits to greet you!

Castle with moat

We also went to see the HUGE cathedral, Westminster Abbey, which is so big and beautiful!  It was amazing! It's right across from the big parliament buildings. I guess that's enough for our report for that. There was SO much more! I felt like this is a part of our history too, as our forefathers and mothers lived here during the time of the fighting Kings and Queens. Next time we come, we'll visit the "Royal Jewels", still kept in the Tower of London. The line was like 3 hours long, so next time we'll go there first!

Westminster Abbey

Who says work can't be fun too??  :)