Hyde Park--Day Three

Sunday morning-- and our first order of business was Church at the Hyde Park Chapel in west London.  This was the nearest Church to our hotel and also a place that Gary K. had served while on his mission.

Like our church building in Hong Kong, it is on several levels with stairs and elevators in between (actually no elevator that I remember in Hong Kong).  It has a beautiful pipe organ in the chapel with many of the pipes exposed.  They have so many visitors that they have a Sunday School class just for visitors with a teacher called.  She says that she teaches between 30-100 people each week--always changing.

After Sunday school I tried to get a picture of
the pipe organ but they were starting another
Sacrament meeting.  You can see it at the front of the Chapel.

The lobby of the building is also a small visitor's center where people can be greeted by missionaries and learn a little about the gospel.  One of the sister missionaries serving there is from central China.  Isn't that amazing!!

 Even a sign outside indicating that people can stop in and get a free Book of Mormon.

It was another beautiful day in London which was great because the plan for the afternoon was to spend some time at the famous Hyde Park which was just a block and half north of the chapel  (I think it is north--lack of mountains makes directions tough in a big city.) 

It's London so there must be a pigeon somewhere---and there were lots of them!  This is the road outside of the Hyde Chapel building.

Entering Hyde Park---

We are not in Syracuse anymore---our parks don't have quite as fancy of gates and fencing.

Prince Albert's Memorial--This is what you do when you are the Queen and your loving husband dies.  (Sorry, Gary, I love you that much as well, but don't think I have the resources to build you something like this.)

 

Each corner represented a different part of the British empire at the time.

And when you are in London, you must squeeze yourself into one of their iconic phone booths even if this one did not have a working phone.

Princess Diana's Memorial Fountain--didn't expect a water place for kids to play in, but it did seem like a fitting tribute to her.

And Charon and I couldn't resist walking in the water ourselves.  It was quite refreshing.

The pond inside of the park complete with swams, ducks, and geese.

We ate pondside at a cafe and some people had their first official fish and chips in England.  The fish is cod and it is usually big and lots of fried breading on it.

Our walk through the park continued along the pond/lake

then out and down to the Memorial gardens which honors people who have died in the many wars that Britain has been in over the hundreds of years they have been a country.

We then reached the famous Buckingham Palace and spent some time walking around and admiring this huge building.

Queen Victoria's monument in front of the palace.

A shot of an actual guard of the palace.  It turns out that they just aren't located at the Buckingham Palace but at other palaces as well and we were able to see the changing of the guard at Windsor Castle a few days later.

Their hats are made of bear skins from North American (which I hate the idea of) and weigh several pounds each.

So many details to see and to talk about.

A posed picture in front of the Palace

An important reminder for all of us who live where traffic is on the other side of the road.

Gary K. wanted to ride the subway so we decided we would head for the nearby tube station and head back to the hotel that way.

City sights along the way:

Apartment buildings

A "growing green wall" on the side of a building

A shop on the ground floor with housing above it.  Everywhere the old and the new are mixed together.  Many of these places are over 100-300 years old.

We didn't try to do a play but next time (if we go back) we might give it a try.  Sometimes you can get much cheaper seats than in Salt Lake.

 A bit of a challenge as some of the subways are not wheelchair compatible, but with the help of the staff at the Tube, we figured it out and we all got our first ride on the subway in London.  Gary and Gary K reported that they have really been upgraded and improved since the last time they had ridden them. 

While on the subway, Charon got a phone call from her husband back in Utah.  How crazy is that!  We live in an amazing world.

Our subway top was near the West Field Mall which is a very high end shopping area near our hotel.

We stopped for dinner there and had some great hamburgers and the sweet potato fries were the best I had ever had anywhere.

We then managed to figure out our way home with some help from our waiter and our map. 

Day three was done...and we all fell asleep early again that night.