London was as wonderful as I had hoped. My first blog entry will just include the run-of-the-mill tourist photos that I took in London. Maybe tomorrow I will have to time to write about Holy Trinity Brompton--which is a very impressive church that we visited. After that I will try to put together a blog with some pictures of sites that are important to those who find John Wesley impressive (I'm one of those people). Wesley was, of course, the Anglican priest who became the founder of the Methodist church.
The flight over was good, though we were delayed going into Chicago, which required us to take a later flight. Nobody was tired yet, so you can see BIG smiles in place at O'Hare International Airport.
Once we got into London our professor and tour guide, Dr. Tory Baucam (Asbury Professor of Preaching and Church Renewal), met us with our van driver for the week, Ben (more on him later, he's the handsome bloke closest to you in the picture below). Ben took us directly to the Royal Foundation of St. Katharine where we left our luggage in a big closet because we couldn't get into our rooms to freshen up after the long flight. 
Below is the courtyard in the middle of the retreat area. The Foundation was begun as a hospital in 1147. Back then it was just outside the London Tower. The Foundation eventually became a chapel and retreat center. It moved to East London in 1948 as a result of the devastating bombings during the Second World War. It's an inexpensive and nice place to stay. It is also very near the Limehouse Underground Station, which means it gives you good access to all of London.
Below is a picture of us gathering in front of St. Katharine's. You can see the window to my room above Jason's head. It's the only picture I took of it. Sorry it's so fuzzy.
This is the chapel at St. Katharine's. They have morning prayer each day at 8:00. 
After we dropped the luggage off, prayed together, and revived ourselves with a spot of tea, we were off to the races. As you can see from the pictures, we had amazing weather. In fact, it was this way all week. At no time did we have a proper rain. You just couldn't ask for better weather in London in October.These pictures aren't in order . . . but you'll get a general idea of the first "tourist" day.
The parliament building is always stunning.
Westminster Abbey isn't shabby, either.
St. Paul's Cathedral looked great against a distinctive sky.
Can't remember the name of this, but it's near Trafalgar Square
This is "Eros" atop the monument at Piccadilly Circus. Oddly enough, there is neither a cafeteria nor a circus there. 
The monument at Trafalgar Square.
A piece of downtown London. I like the "bullet" looking building.
The Thames River, parliament, and Big Ben (officially, St. Stephen's Tower).
This is St. Paul's Cathedral where we ended the day (after passing it on the bus tour). We went to a sung Evensong there, complete with the boy's choir. It was a beautiful service, though because it was at the end of a very long day it was hard to stay awake in such peaceful bliss. Someone (I won't say who it was) fell asleep and dropped his prayer book right in the middle of the service. Well, okay, since you're pressing me to tell you who it was . . . Jason felt bad about it!
This is the approach to the famous Tower Bridge.
We were on top of one of those double-decker tourist busses for about three hours. It was a tad brutal. In the space of 14 hours we rode in a crowded car to the airport, waited in a crowded area for a plane that was three hours delayed, flew over the entire state of Indiana, waited in a crowded Chicago airport, flew over the eastern half of the United States and then the Atlantic Ocean, rode in a 15 passenger van (with 15 passengers holding their luggage on their laps) for an hour and a half through London stop-and-go traffic, and then we spent the three hours on top of the bus in brisk, diesel London air. It was great . . . but exhausting . . . and hard on the ol' sinus cavities.
London traffic is amazing. Even with the congestion charge (an 8 pound tax to drive in the central part of London), there are vehicles everywhere. Amazingly, the drivers are mostly cool and collected. There is a fascinating rhythm to the traffic flow.
The parliament building is always stunning.
Westminster Abbey isn't shabby, either.
St. Paul's Cathedral looked great against a distinctive sky.
Can't remember the name of this, but it's near Trafalgar Square
This is "Eros" atop the monument at Piccadilly Circus. Oddly enough, there is neither a cafeteria nor a circus there. 
The monument at Trafalgar Square.
A piece of downtown London. I like the "bullet" looking building.
The Thames River, parliament, and Big Ben (officially, St. Stephen's Tower).
This is St. Paul's Cathedral where we ended the day (after passing it on the bus tour). We went to a sung Evensong there, complete with the boy's choir. It was a beautiful service, though because it was at the end of a very long day it was hard to stay awake in such peaceful bliss. Someone (I won't say who it was) fell asleep and dropped his prayer book right in the middle of the service. Well, okay, since you're pressing me to tell you who it was . . . Jason felt bad about it!
This is the approach to the famous Tower Bridge.
We were on top of one of those double-decker tourist busses for about three hours. It was a tad brutal. In the space of 14 hours we rode in a crowded car to the airport, waited in a crowded area for a plane that was three hours delayed, flew over the entire state of Indiana, waited in a crowded Chicago airport, flew over the eastern half of the United States and then the Atlantic Ocean, rode in a 15 passenger van (with 15 passengers holding their luggage on their laps) for an hour and a half through London stop-and-go traffic, and then we spent the three hours on top of the bus in brisk, diesel London air. It was great . . . but exhausting . . . and hard on the ol' sinus cavities.
London traffic is amazing. Even with the congestion charge (an 8 pound tax to drive in the central part of London), there are vehicles everywhere. Amazingly, the drivers are mostly cool and collected. There is a fascinating rhythm to the traffic flow.
We also walked to the church William Shakespeare attended. Here is the statue of him that they stuck in the interior wall.
This is the exterior of the church.
This is a carving from the 15th century (I think!).
We then walked to The Globe, a rebuilt representation of the theater that first presented Shakespeare's plays. It was, of course, burned down in the famous London fire of 1666. It is now the only building in London that is allowed to have a thatched roof (thatched roofs helped make London into a giant torch, though it is believed that fire killed the rats that were causing the plague and so may have had a purifying effect).The guy in the picture is my friend, Bryan Bucher.
After the Globe we walked across the footbridge over the Thames and went to the service at St. Paul's that I mentioned above. It really was a long and wonderful day. You just couldn't ask for better London weather. Well . . . that's enough for this entry. I'll add another as soon as I can.
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