London and Ashburnham

We now have a long string of largely unbroken visits to capital cities! Number 1 was Reykjavik in Iceland, which makes London number 2. Before I get into this post, though, I should mention the following book, which has really come into its own now that we've hit Europe proper:

'Tis a veritable wealth of information and guidance!

We arrived back in London from the English countryside to enjoy some proper home comforts, including delicious homemade meals, good family time and another (mostly) Kiwi accent. We stayed with John’s cousin and his family, and really enjoyed our time with them! They were wonderful hosts! It was good to properly meet their bonnie wee lad too - he was asleep last time.


We visited many places in London, and enjoyed them all. We were impressed by the number of free attractions, and made sure to check them out! We started in Trafalgar Square, which was partially shut off by fences the first day we were there, as they were preparing for a mysterious big event that night.

Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square

A bright blue rooster oversees the preparations.

From there we visited the National Portrait Gallery for a couple of hours, and took a general wander around part of the central city.

Beautiful - Victoria Memorial statue

Buckingham Palace. The queen was in residence during our stay in London.

We returned to Trafalgar Square that evening, as the mysterious big event that night was... dum dum dum... a free screening from the Royal Opera House of Puccini's opera La Bohème! We had unwittingly timed our visit perfectly, as there are three of these events this year, and we happened to be there for one of them. BP was the main sponsor, and we got given free inflatable cushions for our comfort - they were most welcome, as the show was three hours long!

The area where we were sitting had a chunky fence in the way of the screen, and we weren't allowed to stand up. They displayed English subtitles at the bottom of the screen, so for most of the show I was lowering my head slightly and moving it side to side to understand what was going on. Still, it was great having a transcript, so I could follow! John didn't bother, and was only generally aware of what was going on. I was surprised by how shallow some of the lyrics were, compared to the intensity of the music. I suppose it's hard to convey a decent love story in the short timeframe through songs alone. The performances were fantastic though, and I actually found it quite moving at the end - deathbed scenes always get me!! I found this even more impressive considering the lack of lyrical depth throughout - just shows the power of beautiful music and singing, along with strong acting.

La Bohème

The next day we spent nearly the whole afternoon at the British Museum - easy to do, with the number of things to see. And all the antiquities! It was so interesting! We learned about ancient Assyria, Egypt (with mummies on display, of course), Greece, Rome and the Middle East. The most impressive item I saw was a body preserved from 3500BC. It still had some hair attached to the skull!! A bit weird knowing you're looking at the skeleton of someone who was actually alive a very long time ago.

A friendly welcome to the British Museum from an Assyrian cat.

That evening we tagged along with John's cousin, Steve, to his church's summer programme. It was in the church building, St Helen's, and we found it strange but cool to be in an ancient church building that's actually still in use for that purpose today. We ate pork ragu for tea and learned and discussed why the church is important. Looking at it from God's perspective, Jesus came and died for the church; they are the reason He went to the cross, suffered so, died and rose again - as Christians, then, we should also value the church as much. It's easy to be individualistic, and only think about Jesus dying for me, but it's important to remember He died for all other Christians too, and treasure them as much as He does.

We then meandered with Steve for a little bit, as he showed us some of the sights.

JOHN AND ME (and the Tower Bridge)

The final notable sights we saw in London were mainly from the outside, admiring the beautiful architecture without paying exorbitant sums to enter. Among them were Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, St Paul's Cathedral, the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. We also spent some time in the National Gallery, which houses Monet's "The Water-Lily Pond", amongst other beautiful works.

Big Ben

Such incredible detail on the building.

St Paul's Cathedral

The London skyline

Throughout the week, the weather went from warm to oppressively hot, and we chose the last day of the working week to visit the Camden Town Market and Borough Market. They both had some great stuff (as well as some weird/useless/utterly offensive stuff), but the heat detracted from our enjoyment of them, as most of the time we were pining for shade. The Borough Market sells primarily foodstuffs, and it looked fairly delicious, but we imagined it might be difficult to preserve and successfully return to New Zealand with cheeses and meats.

Ashburnham

On the Friday afternoon, we all left London and headed out to Ashburnham, about an hour and a half from London, to attend another St Helen’s event. This was a week-long camp/conference for all those involved in the St Helen's central city ministry. The central city ministry gets a lot of attendees who work in central London, but who may commute from quite a long way away. This week is a good chance for them to get away, spend some solid time in God’s Word and get to know one another as well. We only stayed for the weekend, though, along with our genial hosts.

The two books of the Bible being preached from were Genesis and the gospel of Luke. We were really struck by the depth of the preaching; William Taylor and Matt Fuller really dug into the passages to explain what the author’s intent was, rather than reading our own preconceptions into them, and emphasised how the authors structured and phrased their accounts very deliberately.

For example, in one account of a confrontation Jesus had with the pharisees, William asserted it would be lazy preaching to identify ourselves with the pharisees - which took me by surprise. I remember when it struck me as an earth-shattering (but valid) prospect to identify myself with the bad guys rather than the good guys in the Bible. However, William referred back to the opening verses of Luke, where the writer's stated purpose is to give his reader/s confidence in the gospel. Thus, Luke's purpose in this account was to show how there was opposition to the gospel right back then, and so there would be today, too - and that we should take heart and still have confidence in it, as they did back then. This transforms the passage from making you just feel down on yourself, to being a pointer back to Jesus and the gospel, and encouraging you instead. There were other pearls of wisdom expounded, but we recommend you just go on the camp yourself when you next get to London.

The grounds themselves were really lovely, and the weather was beautiful. There were a couple of lakes, heaps of lawn space, trees, some easy walking tracks... I didn't have a proper idea of how massive estates really are in England before experiencing them here. I shall note this information for next time I watch Pride and Prejudice (the only decent version - you know it)!

A small section of the grounds at Ashburnham

On the social side of things, we were made to feel right at home - everybody there was so lovely and friendly! We must have had good conversations with at least twenty different people in our short stay there. We were really well taken care of, invited along to whatever was happening - we definitely felt included. On the Saturday, we participated in a traditionally English game of "rounders" - kinda like softball. I hit the ball more than once, and on the second time didn't get caught straight out, so the game was a huge success! I believe John actually scored points for his team, so he didn't too badly either.

Don't worry, though; to counter all this healthy running around we were fed extremely well; cooked breakfast, lunch (with dessert) and dinner (with dessert) - along with morning and afternoon tea and supper, of course. I don't recall much time feeling hungry while we were there.

On the Sunday, most people joined in a "Big Game" event; there were multiple teams composed of about 8 people each, and you competed against one other team at a time at different events. There was shoe tossing; a memory game; a Bible trivia round; and a bouncy castle obstacle course. It was lots of fun, especially since the (different) teams John and I were in got first and second. Coincidence? I think not!

All of us at the main entranceway of Ashburnham.

All in all, we had a fabulous time in England. It was so nice to spend some time with actual people, too, with Steve and co., as well as the lovely people at Ashburnham. We kept feeling like we must be staying longer there - the camp had only just begun! - but had to remind ourselves we were departing on the Sunday night to Scotland.

We had, after all, booked a sleeper bus to Glasgow. Or so we thought...