Leading Me Home: London Day 3

By our third day in London, I was finally beginning to get past the jet lag. We started our day by moving hotels and ended up right in the middle of Covent Garden. Before we left, though, I couldn't help but take a silly picture. Just FYI....if you're ever in London and there's an emergency, this is what you're supposed to do.

After breakfast and a silly picture, we were off to our new hotel at Covent Garden. The girls went separately on the tube while Dad took our luggage by taxi.

Side Note.....We couldn't decide how exactly to pronounce the word "Covent." Is it an "oh" sound or an "uh" sound??? So as we were leaving the tube station in "Coh-vent" or "Cuh-vent" Garden, we ran down a subway helper guy to ask him. We asked the subway helper guy our question and when he pronounced the word with his British accent, we had absolutely NO idea which he said. IS IT CUH OR COH?? So, we made him repeat it fifty thousand times and try to take out the British accent. I'm sure it sounded like we all had Tourettes. "C-oh" "C-oh." NO! "C-uh" "C-uh." The subway helper guy was a good sport. :-)

We also needed the subway helper guy because we forgot the map that told us where in "Cuh-vent" Garden our hotel was! Oops. Thankfully, he directed us right to our BEAUTIFUL hotel!! PS...The staff at this hotel (Waldorf Hilton) were the most wonderfully accommodating staff EVER!

Okay, back to Day 3....So after we found our hotel and found the proper way to say Covent Garden, we were off to explore more of the city! But first, we had some much needed lunch.

Then to the tube. Mind the gap!! In American speak, that means watch your step. :-) PS....they also call elevators "lifts."

Because things were so nutso the day before with the parade, we didn't even attempt to walk down the street to see Buckingham Palace. That was first on our list for today!

After checking out Buckingham Palace we split up. Dad and Meredith went to the Winston Churchill Museum while Mom and I went to church service at Westminster Abby! That's right. I went to Sunday church at WESTMINSTER!!!

Can I please just tell you how heavenly it was! We couldn't take any pictures or video in it, but holy moly. It was wonderful. As the service began the choir sang an introit in what kind of amounted to an atrium (except it was the most spectacular atrium ever!) and it was a beautiful blend of mens and womens voices. After they sang the introit, they processed into the sanctuary (??I have no idea if it's actually called a sanctuary in the Church of England!) As they processed in, I seriously had the thought in my head that there are some seriously short people in this choir. I honestly thought there were potentially some "small people" in the choir. But when I could finally see their faces, I realized that it was a BOYS and MENS choir! Dear goodness....I was in HEAVEN!!! I wanted to steal all of those boys for my choir at school!!! Anyway, it was absolutely amazing!

After the glorious church service, my mom and I headed back to our hotel. And lo and behold ran right into my dad (who was looking for the building his meetings were in the next day)! We explored Covent Garden together and kept seeing people with these HUGE delicious-looking ice cream cones!! Anyone who knows me knows my love affair with ice cream. My mom stopped an ice cream holding passerby to ask where the ice cream was. Obviously, we made a beeline to this gelato place called Scoops. The day couldn't get any better - the glorious church service at Westminster and now some seriously delicious gelato!

We ended our day at a wonderful Italian restaurant called Strada. The waiter was a serious schmoozer and we just schmoozed right back! I had the most delicious pumpkin and butternut squash risoto. Holy cow. And thanks to our schmoozing, the waiter gave us a yummy after-dinner dessert!