Monday, July 21

On Monday morning, Joyce and Alan elected to go on a different way from Forst and Louise.

Alan and Joyce started with a walk through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. Along the way we saw Kensington Palace, which is where Princess Di resided, a playground for children, dedicated to Princess Di, and the Prince Albert Monument and Royal Albert concert hall.

We then got on the Tube and rode to Westminster Abbey. The famous cathedral was begun in the 11th century and has been added on to for years. Every King/Queen of England since 1066 has been crowned there, and we even saw the throne that has been used for every coronation. The history and majesty of the facility was amazing. The remains of many, many famous people are interred in the building (and e

ven more people who we had never heard of). It was strange to be walking around and find yourself standing on someone’s tombstone. Westminster Abbey is someplace that we have seen often on TV, and to be there was a great treat.

Forst and Louise took advantage of the tour line’s Tour of London. It was a bus tour that went past many of the major attractions in London, including St. Paul’s Cathedral and the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.

Monday afternoon we stepped away from our Cosmos tour and London to go and visit Ken and Dawn Houghton in Milton Keynes, about an hour’s train ride north of London. The Houghton’s are church planters that Forst and Louise have supported for more nearly 20 years. It was more time of new adventures. We started off with Alan collecting lunch from a London grocery store for a picnic on the train. The overground train station at Euston was in a different part of London tan we had been, so we tried out some new underground lines to Euston.

The train ride was very smooth and our lunch on the train was very pleasant, which allowed the ride to fly by very quickly. Ken met us at the station and quickly gave us a tour of Milton Keynes, which has only really been in existence for about 30 years. The city now has a population of about 250,000, and Ken described it as the most American English city.

We went to Ken and Dawn’s home for some light refreshments and a quick tour of their home base. Forst and Louise got to catch up with more recent events in each families lives, and Alan and Joyce got a chance to learn more about the ministry, the climate for spiritual issues in England, and other things about living in England.
Ken loaded us back into his car and gave us a quick tour of the area around Milton Keyes, including the villages of Stony Stratford and Buckingham, where the church that they are serving is located. We also had a chance to see the royal summer palace in Buckingham, Stowe, which is now an exclusive boarding school.

We got back to the train late in the afternoon, boarded, and took a more leisurely trip back to London. After going a different direction from the Tube stop, we went to the local grocery store, which also had a several stations to collect your meal, much like the new food courts at Purdue. We had yet another very full day, quite ready to fall into bed for another good night’s sleep.