Thursday
When eating breakfast with only 25 minutes until we were to leave it dawned on me that the boys and Mr. Sarr were not there. It thought that they could have eaten before me but I thought I better go check. Sure enough, they were all still asleep. Though they woke up late they made a quick recovery and we all gathered at 8:15 to meet our driver for the first week, John. He is friendly enough man who is helpful and kind. Our first stop was the Bunhill Fields cemetery, a very old one that is now in disrepair and passed by hundreds of commuters every day. While they were filing through we were finding Susanna Wesley’s grave,. John Bunyan’s crypt and monument, and Issac Newton’s crypt, where we sang When I Survey The Wonderous Cross, and a monument to Daniel Defoe (wrote Robinson Caruso). We were also treated when Mr. Sarr found the grave of John Owen, the theologian. One of the difficult things about a trip such as this is the difficult choices about what to visit thoroughly and what to just quickly see. Though it is a spectacular cathedral, we quickly stopped at St. Paul’s taking a quick walk around and talked about the archbishop burning the copies of Wycliff’s Bibles on the rear grounds of the cathedral. Up until now the weather has been unseasonably warm, in the 60s, but today it got cold and rainy. This was significant when we stopped to shop at Harrod’s because it meant that those who would have perhaps walked to a nearby park were now forced to spend the time in the store. It was an impressive store indeed and everyone was happy for the visit, though purchases were limited because of high prices. As a side note, prices in London are of course in pounds stirling, but an American dollar is only worth about 50 cents when exchanged for a pound. One might expect then that things will only cost half as much, but such is not the case. The prices on things are about the same as what we expect to pay in dollars, but instead it is pounds. For example, we expect to pay about $3 or $4 for a sandwich at lunch in America, but that is what they pay here, only in pounds (which means that the real cost is $6-$8). After leaving Harrod’s, our driver took us to a supermarket to buy sandwiches and salads for lunch. Like USA supermarkets stores have branched out to include ready-to-eat food. This modern, clean store with lots of people available to help shoppers was a pleasant surprise. Some of us were very excited about our next stop, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Charles Spurgeon’s church. We were treated to a private session with Chris Cooper, one of the staff pastors, who gave us a look around and explained the church history. We were impressed with the excellent book store with lots of quality titles. It was finally time to leave London for Portsmouth. Along the way we stopped at Winchester, the site of an early cathedral and the center of William the Conqueror’s reign. This visit was largely an afterthought, but turned out to be deeply moving. The cathedral is a working church doesn’t have as many crypts as other cathedrals. Since it was late in the day we had the place to ourselves and the low light coming in the stained glass window at the rear made it beautiful. We found a Pizza Hut for dinner and headed to Portsmouth. We arrived in plenty of time to discover that the ferry was 2.5 hours late. We slept in reclining chairs that didn’t serve well as either a chair or recliner. Most of us woke up tired but with enough rest to carry on the next day. When I look back I am amazed at all we accomplished on Thursday, but each step was the natural thing to do next.
Pictures (clockwise): Issac Watts tomb; Discussing John Westley's statue in the back of St. Paul's cathedral; Winchester Cathedral with sun on west window; the front of the Metropolitan Tabernacle; the group inside the Metropolitan Tabernacle.
