Day Two-Our little "piggies" went to Market! Part 1

We thought we walked a lot yesterday. When we left the Ukraine, Larry mentioned as tired as we were, at least "London will be easier physically" but at the end of each day we would be groaning and moaning as we climbed the stairs at the B&B. I cannot even imagine how many miles we walked each day. Yes, there is a Tube that gets you places and fast. But do you realize how much you miss when you don't walk...so we did walk...and walked a lot.

When we begin to plan our trip to London, one thing that came up quick in our search for things to do was to go to a street market of some type. Portobello kept coming up so since we couldn't do them all, we decided on it. We were not disappointed. We got up early, again, and headed to that area of London. We got a bit turned around but thankfully it was early and we had time to just look around. Had we not turned down this street, we would have totally missed this little jewel....

All I have to say is I am very thankful it is not my job to water all these plants! :)

Isn't it too fun! We didn't eat there...simply because we ate at every booth in the market. Well maybe not every booth...I think we missed a couple.

We were so excited about this day. Milling around a street market with the locals, eating and shopping for something cool and different is really how we like to discover a place. So along with thousands of other people that had the same idea for the day...we had so much fun. Oh how I want to go back!

 Larry loves old tools..imagine that..so he found himself a super old wood plane.

 Getting there early was such a good plan. This was the market at the beginning of the day.

Hmm...like I say...get there early!

I love window staging...and this store amazed me. The windows of this store were covered with old sewing machines on shelves. So...I heard there is one of these stores in Washington. 

Allsaints Spitafields. Super cute clothes.

 Really wanted to bring a couple of these home to use for decorating. 

 Really really wanted to bring some of these home. 

But this were the real deal and they were pricey...so I just oohed and aahed.

 If you are reading this, then you know the Knights and our love for food. 

Larry is a true blue "foodie".

He loves to try new things.

He loves to try LOTS of new things.

I don't think it is right for him to eat alone.

I am a very good wife. :)

 The food is not only amazing but it is beautiful.

I might have taken 100's of pictures of food.

We tried one of these. Tasty.

 We might have tried one of these too. Or maybe more than one. 

Did I mention how much we were walking? It was in self defensive.

We didn't try every item at this booth...but I couldn't quit taking pictures.

So maybe I am the "foodie".

 I have a real weakness for bread...good bread! 

When it is stuffed with REAL cheese and basil and tomatoes that actually have flavor. 

Well...let's just say it is a good thing I don't live near this market. 

We first of all watched these guys make some incredible brushetta.

Then added thick slices of the best looking mozzarella cheese and more basil.

Then came the thick slices of yummy bread.

Then a few minutes in a panini iron...

then we might have gobbled it down in record time.

We didn't have any Coconut Milk, but did love these guys hats!

Several years ago, when visiting my cousins in Colorado they introduced us to Seafood Paella.

Larry fell in love with it and so you can't imagine how excited he was to see these guys cooking.

Can you believe the size of their pans! 

So, I left him doing this...

While I went into this...my new FAVORITE store...good thing there isn't one in Abilene.

Larry has no idea how lucky he is.

Another weakness...my love for flowers. They were everywhere.

Beautiful. Couldn't bring those home either. :(

I just know this guy is someone famous.

This made me laugh. It's London's Dollar Tree!!!

This also made me laugh. Let me just say that HE was one of many very "interesting" dressed people that we ran into at the Market. Be sure and read his apron. :)

We had a lot of fun. It was quaint and quirky.

I loved it! I wanted to bring a lot home.

Had to resist..the suitcase and the budget dictated what I could haul home!

After we left the Market, we took the Tube to the Buckingham Palace area.
We needed to walk some more. After all the eating, we really did need to!
Must break this day into two blogs...stay tune.

First FULL day in London...

Slept like logs! Only problem is, just like in the Ukraine, it gets light at 4! FOUR O'CLOCK PEOPLE!! So every day when we were gone...our days started early. Not because you have to get up at 4, but once it is light, it is harder for these two to sleep. So, we would normally but getting ready for our day by 6! :) Not a lot is open at 6 but gave us time to make some coffee, get ready and look over our notes for the "plan of the day"! Larry had studied London SO much on Google Earth so he usually wanted to look on the computer again to get himself "ready" for the day! :)

We intentionally planned for today to be low-key. We had this feeling we were going to come back to London exhausted and we weren't disappointed! :) We were bone tired so the plan today was to take things at a slow pace. It was a nice plan but we still walked MILES today and packed in a lot. However, the day started off at perfect breakfast spot...

 The Orangery...right beside Kensington Palace!

Andrew told us to go and because we like to obey, we decided to take his suggestion. :)

He was so right! It is quiet, quant and perfect. We sat outside even though inside look adorable.

You can see, Kensington Palace behind us in the second picture...we are sitting in the Kensington Gardens...pinch me...are we really here??

Okay, so there WAS a really beautiful scone on this little wooden board with some delicious jam. Was. Was good!

We both had hot tea...we are in London and it just seemed like the thing to do...and we both loved it! 

They have really good tea...and cream...and sugar cubes! 

We walked all around the Kensington Gardens. OH MY GOODNESS! Everything is perfectly manicured and really beautiful. It was peaceful and relaxing. Here are a few of MANY pictures. 

Next stop: Harrods! We were equally excited. I was excited to see the store and Larry was so pumped to visit the Food Floor. Let me just say, the Food Floor was so amazing and beautiful that we spent most of our time there. The thing I loved most, was the fact that is was decorated OVER THE TOP for the 60th Queen Jubilee. The city was coming alive for the big celebration and Harrods was leading the way! We did pick up one thing for the grands but other than that, we just walked around with our mouths dropped open...it is as amazing as we always heard! Worth seeing!!!

 The store windows were so adorable!!!!

Next we stopped at a pub and shared a plate of fish and chips and a meat pie. I wasn't a big fan of the meat pie but Larry liked it. The fish and chips...fries...were good but nothing extra special. 

This was the cute little place across from the Pub. I might just repaint my old bike in the backyard black...so adorable!!! Course all the beautiful plants kind of helped its cuteness!

Okay, let me just say that I LOVE THE TAXI's in London!!

Next we were headed to the Westminster Area, so we came of the tube and this is the

FIRST thing we saw! 

Really! Really?!?!?

Well Hello Big Ben!!!

 Yep, I love the phone booths too. I understood pretty quickly why people

LOVE London...it is so amazing!

We had been told they Evening Song was a great way to see the Abbey for free AND you got to attend a service, which is really how we wanted to see it anyway! We HIGHLY recommend going.

It was so sweet to hear the little boys choir sing and see this amazing church. The building is hard to describe. AMAZING! I took a lot of pictures of the outside but no pictures were allowed inside. The choir was a group of 18 young boys but it sounded like 100 kids singing...the acoustics were breathtaking. I am in love with this building! That is obvious by the amount of pictures I have on my computer...I will spare sharing them all with you! Here are some of my favorites!

I love this picture. After we left the service, we came around to the side and their were the little boys...being boys...playing ball on the lawn of WESTMINSTER ABBEY!!!!! Look at the size of those trees!

We then walked around Parliament and Big Ben. It's hard to describe, because until we saw the buildings, we realized we have NOTHING to compare to the architecture in this place. When you look at these buildings and realize how old they are,  you think about how in the world did they do it?  How did they build these simply amazing structures. Again, only a few of my favs!

This is the Parliament Building right against the Thames River. Beautiful!

 So, though we planned to take it easy today...we walked...and walked...

and walked! We did take one of London's Double Decker Bus and yes, we got on the top so we could take in more of this lovely city. We made our way back to the B&B, stopped by the local M&S's and picked up some yummy bread, cheeses, fruit, meat and headed to the rooftop patio to eat before heading to bed. When you get up early and you are eating dinner at 9 PM...it makes for a very long day and two very tired travelers!!! Tired but feeling extremely blessed to have this time!

London...here we come!

For the most part this day was pretty much consumed with travel. Andrew took us into Kiev, but he had to make several stops before we arrived at the airport so left Camp around 8. We had a very crazy check in as we were told at the ticket desk that our plan was fixing to load and so we encountered a few minutes of craziness! I am not a fan of being so rushed, having to try to find a line that will let you cut in, etc. ESPECIALLY when you speak a different language! Larry found a lady that spoke a little English, he tried to explain our dilemma and she let us cut! Whew. Got to our gate and loaded on a bus to drive is out to our plane. Whew. This was one airport I didn't want to spend a lot of extra time in. As I mentioned in the first day, it was just unsettling. This section of the terminal was cleaner and we saw fewer less Military presence...I guess they aren't as concerned if you are LEAVING the Ukraine as coming in! :)

When we got in our seats, we both took a huge deep breath and kind of melted into our seats. We were weary! Larry slept but I don't do well sleeping on a plane, but it was nice to just sit! We had one student, Jess, who was traveling with us back to London where she was to catch a connecting flight to Chicago. Once we landed, we were going to make sure she found her next flight, etc. but British Airways is so nice and they were standing there waiting to take her and other passengers to their next flight! So nice! So we said our goodbyes and walked away, looked at each other and just smiled...our vacation was about to begin! 

We went through customs...which took a while but gave us a chance to get our game plan of what to do once we were free! We got our luggage, got us some "pounds" and our Oyster Card (Travel card for tube and bus that we HIGHLY recommend!) and we were off!!!

Took the tube into London and though we had a few moments of trying to figure out the tube...which turned out to be a problem only because the line we needed was having issues...but we recovered quickly and we were at our stop before we knew it. When we got to the street, we both just smiled! Lovely area. Busy but lovely! Larry had studied Google Street View SO much before we left Abilene that he felt like "he had been there before" so he quickly got his bearings and lead us right to the door of Barclay House  (Bed and Breakfast). It was lovely and such a perfect little spot! We checked in with the housekeeper who showed us around and answered lots of questions. Very nice lady. We dumped our luggage and set out to find us some dinner. We hadn't eaten much that day because we were going to get us a good lunch at the airport in Kiev but with all the craziness at check-in we had no time. It was such a lovely evening so we walked one short block and came across so many cute little cafes that we had a hard time picking one! We enjoyed sitting outside, taking in all the sights and sounds of London and eating something someone else cooked! :) Then we walked around the area a bit, found a really fun cute little grocery store (Mark and Spencer's) very near our B&B and got us a few snacks for the room before returning to our room. It was probably close to 10 before we got into our room and we tried our best to settle in a bit before falling into a very comfy bed! We called both of our kids and it was SO good to hear their voices before we crashed! 

 This is the street where we lived for a week! Hard to describe how fun it was at the end of each day to go back to a residential area, grabbed some snacks and go sit on the balcony for a bit and unwind!

A different view of the Ukraine...

While we worked in a very remote area, we did have one day in Kiev to do a bit of sightseeing. It was a good break from work and I think all of us needed a day of rest but at the same time, we were very ready to get back to camp. Kiev is big, about 11 million people. Andrew took us sightseeing, to a street market, to eat, on a very scary subway (not a big fan!) and then we headed back to camp. Here are a few pictures of our sightseeing day...

St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev-an astonishing temple. Hard to imagine the amount of money spent on these and then to see the poor village near the camp.

Larry and I at Maidan Nezalezhnosti OR Independence Square. Quite a hopping little square as they 

were preparing for the Euro Cup in Soccer which was starting shortly after we left the Ukraine. 

 

St. Michaels Golden Dome Monastery

  

Anyone for a Snickers? 

I know I have done a lot of journaling about the Ukraine. Sorry if I have been too wordy, but Andrew's work has really has made me think and look at things a lot different.

We left the Ukraine feeling very thankful for the experience, thankful for Andrew and Jenny, who are working so hard to make the lives of children better, thankful for our new friends Sergei and Sveta, thankful for the time we had with the World Racers, thankful for the time we had to serve along beside our amazing University Students and extremely thankful that God kept us safe, healthy and that our travels pretty much went flawlessly. It was such a wonderful trip and we feel extremely blessed to have been asked to be sponsors. We left the Ukraine tired...I mean really tired. Larry and I had worked probably as hard as we ever had and yet we felt so blessed to have been given this opportunity to help Andrew and new friends. We certainly came home feeling very thankful for the lives we have been given, our home, our family, our friends...and like I said...so many things we have taken so for granted like running water, a indoors shower, etc.

When this mission trip came up, we made a decision to take a little side trip at the end. We felt like if we on the other "side of the pond" what a perfect opportunity to see London and Paris. So, we said goodbye to the rest of our group on our last day together, they flew home and we flew back to London! At this point I really felt like I went into a dream...ha...actually dreaming would involve sleep...something we felt like we needed badly! Next stop...LONDON!

A unexpected but very fun surprise!

Have you ever heard about the  World Racers? I had heard a little last year but when Andrew mentioned before we left the USA that another small group of volunteers would be at camp when we were, one of the World Racers Teams, I did a little reading up to see who they were. When we got to Camp, we were quickly met by 7 amazing young ladies. They had cooked our supper. They were there, just like us, to serve. And serve they did! They are on a 11 month adventure to 11 countries. They are just about at their half way point. They have seen a lot and my guess, they will continue to see and experience much more. I had the great honor of getting to work along beside these amazing ladies with such interesting stories. Each came on this adventure for very different reason...but all are on this adventure to serve God and others. My first day of working with them involved hours and hours of digging in the dirt. Actually weeding a plot of land for Sergei and Sveta's so they can increase the size of their garden. The "Racers" had been at work for awhile when I joined in but it was the most fun I have ever had pulling weeds! As we worked it gave me a chance to ask them their stories, why they were doing this, what their parents thought about saying goodbye to them for 11 months with very little communication, what had they left...job, schooling, etc. It was fascinating. We worked along beside each other several times through our time in the Ukraine. They were put on kitchen duty while we had the camp for the kids and I got to spend a lot of the day with them...peeling carrots, chopping cabbage or cleaning pots and pans...it didn't really matter...I loved being with them. They had fun stories or sometimes I would just work and listen to them sing but every day I fell more and more in love with them. They would sometimes ask me questions too, like what did I tell Ashley to look for in a mate, what advice did I give Zach when he started dating, etc. They had been in many countries and worked in many different ways but their time in the Ukraine was quite a surprise! They were loving hot showers, toilets and hot meals plus they got to sit at the table with Americans! Not what they had expected! They pretty much took whatever job was thrown at them with grace and smiles. They blended right in, working along beside us and joining our devos at night. They truly came from all different walks in life but what a joy it was to get to know them. Misty, one of the sweet ladies on the trip was such an encouragement to us all. She had the sweetest spirit and was always so helpful. It was so fun to get to know her and see her courage! Another one of the young ladies, Katie and I really just seemed to hit it off from the get go. She even work up early and went with Andrew to take us to the airport the last morning, which delighted me because it gave me one more day with her! I have thought of them ALL so many things I wish I had asked them but I am enjoying being Facebook friends and watching their blogs...anxiously awaiting a new entry as I learned right before we parted they were headed to Africa. Some were really pumped and others were pretty nervous. The night before we left, I gave them our leftover snacks and I have seen anyone so excited to get little tubs of Peanut Butter! So sweet.