Hey, we're home!

For those who haven't heard, we arrived back in the states just before Thanksgiving.  The project Shawn was working on got put on hold, so we were able to come home early - we didn't mind.  We had a great time but it's nice to be home.

I don't think anyone blogged about it but we did make a quick trip to Amsterdam before we left. It's a very big city but easy to get around in.  The canals are neat but unfortunately we didn't have time for a canal cruise.  We went to the Anne Frank House and the Rijksmuseum.  A very high energy city!

Batavia Werf

Last Saturday we went to a place called Batavia werf, where there was a reconstruction of a old ship from the seventeenth century.  We got to explore the entire ship, which at some places was five stories high (even though the ceiling of the fourth level was so low that you almost had to crawl).  On the inside, the ship seemed very large, though it didn't look that big from the outside.  Also, they are working on building a different ship, we saw what they had already built.          Ethan                

the lowest level of the ship

London - Debbie's thoughts

 We went to an Evensong service at Westminster Abbey - awesome!  The Evensong service is a contemplative service, so there is no sermon and no mass; just prayers, an Old and New Testament reading, and a choir singing (sometimes with organ accompaniment, sometimes without).  The music was beautiful (in Latin and English) and the building incredible, but it made me think of man's sinful nature and how easy it is to turn from the truth and stop following after God.  For this amazing structure, built to show the glory of God and inspire men to worship Him, was filled with large statues of Prime Ministers, church leaders, and other important men, with plaques on the walls honoring this group or that group, and elaborate burial markers of those deemed important enough to be buried here.  Though the burial markers may have been intended to remind one of the brevity of life, it all seemed to glorify man and his accomplishments rather than the Creator and Redeemer.

             We went to the Tower of London which is so much more than just the white tower.  It's a whole castle - very large, very medieval looking  and very cool.  We walked on some of the walls from tower to tower (there are more than a dozen towers and each has a name) and got to go inside several of them. (What a great place this would be to play hide and seek or capture the flag!)  Some were used as residences, royal and otherwise, some for prisoners, one is a chapel, etc.  The crown jewels are in the old guards' barracks building and included a video of the Queen's coronation. (Man, she's been Queen for a long time, since 1953!)  Most of the crowns and scepters are so heavy it's no wonder they're only used for special ceremonies.  Some of the crowns were only worn once!

Tower Bridge

  When we went to the British Museum we didn't have time to see everything but we got to see most of it.  I liked the statues, gates, and reliefs from ancient Assyria the best.  The Assyrian lions/griffins were awesome. They even had reliefs from a palace in Nineveh - they made me think about Job and wonder if these were from the palace of the king who repented in response to Job's unwilling message of deliverance.

 The 3 stooges?  Maybe not, but still. . . something here reminds me of them.

The Churchill War Rooms and Museum below one of the treasury buildings - very interesting. The rooms were pretty much abandoned right after the war and left locked up as they were until someone decided to turn them into a museum.

Of course, no visit to London would be complete without seeing Buckingham Palace.

    - They only allow tours for 2 months in the summer and we were not invited to tea, so we have no pictures of the inside or of the Queen - sorry.

Going to England.

On Sunday we drove to the coast of France and took a ferry to England.  Then we drove to London and to our hotel which was kind of strange since they drive on the left side of the road in England.    We got through London by using the underground and overground metros.  This is a picture of the white cliffs of dover, which was taken from the ferry.    

One of the places we visited is the royal observatory, which is where time is measured from.  They had lots of telescopes and machines for telling time.  The observatory was on a hill, so we had a very good view of London.               -Ethan    

In England

 Buckingham Palace was pretty big and the Queen was living there for the time. The gate around the palace was decorated and there was a big fountain in the front.

We went and saw Big Ben, which is located right  next to the Parliament house.




                  







                                                                                    
                                                    We saw the Eye from across the river it went really slow and rather boring.                                                                                                                  
                                                                                    


  -Anna











                                         

The British Museum and Westminster Abbey

At the British Museum, there was an exhibit on Zimbabwean money.  There was a Zimbabwean trillion dollar bill!  It is amazing to realize that all the money in this picture isn't worth enough to buy a large sheet of paper! 

This is a picture of the East entrance of Westminster Abbey. 

 We got to go and listen to the Evensong service,  which was really neat. 

Here is a picture of Dad holding a broad sword.  

We got to see lots of arms and armor at the British Museum and the Tower of London.  I saw two swords that were as tall as Dad!

Here is a picture of the Rosetta Stone, which is at the British Museum.  The British museum was one of my favorite things that we saw while in London.  -Leah

Biking around

On Wednesday we rented bikes and rode around for the afternoon.  We thought about buying some used bikes, but we would only be here for two more months, so we didn't.  The bikes were very nice, and we rode for about three or more hours.  We were pretty tired after riding that much, so we just relaxed the rest of the evening and Thursday.      -Ethan