Hi everyone

Just got back into Surrey within the past hour. The Bus family doesn't leave our home until tomorrow so we're bunking at my folks place tonight. Right now it's about 6 AM Holland time. The boys and I didn't sleep a wink on the plane so we're all a little groggy and heading off to bed real soon.

I've got about a week of blogging to catch up on which I will do over the next couple of days. The blog is our own journal of the trip as well as a way of comunicating and sharing pictures with those of you that don't live locally...so it will be completed.

Feel free to keep checking back. Hope you're enjoying reading it as much as I enjoy telling you about it.

S.

We started driving back to Holland on August 24. The plan was make about half of the trip, visit some WWI sites in Northern France, stay at a B&B in the very north of France, and continue home to Holland on the 25th.

Our B&B, pictured below, in St. Pience was about as French as you can get. When Nancy looked out the window in the morning, a man was walking up the lane carrying a basket laden with loaves of french bread, and, when we walked into the dining room, we were greeted by softly playing French music. Ahhh, viva la France!

Before setting out on our trip north we stocked up on fruit, bread, brie and ham which made for a delicious lunch at a pullout.

Our first stop of day was to be at Beaumont Hamel, a site that I didn't know about until I read an article in the Vancouver Sun this past July 1st (Canada Day) about the Newfoundland Regiment and the great number of casualties that they suffered on the first day of the Battle of Somme on July 1, 1916. For a great number of reason, the Regiment suffered 85% casualties (dead or wounded) in the first 15-20 minutes.

The loss was so great that for the past 90 years, July 1st has been a day of mourning for the province of Newfoundland.And due to this fact, in the second WW, any soldier from Nfld regiment was not given frontline duties. Both Dad and I were intrigued and wanted to visit the site.

As we made our way there we noticed a large memorial on a hill, the Thiepval Memorial. I had read about it, and didn't think we had time, but as it was on the road to Beaumont Hamel, we decided to stop in. The Memorial is to all the missing British soldiers of WWW1, numbering more 72,000. The size of the memorial, the impact of the loss, and the 72,000 names inscribed on it's supports is staggering. It was cold windy and rain and we needed to hurry to Beamont Hamel before it closed, so we didn't stay long but there was an excellent multi media interpretive centre just below it.

The massive memorial at Thiepval with the names of the 72,000 missing inscribed on its legs.


At Beaumont Hamel we had a tour (just the 6 of us) from Matthew from New Brunswick. Canada has an excellent student program, where for a 4 months, Canadian students staff these sites.

I won't go into all the details of the Beaumont Hamel story and the Battle of the Somme but it was humbling to see the old British/Newfoundland trench lines, look across no man's land to where the German trench system was, and to stand beside the Danger Tree that so many Newfoundlanders lost their lives at. The Newfoundland Regiment at Beaumont Hamel. The woodland cariboo is native to Newfoundland and has its head, mouth open with the anguished cry for the dead, facing toward the enemy lines. The cariboo was chosen because it travels in packs and never leaves behind one of its own.

You can see how overcast it was that day. Matthew said that it was a perfect day to visit the Somme as in 1916 it was very wet and the battlefields were a sea of mud. 90 years later we had niced paved trails to walk on.

We may have stayed longer but it was still cold wet and windy and we needed to make tracks to our B&B at Lille.

Before doing so we stopped in at the Longueval Carter. You may know that during the trench warfare of WWI, each side would dig tunnels under the enemy's trenches and explode a massive amount of explosives. The Longueval Mine, if memory serves, was about 20-25 tons of explosives and obliterated 9 German dugouts. The crater left behind is unimaginably huge, perhaps 60 feet deep and hundreds of feet across. How many men lost their lives in an instant is incomprehensible. A footpath snakes down the side of the crater and at ground zero at the very bottom is a memorial of many little poppies.The immense mine crater at Longueval

As we contined north along the road, past so many memorials and graveyards to the British, French, Australians, South African, Welsh .... the list goes on and on...as did the graveyards. The Battle of the Somme was a meatgrinder and the number of graveyards and memorials is a testimony to the human cost. In my mind I called this stretch of road north of Albert, "The Highway of Tears". It seemed your were hardly ever out of sight of the cost of war.

(I'm running our of time tonight, but do ask me about the angel that came out of her home to rescue us while we were hopelessly lost!)

Our B&B that night in Lille was an exceptional treat. We elected to spent our last evening in France having a homecooked French meal. The B&B is an 18th century farm and we had dinner with the proprieters, Dominique and Nelli, a couple from Tolouse France and the 6 of us. It was a very completely enjoyable 2 hour meal. Maincourse was chicken, potatoes amnd carrots from their farm, followed by a sampling of 4 kinds of cheese (I wrote down the names but can't find it right now). Not brie or camembert, oh no! These are cheeses that for the most part you will never see outside northern France has they are made only on one farm and are only sold at the farm or local market. We were taught to eat from mild to strongest. Lastly was dessert and beauiful, rich, dark coffee. The wine was delicious as well and all the time we had a lovely conversation, in English and our pigdin French, with our tablemates. A very pleasant way to end our time in France.

All for now, S.

Back to Aug 22 and dinner with Jonhan and Anna Mieke. Johan is Dad's cousin (their mother's were sisters) and over the years they have stayed in touch. Johan now lives in Normandy on a hobby farm with his partner Anna Mieke in a renovated 150 year old home. Our B&B at Le Luot is not to far from their farm and so they drove there to meet us and to escort us back to their home for dinner. We had a very pleasant evening with them. The boys fed the chickens and rabbits with Anna Mieke and Johan introduced us to a French apertif and his favourite French wine. Ask Jonas about "chop chop, cous cous""

Wednesday August 23 was our day for Mont St. Michel. As we were eating breakfast, in walks Anna Mieke! She joined us for coffee and said that they really enjoyed dinner with us last night and would we come back tonight was well! Of course, we accepted.

On the way there Johan and Anna Mieke encouraged us to stop at another German cemetary at Mount-de-Huisnes which they both said was very beautiful. There are just under 12,000 solider buried at this memorial which is very unique in that it is a two tiered circle. There are 180 remains in each crypt and there are 36 crypts on each level in 360 degrees. Very unique design. What we noticed were that many of the soliders were older (one was 57). During the latter part of the war Germany Perhaps many of these men were those Many died after the war ended in 1944. We presume that they died of their wounds and chose to be buried with their mates.

A particular memorial really caught my heart. It is one of the homemade crosses and poppies that the British bring over with them. One the poppy it is handwritten "In memory of German sons, from English parents". There is no bitterness here, only sorrow that spans international boundaries.

The history of Mont St Michel dates back to the 6 and 7th centuries. Mont St Michel sits on a rocky island about a kilometre off the coast surrounded by tidal flats. In 8th century a church/abbey was built atop the island. It became a monastary and place of pilgrimage during the Reformation, but during the French Revolution its influenced waned and it became a prison for political prisoners. The outer walls of the island form a defence that succesful repelled the English during their year long seige in 1423-24 during the 100 year war.

The boys with a 15th century English cannon that was abandoned after the seige during the 100 year war.

Nancy enjoying her french bread and camembert lunch on the ramparts.

Mom and Dad went their own way, so the four of us roamed the battlements imagining we were surround by the English fleet and then toured the ancient abbey and monastery. Spectacular. Walking where men walked and worshipped over a thousand years. You could almost see them in their hooded robes circling the cloister deep in prayer, or eating at the rough tables while the scriptures were read from the pulpit. The abbey is an amazing piece architecture that I could go on and on about. Imagine, all from stone and all before cranes and AutoCAD.

Gideon needs to hold the crypt up!

Oh yes, the crowds. This is the most visitted site in France with over 1 million visitors per year (and it seemed like they were all there the same day we were!) We counted 50 tour buses and in the narrow streets it was quite crushing.

As we made the long walk back to our car, Gideon really wanted to walked on the beach so he and Nancy took off their shoes and walked barefoot through the tidal mud.

Walking in the footsteps of pilgrims through the centuries

Our ice cream stop after a lot of walking at the Mont.

The view of the Mont from our ice cream pitstop

We stopped for ice cream on the way home. There was a bouncy castle for the kids to use and at first Jonas and Gideon bounced but then Jonas decided to step it up a notch and do some front flips. All went well until he did a face plant and got a bloody nose!

At our B&B at St. Pience, dropped off our bags and then joined Johan and Anna Mieke for some more feeding of the rabbits and chickens and another lovely evening. While I did some blogging, the rest of the fam introduced Johan and Anna Mieke to the joys of Skip Bo and even left Anna Mieke the set of cards so that she could play with her own grandkids on her upcoming visit to St. Martin in the Dutch Antilles.

Blessings and love, Scott

Now on to Tuesday, August 22.

After another scrumptious French breakfast we packed up from the B&B and headed to the nearby town of St. Mere Eglise, which, if you are a student of D Day history, will know that this town was the centre of the American airborne paratrooper operations in the early morning hours of D Day. The goals was to protect the landing at nearby Utah Beach as well as to secure important bridges in order to facilitate the breakout from the beachhead.

This is the town that has an effigy of John Steele hanging from their church steeple where his parachute got hung up. Their is a wonderful museum in the town with all sorts of photographs, films, equipment, a Waco glider and a C-47, rifles, machien guns, bazookas. All sorts of great stuff for kids (and some adults too!) We wanted to find a museum that the boys would enjoy... and they did.

Next we headed to the massive American cemetary at Omaha Beach (remember "Saving Private Ryan?"), which both Dad and I agreed that a visit to Normandy would not be complete without a visit to. Over 9000 Americans killed from all over France are interned here. It is stunning and sobering. The cemetary is immaculate and as you walk through it, songs of patriotism and mourning, chimed by bell, are piped out of the large white memorial structure at the head of the cemetary. While it seems to be a tad over the top, it is nonetheless very moving.

Mom's legs couldn't handle the walk down the steps to the beach so she headed back to the van, Nanc and the boys went down to the beach to play, and Dad and I just walked through the headstones soaking it all in. Dad and I then headed down to the beach as well where it was a beautiful day. Jonas joined us for a walk down the shore and up a bluff to a bunker complex that is remnant of the Atlantic Wall that the German's built in the early 1940's to repel any Allied invasion. The building of the Atlantic Wall employed 2 million workers and was reported to be the largest construction project of the 20th century. As we stood on the bunkers looking down on the beach, it is easy to see why it weas called "Bloody Omaha". Just above the bunker is a memorial to the 1st Infantry Division that landed here (Big Red One to you history buffs).

Leaving Omaha we had a pleasant lunch at a cafe with most of us having omlettes and then stopped in at a farm to sample the local Calvados. Calvados is a apple cider hooch that this area is famous for. In fact, this area of Normandy is called Calvados. The Allied troops were quite willing to 'liberate' the local bottles of Calvados. Mom stopped sampling after the first 40% alcohol sample, but Nancy and I soldiered on and left with a few bottles for posterity.

As we left the area to head down to our B&B about an hour south we stopped in at the German cemetary at La Cambe where over 21,000 German soldiers are buried. Although I had wanted to, Dad was not too keen initially, it was Gideon who wanted to and we made the visit at his request. Admittedly I had mixed feelings about it but when you realize that these men (and even boys) did not always choose the cause or the fight, and were sons, husbands and fathers as well, it becomes very significant. With it's dark grave markers set into the grass, it is quite a contrast to the nearby American cemetary.

Our B&B for the night was in Le Luot in the south of Normandy. Not my best pick of B&B's, and more of a rooming house, but still comfortable. We had dinner with Johan and Anna Mieke, but more on that later...


John Steele's effigy where he landed on the church on D Day


Gideon on the trampoline at our B&B at Le Luot



Omaha Beach cemetary

Jonas'photograph of Mom and Nanc and a half track at the museum at St Mere Eglise

Greetings all

Have had some late nights and computers weren't always accessible so I've got some catching up to do...

Back to last Monday...after the visit to the battery we continued along the coastal road through those marvellous old villages to Juno Beach, whcih as you may know was the one of 5 landing beaches on DDay and the one that the Canadians were responsible for. Back in 2003 the Juno Beach Centre was opened. Rather than being a museum of artifacts, it is multi-media centre that tells about Canada, its history and geography (remember that most of its visitors are French and British) and it's entire involvment in World War II, not just the invasion.

After the visit to the centre we walked along the beach. 60 years later it hardly seems real that this beach had seen such a fierce battle. While I spent time with the boys, Nancy wandered the beach deep in thought and remebreance, and chose some racks and shells to bring home for our bathroom.

It was a windy day and people were flying kites and windsurfing. I read where one woman had written that she was offended that all these people were treating the beach so lightly and not recognizing the significance of it, until it dawned on her that their pleasure and freedom to do this very thing is why the invasion had to occur. Her comments rang in my head all day.

We next headed a bit more down the coast, still along Juno Beach, to the next town called Berniers Sur Mer where one of the houses that is very visible in photographs of that sector of Juno Beach ón D Day is still standing. They say it was the first house liberated in France and, in fact, it is now called The Queens Own Rifles House, and has a Canadian flag flying. Dad called this the most memorable part of the day, even the trip.

It was getting late in day, even later after we got way lost, but we managed to find the Bretteville Sur Laize Canadian War Cemetary where over 2700 Canadian soldiers are buried. Most of these soldiers were not killed on D Day. The cemetary is about 60 km's from the coast and so those soldiers/airmen placed here are those who where killed along the Canadian lines of advance. Although I had wanted to visit a Canadian cemetary in Normandy, my other purpose was to find the grave of an uncle of a colleague. O. Thomas Arbo is the uncle of my colleague Wanda, and I understand from here that he was killed on Juno Beach but several days after Day. Prior to leaving Canada I googled his name and was lead the Veteran Affairs Canada website where I learned the cemetary and his grace reference.

It was raining when we got to the cemetary later in the day and his grave was not where the reference. I was extremely disappointed. We double check our reference with a book onsite but still couldn't find it. At this point we spread out and starting searching the rows around it where I finally found it, not where VAC said it was.

After getting some photos of the headstone Nancy and I wandered up and down the rows reading their names, unit, age, date killed and any special inscriptions. Many of these inscriptions were personal in nature and obviously from wives and family. (Interesting that the Canadian cemetary headstones has these inscriptions. The massive American cemetary at Omaha Beach does not). Nancy found the grave of a young man from a BC unit and placed a Canadian pin, that she had on the lapel of her coat, on the earth in front of his headstone. A very tounching and personal moment.

We had more than an hour's drive back to our B&Bs, so after a meal in Caen we were quite late getting back to Pont L-Abbee.

Click on the photos for a larger view


O. Thomas Arbo's (Wanda's uncle) grave at Brettville Sur Laize.


Nancy and the boys on one of the bunkers at Longues Battery (note our Canada caps)

Greetings family and friends!

We've had some very late nights and and so sleeping has been high on the list of priorities. Tonight I am typing on a French keyboard which is different than a English (or Dutch) keyboard so it is taking me longer to find the keys; pls pardon any typos.

I've lost all track of time, but on the 21st (was that Monday?) we started our tour of the D Day beaches. For breakfast we had a delicious traditional French breakfast: French bread/baguettes, croissants, jams, and delicious black dark coffee. Leaving the B&B in Pont L'Abbee we decided to leave viq the scenic backgrounds and got a little turned around. Still it was a pleasure to wander the Norman countryside...

Our first stop of the day was to be Juno Beach where the Canadians landed on D Day. We took the slower coastal road which skirts the various beaches through many villages. Again we were entranced by the old stone homes, the walled manor farms, the narrow roads barely wide for two vehicles between the walls, and all the town names ending in "sur mer" (on the sea)

On the way to Juno we stopped along the way at the Longues Battery, a relatively intact battery of German guns that harrassed the shipping on DDay before the British landing at nearby Sword Beach were able to capture it. The boys enjoyed scampering around the guns and concrete battlements. One battlement was partially destroyed and the guns a twisted wreck; I imagine from one of the Allied battleships offshore. I had a brief but informative chat with a British chap whose grandfather was a tank crew member thqt helped cqpture the guns on D Day. Interesting story...

Got to go. Will finish off later...

PS Trent: I am reading your comments. We'll talk later.

PS Wanda: I found your uncle's grave and got some photos. More to follow.

Hi all

Greetings from Pont L'Abee, France but more on that later...

Have been having some computer problems at the home we're staying at so I've spent part of the evenings trying to transfer files from the memory card of the camera, and not enough time blogging so will try to catch up tonight.

Friday and Saturday (18th and 19th) were our "Dutch Roots Tour" with Nancy's parents. Although Nancy's mom was born in Canada (on a farm on what is now the Langley airport), Nancy's dad was born in Amsterdam and was in Holland during the occupation and liberation before immigrating to Canada with his family as a young man.

Prior to, and during the war, Dad's grandparents owned a farm and an apple orchard about 150 km's east of Amsterdam. As you may know the winter of 1944 was extremely harsh, and the Germans, knowing that the Allies had already liberated the southern half of the country, kept tight controls on the food supply. Many Dutch people starved to death. The city dwellers fared much worse than those on frams. As the eldest son, twice Dad rode his bike to his grandparents farm (a round trip of about 300 km's) in winter to bring back food for the family. Once he narrowly evaded a German patrol at night, the other time he had to hide behind a downed tree to avoid being mistaken for German by a Spitfire fighter pilot. During warmer, happier months in the late 30's/early 40's, Dad's family would visit the farm for a vacation. On Friday we visited the farm, met the farmer/orchardist who now owns the farm, bought some apples for our trip and walked down memory lane with Dad. I'm so glad the boys could be part of it.

We also visitted the nearby, hundreds of years old, church where his grandparents, (Nancy's great grandparents and the boys great great grandparents) are buried. When we found the marker Nancy immediately knelt and started picking weeds from the top of the plot and Gideon crounched beside her, pulling at the moss. What a picture...

Later that evening we had dinner with some cousins, second cousins....you know the drill. The boys met some distant cousins who spoke no English, and they no Dutch, but still they played for more than an hour before dinner and even ate outside together on the patio.

We spent alot of time getting lost on small backroads alongside canals and quaint farms, which was no burden at all. As Nancy puts it 'When you're on vacation, there's no such thing as being lost'

Saturday was the Dutch Roots Tour in Amsterdam. Dad took us to the still standing row housing complex and pointed out which one he was born in, which relative lived here and there, where he ran when he got chased by the police for playing soccer too close to a disappproving neighbour's home, which homes used to be the general store, the shoemaker and the baker, where he used to play soccer using the columns for goalposts, where they got on the bus to be taken to the ship to immigrate to Canada, and where he was when he heard two German symapthizers talking about the invasion in Normandy. We walked around the complex for over an hour, and asked questions, and he talked. Precious times. We drove past his school, now a shop for something or other. What was especially moving was Dad pointing put where a damaged Allied bomber had crashed near his home while trying to make a landing on an empty field. As Dad described the crash his voice quavered. Still very grateful 60 years later for the sacrifice.

We saw the gasworks where Opa (Dad's father) worked, where he gathered with his family and colleagues for a photograph, and where one colleague sang them a song about a bird. We saw where Oma (Dad's mom) lived, which park she and Opa went for walks in in the 20's during their 7 years courtship, and the canal that Oma's father was a boatman in. A wonderful day.

After supper back in Zwolle, Dad and the boys and I went for a ride on the bike paths and dykes For those of your that enjoy biking, Holland is heaven. We'll be doing lots more of that when we get back from France.

Nancy's memories:
*the wonderful aroma driving by the rusk factory
*waving the Canadian flag out of the window whenever we made a driving mistake
*the tall verdant green trees on either side of the road on our 'detour' home
*seeing the park where Oma and Opa courted and wore out the insides of the sleeves of their coats holding hands
*the wonderful way it must have been to grown up in 'Elim' villiage with Dad's relatives close by
*how many people and times Dad was chased growing up-the shoemaker, the police, his uncle. No wonder he's in such good shape!
*Jonas eating a raisin bun with Gouda and calling it 'heaven on a bun'

Sunday was our road trip to France. We left at 7:30 AM and by 5'ish were at our B&B destination in Normandy. It was good trip, rain on and off, but no trouble. Never before have I driven through 3 countries in 4 hours! (the time that it tooks us to drive through Holland, Belgium and enter France). It was also a treat to see all these places that you've only studied about in history or geography (Rhine or Waal Rivers, Antwerp, Ghent, Somme River...)

Upon arriving we had tea with the owners (an ex-pat British couple) and had a nice talk about the history of their 18th century manor home and even older farm, and the area. There home was actually a German headquarters (the Germans on the mnain floor, the family downstairs) and was one of the few buildings in town not burned out when the Germans retreated because it stands back from the road. After dinner out we took a very leisurely drive through the Norman countryside admiring the hedgerows, the manor farms with the walls, toured one very old church cemetary and stopped at several memorial sites to the American paratroopers who dropped on these fields in the early hours of Juen 6, 1944. Mom remarked how was hard to imagine such a peaceful countryside being so full of war.

Off to the D-Day beaches, memorials, museums and cemetaries tomorrow.

Love to all, S.

We have arrived in Zwolle, NL at the home that we are staying at on and off for the next 2 weeks.

We had an uneventful flight from London although, as you would expect, security was tight and it took a while to clear. We even had to take off our shoes so they could x-ray those.

On the plane were several boisterous Scottish lads wearing kilts who were already well lubricated by the time they boarded. Thankfully the flight was less then an hour and they only had time to drink one beer.

We loaded into our 9 passenger, manual transmission, Renault Trafic van and safely made it to Zwolle. We took a couple of wrong turns and it was getting late so we were anxious to find it before it got too dark to see the street signs. Then things would really have gotten interesting!

We were greeted at the door by Nancy's folks who had arrived earlier in the day. It worked out well. Dewey and Dina arrived before the Bus family left for Canada so had some time with them to get introduced to the house and even do some shopping.

The Bus' home is beautiful. We certainly got the better end of the trade!

Nancy Adds:
Things were great at the airport until Gideon asked me "Did we get caught?" as the security guard frisked me down b/c something they thougt they had found. Good thing the guard had a sense of humour.

images from today...
...driving through the small burroughs on the way to the airport, each with it's own high street (a curry shop, a fish 'n chips, Boots, WH Smith)...
...a teary goodbye to Sara...
...the drunk Scottish lads with the thick brogue and their kilts and sporran....
...being so proud of Scott as he quickly figured out how to drive the van and got us all to the Bus'house with only one wrong turn (thanks to me b/c I didn't think they could have fit the whole name of the street on the sign so I assumed they shortened it, not so)...
...seeing a large frog, Smurf, and other odd shapes land so close to the motorway (all hot air balloons)
...the familiar at home smell of cow manure, fields of corn, and general landscape of the area, just like the Fraser Valley, no wonder so many Dutchies settled there...
...the delight on my parents face as we met them at the door...
...the beautiful, detailed bouquet and goodies that awaited us at the gorgeous house...
Nancy

Another day in London. The boys and I took in the Tower of London ( heaven for history buffs like myself) for several hours whilst Nancy, Sarah and Harley went on a cruise on the Thames, and Nancy and Sarah played catch up after 12 years since last seeing each other.

Such history behind the walls of the Tower beginning with in 1078 with William the Conqueror. And yes, the boys and I were hanging on every word of the tales of execution of both traitor and queen alike. Wives of Henry VIII seemed to fallout of favour repeatedly and relatively quickly... Even predating the White Tower (William's castle) are the old Roman walls that form the foundation of the Tower walls dating back to 200 AD

A late lunch at a pub (had to have the fish and chips and a pint of ale!) and we spent the next 3-4 hours mostly on foot exploring some of the posh neighbourhoods in the Hyde Park area. Imagine a flat going for £2-3M ($4-6M) and being nowhere near Coal Harbour.

Nancy and I both wanted to get inside Westminster Abbey, but sadly we ran out of time today, so Sarah took all the kids back to Bromley while giving Nancy and I a couple of hours to walk around the Abbey admiring the architecture and along the Thames to view the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben lit up at night. A train ride put us back to Bromley at 10:00.

(Unable to get some photos off the camera of today's adventures, but the above is of the Millenium Bridge that we walked across yesterday, with St Paul's Catherdral in the background)
-Scott

Hiya: I am trying hard not to copy the lovely lilt of my friend Sara and her daughter Harley, it is just so easy to do, totally by accident.

Today, I got to taste some more highlights from Sara's London. While the boys saw the Tower, Sara, Harley and I got coffee and boarded a Thames river canal boat with an open upper deck, and an amateur tour guide who was also a crew member who told us what seemed like made up bits of info. We really didn't pay attention as we had 12 or so years of catching up to do. It is so great to just pick up with someone and be able to be open and honest and feel so heard. It turns out that her son Tom (who couldn't be roused this am to join us) also has something similar to dysgraphia and uses a laptop for most of his subjects. What a small world. I am hoping that Jonas and he might have a chin wag about it.

After we got off the boat, we went to Covent Garden where there was a woman signing arias from various operas that enthralled Harley and myself. The aucostics were great. We roamed through a shop or two and were imagining Eliza Doolittle trying to sell her posies there. (from my Fair lady). After the pub lunch, we strolled through the Chelsea/Kensignton area of London, very posh. It looks exactly like the house from an episode of Upstairs/Downstairs or when the sisters from Pride and Prejudice got to visit their good friend in London. There are housing areas called Mews which are flats created from the stalls of the stables from the large houses. There are even coal bins underneath the street that fed the many fireplaces which are evident by the dozens of chimney pots on the roof. It was beautiful strolling through with the sun shining down highlighting the architectural details. I kept stopping to admire the door knobs which are right in the middle of the doors. We also saw the church where Alpha started and saw someone very impressive come out of a Rolls Royce with specialized license plates,I am hoping it is someone famous doing something illegal that I could sell to the tabloids..... We also went through the shopping district seeing the likes of Prada, Gucci, Jimmy Cho (sp?), United Colour of Benneton, Burberry, Harrods, and of course, Tiffany (too late for breakfast!). It was nice to have Scott to myself for a little while and have fun catching the bus and the train like we were locals (well, except for the shorts and the camera!).What a clean, friendly city London is. There was even a bus driver today that hauled out a map and gave us tips to go certain places, then honked us back to the bus to give us the map.

Todays images for me will be:
....hearing the heart of Sara for her family and the church....
...Black and white photos being sold at Covent Garden....
...The opera singer at Covent Garden....Door knobs in the middle of doors....
....the bomb damage from WWII on the walls of the Victoria and Albert Museum...
...The brass handrails at the same museum that entertained the kids for a long while... getting a chance to snog with my honey on the Thames with Big Ben lit up in the background.....the friendly bus driver....the extraordinary accomodations of the rich in London....Cornish Pasties...finding another tube station that repeated "mind the gap", shopping for same such souvenirs.....

Nancy

We have arrived, although not after some frustrations. Imagine that after 3 cab and one shuttle bus ride, and one sleep in a hotel, we still would be in Vancouver...?

After a cab ride back to the airport at 3:30 AM after a few hours sleep at our home we were told that the flight was delayed yet again from a 7:30 departure to now a 10:00 departure (always check the departures on the internet!) We weren't about to spend the next several hours in the airport with 2 kids and no sleep so Nancy was able to secure us a voucher for a hotel which we could get some more sleep at.

Rather than wait for for the hotel shuttle, we chose to take a cab and on the advise of the airline counter person asked the driver to go to the Holiday Inn on Bridgeport only to learn that the voucher was for the other Holiday Inn on Cambie. So we had to take another cab ride, got a few hours sleep and left on schedule at 10:00 AM (Yeah!)

The flight was 9'ish hours and the boys didn't sleep well and we were wanting them to have some nap time as we would be arriving at 6:30 AM local time and wanted to make the most of our day rather than just sleep it away. There was much weeping and gnashing of teeth; in the end Jonas did get some shut eye but not so much for Gideon.


We were met at Gatwick by Sarah Lee, Nancy's good friend from bible school (20 years ago they met!) and driven to her parent's home in Bromley, a borough in the south east of London. Sarah's parent graciously offered up their home for us and have vacated to let us have the run of the place. A beautiful home with a lovely garden. What a blessing!

After a 2-3 hour nap nap and showers, we hit the rails with Sarah and her daughter Harley, took the train into London Victoria Station, caught a double decker, got off near the Eye of London ferris wheel and spent the next 5 or 6 hours walking around. We were joined by Sarah's husband Chris, who knocked off work early, who was a wealth of inforamtion about the buildings and their history. We walked along the Thames, past the Globe Theatre and over the Millenium Bridge to St Paul's Cathedral. Caught another bus to the Tower of London, took the Tube to Trafalgar Square, walked to Buckingham Palace and then back Victoria Station for the train ride back to Bromley. A whirlwind tour of the downtown, and a delightful day with our own personal tour guides!

The photo is of the boys and Harley at Trafalgar Square below the statue of Lord Horatio Nelson. An interesting historical note is the the lions and the figure of Lord Nelson were cast from the brass of the captured French cannons after Lord Nelson beat the French in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

Greetings from....Surrey?! Alas but an ill crew member has delayed our flight by nine hours. Instead of leaving at 10:00 PM we now leave at 7:30 AM and arrive at London-Gatwick at the unpleasant hour of 2 AM local. As we have to be back to the airport between 4 to 5 AM to check-in (again) , we elected to come home for a few hours of shut eye. Thanks for the ride Dad!

This red eye flight is getting redder and redder. See you in London (we hope!)