update 2

So far it's been an excellent trip. The flight was easy but it was hard to get adjusted to the new time. The first day was tough because we landed around 7 am London time, which was 2:00 am Michigan time. I usually don't go to bed until 2 (the most productive time for me is late at night) so it was tough to start the day at that time. We went to our hotel, took about an hour nap, then went to Windsor castle. It was spectacular! It's a beautiful castle full of art and history. It reminded me of the Biltmore estate but it was obviously older. We then went to dinner with one of Pastor's friends (David ?). Sharon can upload the pictures if I ever manage to get them to her.

Today, we were picked up by David Clark, another one of pastor's friends, and he drove us to St. Alban, which is an hour away from London. It was great countryside and I went to the Verulamium museum. It was full of Roman artifacts from when Rome occupied this part of England. We strolled through the park and went to the oldest pub in England. It was originally build around 1400 ad, was destroyed in a flood in the 1500s, and was rebuilt in 1600. So in comparison to all the other stuff we looked at, it was fairly modern. When it was built, the people were obviously short as I had to hunch over the entire time. I went through the boys school at St. Alban and it had a Hogwarts-like feel to it. The religious imagery in the church reminded me of some of the school's I've attended. After saying "hello" to a few strangers (and hearing nothing in response), David said, "you know, those people think you're crazy, right." We got a similar lesson on the train station. In London, you absolutely don't acknolwedge strangers.

After lunch, we went to the home of Edgar Andrews, another one of pastor's friends:) We're staying here for the next two nights. He's by far the most intelligent man I've ever spoken with. By far. Google "huxley memorial debate" and you'll see why. He's a physicist with amazing credentials i.e. chairman of the science department at the university of London, etc, etc. We then took a train into London and did some milling around. I went up the Eye (great view of the city), walked past parliament, went to picadilly circus, went through a nice shopping district, and then we walked some more. Pastor likes to move at my kind of pace...fast. So far, it's been great. Pastor and David today got to take care of some business regarding pastor's publishing company, which sounds promising.