Current Europe Rundown

As many of you are already aware, we drove up Thursday night last week to spend the evening in Kansas City before my son's morning scheduled flight out of KCI. After a fitful night of sleep, we were awakened by the hotel fire alarms just before four am. What a way to start the trip! My son hoped it wouldn't be indicative of how the rest of the trip would go, but I told him that trips always had hiccups and that he was lucky to get this one out of the way before the trip actually began. :-)

Day one in London started at Heathrow before spending time in the village of Windsor where they had lunch and tours while waiting for the other arrivals. After a few hours they transferred on their coaches (what we call buses) to their hotel, picked up their luggage, and had a lovely sit-down dinner and their orientation (if they could stay awake).

Day two in London they had their first performances. The day started early for the choir members who had to be up and to Wesley's Chapel for rehearsal and then their performance for services at 11:00. My son was very much looking forward to this performance. After services, everyone packed up on their coaches to Victoria Embankment Gardens for a special boxed lunch and free time before set-up for their second performance, a 90-minute Concert-in-the-Park, encompassing the choir, orchestra, and band Ambassador members. After the concert, they had the evening free to themselves to either attend Sunday evening local performances at the South Bank complex, visit Trafalgar Square, Whitehall, and Covent Gardens or a tour of the Globe Theatre.

Day three, which was today's schedule, began at the Tower of London for a special Ambassadors tour which included the Crown Jewels. Then they were off to tours including Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Chapel, Parliament, and Big Ben with lunch in St. James Park sandwiched somewhere in between. This evening they will return for dinner in their hotel before attending their chosen theatrical entertainment, of which my son chose to see (duh!) Phantom of the Opera.

Tomorrow they will be up very early to try and beat the London traffic to arrive at Dover for the channel crossing (which takes approximately three hours) on the ferry to arrive in Calais, France to begin their continent part of the journey.

So hard to believe he's almost wiped out three whole days in England so far. How I'd have loved to be there when they performed in Wesley's Chapel. I can hardly wait to see the pictures!