Slovakia Service Stories: London Photos #1

Nice photo-bomb behind Tim at the airport in Brno, Czech Republic. (It's pronounced like "burn-o".)

The English Channel!! :-)

We took an airport transport bus to downtown London (the Liverpool train station), and we immediately saw a pasty shop. Our first Cornish pasty was delicious!!!

This is the 4-bedroom flat that Anna booked for us near Kilburn Park Station in Zone 2. It was great to be in a neighborhood on a typical London street away from other tourists!

Our first view of Parliament across the River Thames, when we all headed out to explore London on our first morning.

Heading across the river with Timko and Zuzanna, going towards Big Ben

The side of Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey's front entrance was magnificent. We were lucky enough to go to an afternoon service, so we got in free, plus had a wonderful worship experience!

No photos allowed inside, so this is a clandestine one.

We attended an evensong service, with a guest choir from another church.

The British flag flying over the parliament building.

Our "London Photo" with Big Ben in the background, at exactly 18:00, or 6:00 p.m., with church bells ringing everywhere, and Big Ben chiming too!!

We took an evening "Free Walking Tour" (with a ghost theme), and we heard some stories about this tavern from our tour guide. But this scene of business people and tourists alike relaxing with a pint while standing outside a pub was very typical.

For our designated break on our walking tour, we all stopped at a pub, so we sampled what was on tap, and drank it standing up outside, like typical Londoners. (Mine's not a pint, since I don't really like beer!)

The mounted guards - on our free walking tour the next morning

Enjoying London's sights!! :-)

Walking through St. James's Park on the way to Buckingham Palace - this is a caretaker's cottage.

The flowers and gardens were gorgeous in St. James's Park.

The gardens and gates near Buckingham Palace as we waited for the changing of the guard ceremony.

On our tour, we only saw the guard companies marching in and out along the parade route into the palace. Still very cool.

St. James Palace

10 Downing Street - the gray building

Just some random buildings in downtown London that I thought were beautiful!!

Our tour guide had said that we should go directly to the theatre to find tickets for musicals instead of trying all the discount ticket operators, so we all a went and got tickets for "Phantom of the Opera" for three different performances!!

The "Tim's" in the theatre district.

The National Gallery and St. Martin in the Fields Church on Trafalgar Square.

Heading to Her Majesty's Theatre for "Phantom" that same afternoon (Saturday) --- so excited!

The opening set before it started. It was our first time to see "Phantom"!!

The theatre balconies filled up fast!

The stage at intermission time, with the chandelier after it had fallen. The performance was absolutely amazing - with awesome singers, orchestra, costuming, and special effects!

After our matinee performance of "Phantom", we headed out exploring again, and we saw this sidewalk chalk artist drawing maps of countries around the world.

But for us, it was really cool to see Slovakia and the U.S.A. right next to each other!! The guy did this same gig every day, and we never saw this configuration again. It made us happy to know we were there in London with our Slovak friends!! :-)
(P.S. - Paul pointed out the other coincidence, that the Taiwan flag was also next to the U.S., which is where he and Alana spent 18 months teaching right before we came to Slovakia. And of course our first blog was of our trip to Taiwan to visit them!!)