London and Scotland

This is a Church building in Hyde Park, London, England. I have always wanted to go to Hyde Park. It is so rich in history in and out of the Church. We all showed up at the conference late so we could go to Church service. We took a train and then walked, a lot, but finally arrived. We only stayed for sacrament meeting but that was enough for me. I felt so blessed that day.

This is a picture from Scotland from one of the main streets. Look how gorgeous the typical street it. I absolutely loved, loved, loved Scotland. I would rather go there than London any day. Both were fun but Scotland captured a place in my heart. Everything is old. Everything. The "new city" was built over 200 years ago. It was truly a magical place for me. My jaw literally dropped when I walked up the ramp out of the train station and saw the absolute beauty of Edinburgh. I will

Who doesn't love red phone booths?! You saw people taking pictures of them ALL of the time. This was in London. I took the picture and then messed with the colors to make it look like it was an animated picture. This totally reminded me of Harry Potter and made me more excited to go and see Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Crossing railway station. This picture was taken right before we got to Big Ben.

This is one picture of Edinburgh Castle. I took so many pictures. There are some that are much better but I just this one up as a teaser :-) The castle was so big. I had no idea it had so much in it; including the Crown Jewels. What a gorgeous place. I always like to take a moment and think about the people who were there when it was new so many hundreds of years ago. The castle has so much history and tradition.

So this is Big Ben! It was so cool for me to get to see it in person. I have seen it countless times in movies, plays and read about things that happened there. It is in Westminster, London and is even bigger than I thought it was. This is an extremely high traffic tourist spot but was a lot of fun to be in the mix right there in the middle of it in London.

This was a typical scene in Scotland. Real men wear skirts :-) It felt like I was back in time seeing men like this all around.

This was a sidewalk chalk artist (do they have an actual title?!) at Trafalgar Square. There was a huge celebration going on that day we were there and it was crazy!! People were everywhere. This totally reminded me of Mary Poppins. He was really good and was real animated with his talk and was singing. It was great.

This was the last full day in Scotland. It was such a wonderful way to end the trip. I remember walking up and down the beach in the open, cool air thinking about the fact that I had traveled to England and Scotland, two places I had always wanted to go but never thought I would visit. I had such amazing experiences. This was a great time to stop and meditate before the trip home. A perfect ending.

........more pictures to come.......