Westminster Abbey

August 27th--We had an appointment at 10:00 this morning to apply for our Chinese Visas. So, we left the apartment around 8:45 to take the train and subway to arrive at our destination. It took us right at an hour to get to the Chinese Visa office and we were immediately given a number. We probably waited about 5 minutes before our number was called and then it took about 5 minutes to give the lady our information. She told us to come back on Wednesday to pick up the Visas. We were pleasantly surprised at how easy and quick that process was so we stood on the streets of London not really knowing what to do from here. We finally decided to head to Westminster Abbey. This was a fun experience for all of us. Mike was here back in summer of 1996 doing a 6 week study abroad program with Baylor. He showed us the dorms where he lived and where they had class at Westminster School, adjacent to Westminster Abby. After that, we entered into Westminster Abbey. Not only was the history fun to learn, but they gave the kids a Children's Trail pamphlet. They were to walk around the church answering the many questions. Abby got real into this. So, she and I spent a couple of hours touring the church while answering all the questions. I would read her the question, she would answer it and then I would help her write them out herself. By the time we finished up, I told Mike that was without a doubt her homeschooling for the day. The kids were able to show their questions at the end and received a chocolate Abbey coin. From the Abbey, we took the bus to the close by Texas Embassy restaurant. This was one of Mike's hangouts when he was her before. He was excited to go back and eat here. The food was definitely not La Hacienda or Babe's, but it was good and the atmosphere made us feel like we were at home. There was Baylor and Texas stuff on the walls. After lunch, we took a bus over to the Kensington area to get our last travel book from the Waterstone's there. Once we drug the kids out of the bookstore, we decided to take the bus back to the apartment. Unfortunately, when our bus reached the end of the line, we quickly realized that we got on the right bus, but going the wrong direction. Oh well, we just got on the other bus going the right direction. When we arrived back by the apartment, we took the kids to the park close by. We spent a good hour here before dinner time.