England

After Amsterdam, and were able to head to England. Logan served his mission for our church there, about 8 years ago, so he was VERY excited to go visit his home ground, and to show me where he lived, the culture, and some people he met.

Here we are waiting at the Amsterdam airport (HUGE airport)... watching a movie on my mp3 player... We realized, though Amsterdam is such a huge international airport, they aren't so organized when getting passengers on the plane.. what a mess!!! But, we still had a great time... Luckily, this flight was only 1 hour long :)

As soon as we arrived, we got our rental car and our TomTom and headed out... I have to say, the first 10 minutes was NOT the best part of the trip. Driving on the other side of the car, on the other side of the road, and experiencing the thousands of round abouts was WAY stressful at first... Here's me, pulling my hair out...

But, Logan really impressed me with his driving skills. He had the whole driving backwards thing down quickly, and I am SO thankful for renting the TOMTOM.. it saved a lot of time, confusion, and arguments we might have gotten into!!! :)

We found out the first LDS Chapel (ever) was on our way to our first location. Even though it was a bit off the beaten path, and down some very narrow roads, we found it, and had a great tour from the missionary couple who was there. A beautiful story and building.

We finally arrived to our first overnight stay at a Castle in Thornbury. We walked into town, and had dinner. I got a chicken pot pie with chips (fries... which are the BEST in Europe), and Logan had his Fish & Chips, which he was SO excited for and missed. They just don't make them the same here in Calif.

Some beautiful homes we walked by...

Here's our castle. It was a great experience.. expensive, but really... how often do you get to stay in a real castle. The room we stayed in was the same room that Henry the VIII stayed in.. so it had great history as well. We took hundreds of pictures, but here's a few...

Logan using the skeleton key to get into our room, the Duke's Bedchamber.

Breakfast was included with our room, and it was a full English breakfast. I had eggs, with grilled tomato and mushrooms, and bacon (which was really fried ham), and fat English sausage...

Logan had poached eggs, the bacon, and Black Pudding (yuck - pig's blood cooked). We each tried it, and left the rest on the plate. Not appetizing or tasty... :)

Look at that chimney.. Amazing detail.

Before we left on Saturday, there was a food festival in town, so we walked down, and checked it out. It was a very small cute town center.

That day, we headed to Preston and were able to go to the temple, and stay at the accomodation center there. The temple was beautiful, as well as the grounds.

That evening we went out in search for REAL Chicken Karma. This was one of Logan's favorite meals when he was on his mission. We've had it here in Calif... but again... it's just not the same. It was DELICIOUS!

The next day, we headed to church, to one of the congregations that Logan served in.
Then we went to the first flat (apt) that he lived in.. here he is.

He took me to the World's shortest street.

Beautiful England.

Here's just one of the narrow streets that we drove down.

We arrived in a small town called Downham. The owner of this land, decided he wanted to keep it from getting too modernized... They have phone and electricity and plumbing, but it's all underground. So, the town is beautiful, and still has that old feel to it. There is also some great church history in this town, so that was fun to learn about.

Here we are in the city of Manchester.

The flight to Europe and home was dreadfully long... 11 hours. Here's a few "fun" pictures of us really enjoying it....

We had a great time on our trip, but are glad to be home now...