A couple of weeks ago, I drove behind my baby girl for seven hours to help her move into a dorm for the last time. I’m thankful that the trip was uneventful, but I slaved away on setting up her one-person room for about 10 hours!
We did shop for a short time together and, to avoid sitting still in the 5 o’clock traffic, stopped for a comfort meal of chicken tikka masala at our favorite Indian restaurant, Taj Palace. Then I loaded my car with everything we rejected for this year and headed back to Mississippi.
The next day, hubby and I got on a plane to London—a sort of anniversary surprise for me as he found a somewhat last-minute deal with points for First Class seats on Delta!
The plane ride was less than ideal with turbulence almost the entire time. I’m pretty sure that we dozed, but the jostling and loud ding of the seatbelt alert every few minutes ensured that no one slept soundly.
We arrived around noon and got a ride to The Bloomsbury, a sweet, air conditioned hotel that is 700 ft from the British Museum and other sites of interest.
The room was ready early, so we dumped our luggage and took off on foot for the National Gallery.
Hubby is so patient! He let me wander through the entire collection. He claims he enjoys art galleries. I guess that comes with age. 🙂
After several hours, we stepped outside to a gorgeous, sunny day to people watch and to decide what to do next. We chose the nearby National Portrait Gallery.
Everything was closing soon, so we found dinner at nearby Mediterranean Cafe. We were seated on the border of the sidewalk just inside the place. As always when our food arrives, we reached across the table to hold hands and pray a blessing over the food.
We had no idea that anyone was taking notice.
A lady from Nigeria stopped by our table on her way out with her friend and asked if we had been praying before our meal. She seemed excited to learn that we are Christians and said, “Then we love the same man!”
Our waiter, a young Muslim, also asked us what we were doing after he had served us our food. He seemed amazed that we would pray before we ate, but he seemed very pleased about it.
It’s humbling to know that our simple habit of public prayer is a novelty in some places in London.
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matt 5:16, KJV)
After letting our little light shine, we headed to the streets again, this time for gelato. Hubby selected Snowflake. We shared a couple of scoops of their signature flavor, which features toffee and white chocolate, so we wouldn’t feel super guilty for the indulgence!
We were ready for bed kind of early that night, anticipating two more full days in London with new experiences on the itinerary!
