Visit Every City

19th July 2024

At around 5am local time, my plane touched down in London. I hadn’t really slept on the plane. I had plenty of legroom, but I was squeezed into my seat between two other men who were slightly smaller than me. It made me happy to be on the ground again, headed through security and immigration before heading to pick up my luggage. I made it out quickly, had time to pick up a small cup of coffee (actually a cortado), and eventually found the right pickup location. I was being picked up by Hannah Elliott and Justine (whose last name I can’t remember). Lena and I had met Hannah and her husband Dave (and their two daughters) in 2019 when we were traveling through London to and from the Feast of Tabernacles in Malawi. We had stayed at their home then and I spoke in the London Central congregation (maybe twice?). We had met Justine at the Feast in Wales in 2022.

Even though I was tired most of the day, I found it more exciting to drive through the countryside of the Buckinghamshire County, England than taking a nap. We visited several villages and towns before stopping at the house to drop off the luggage. It’s summer and the weather was absolutely perfect on the day I arrived. In fact it was the hottest day of the year so far which, after coming from winter in South Africa it was so nice to be warm. Although a mild winter in Johannesburg, it was cold in the evenings and indoors. Like at least half of the conference attendees came away with some kind of cold or cough that I had managed to catch. The warmth and sunshine definitely helped even though my cough lingered for the next week.

Natural History Museum at Tring

Besides seeing the countryside and grabbing a delicious cup of chocolate, Hannah suggested we visit the Natural History Museum of Tring. At first I figured that such a small museum definitely couldn’t compare with the famous museum in Manhattan, or the one I haven’t yet visited in London. Although small, the collection of animal specimens that had been collected by Walter Rothschild was quite impressive. Since we were supposed to pick Ada up at the train station at a certain time, and see a few more villages on the way, we had planned to spend only 20 minutes at the museum. I think it was closer to 45 minutes and we definitely rushed. There were all sorts of animals displayed. Some of the memorable ones for me were the hundreds of varieties of hummingbirds, the narwhal, the dodo birds, the hybrid chicken-pheasant, and the dachshund.

Bletchley Park

We were late picking Ada up from the train, but thankfully Dave was working at home on Friday and was around. We met up with them in town, grabbed a bite to eat, jumped back in the car, and decided to head to Bletchley Park. There’s a museum there that showcases the location and history of the WW2 secret operation of wartime codebreakers who helped break the enemies’s secret codes and save many lives. There were all kinds of informative displays on location which helped bring the history to life. It was also a beautiful location on a very beautiful day.

Entering the Sabbath

Besides the ladies who were already visiting, a few other ladies from the London congregation who live relatively nearby came over for dinner. It was nice to end the week with brethren, watching the sun set and the moon rise over the trees. We called it a relatively early night since we’d have to be up and ready for the drive to London for Sabbath services.

– Lewis VanAusdle