Performance and Picadilly - Day 4 - 6.24.12

Our last day in London was filled with excitement and fun. In the morning, after enjoying another English breakfast we went to a local church (not Westminster Abbey like I said... I guess I misunderstood them when they said that). We attended the service, which was quite fun to see a British church service, and it was very special because the choir that traveled here with us performed at the church service. This was a very cool cultural experience and a good way to spend the morning. From here, we traveled to a garden and park with a small amphitheater where we had our performance. It was quite chaotic, but it was very fun! We had to unload all of the percussion equipment off of the busses and onto the stage. It was also very fun to finally get to hear the other band as well as the orchestra!

Another fun surprise during the concert was to see the Visani family, which was not only cool that they came to the concert but it was cool to see them during the summer in another country! After the concert, I stopped by a local Starbucks and ordered a Venti Americano, hoping that my US starbucks card would work, and it did! Loaded with a coffee, I loaded up the percussion equipment and we grouped into small groups to decide what to do with our evening. I found some of the other Lakewood people as well as some of the people from our bus and we decided to go with Mr. Stephen to the London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, eat at a pub (classic fish and chips!), and then finish the night by looking around at the shops in Picadilly Circus. This was all very fun, and the eye was certainly an adventure! Many awesome views of the city with 27 of us packed into one of the capsules definitely made for a good time. Like I said, we did a quick walking tour from there to some of the other big sites just to snap a few pictures and then we motored on to a local pub (complete with many local people watching the “football” game) to enjoy some fish and chips on our last night in England. From here, we simply walked around Picadilly Circus again, watching the street performers and exploring small streets that shoot off of the main square. From here, we split off again like last night and all went to find taxis to make our way back to the hotel. Now we are all back, and it is time to hit the hay before a very early 5:30 morning tomorrow for breakfast before we head off to Dover to get the ferry over to France tomorrow...