Author - Clay Corvin

Evil done, repented, sung
Jehoahaz thought of God as a servant
Calling for help against Aram
Dying as he lived, doing evil in God’s sight

Where oh Lord can we hide?
Why should I think my evil escapes your sight?
But I do, my ways and days are evil
Thanks be unto God, Jesus is my salvation

Oh how sweet to say His name, Jesus
The joy of His voice fills my soul, Jesus
No other name can save us, Jesus
He is the ONE and the ONLY, God’s son, Jesus

Today my soul is sad
I have recounted all of my sin
Knowing I have missed some
Praise the Lord, Jesus has saved me

I am saved, I know how sad my sin makes Him
It is a burden, a mark on my soul
Cleanse me of my wicked ways
Jesus, lover of my soul, make me whole

CC 7/26/09

July and it’s 64 degrees for the high. Overcast but no rain. The sun peaked out from time to time. Great day for a boat ride.

Greenwich was our focus today. We took the boat from Westminster Pier to Greenwich. The ride took us 1 hour. We saw London from the Thames. Oh my but it was super. All of the bridges south, Big Ben and Parliament, and all the other sights. The warehouse conversions look fantastic. Canary Wharf is beautiful. This was an excellent day.

We walked around Greenwich for the first hour. Visited the Thirsday market. Found the TI and got a map. We did walk up to the Royal Observatory Greenwich-The Prime Meridian-0 Longitude. This is the point from which all time is measured.

The Royal Observatory is up a significant hill and we walked up it. Today was a 13,000+ step day. Carol took every step with me. Outstanding.

When we got back to London about 3 p.m. we got on the 11 bus and went up town to visit the Somerset House again and to walk around in that neighborhood.

Stopped at our Starbuck’s on Wilton Street and got back to our flat at 5 p.m. Chilly still and no rain. Another good day.

I’m writing this at my desk in our flat. We are deeply grateful that we have been able to travel during our sabbatical. It is something I’ve always wanted to do and it is a joy. I have visited all of the major museums in the cities in which we have focused our travel and have been able to see so much of what I had previously only read about in the Bible. Now when I return to Israel I have seen those things that were there.

It is in the low 60’s here. The day has been cool and wet but not disappointing. Last night in a two hour period London had 2 inches of rain. That was a record for this time of the year and equals their average for the month.

We began today at the Courtaud Gallery which is a part of the Somerset House along the Strand. Although the gallery is small their collection is significant majoring in Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works. They have the Van Gogh self- portrait in their collection. Their other stars are Manet, Monet, Degas, Renoir, Cezanne and Gauguin. We spent more time than normal because we sat for several minutes with a dozen of the paintings.

Our next stop required catching the 11 bus nearly in front of the museum and riding it to St Paul’s Cathedral. We stopped at GBK ( Gourmet Burger Kitchen) for lunch. We ate there last week and it was good enough to try again.

Lunch completed we then walked down to the Thames and walked across on the Millennium Bridge (people bridge) to the Tate Modern.

Although modernism is a bit beyond me we thought it would be a good experience and it was. We treated ourselves to afternoon tea in the Tate’s cafeteria substituting coffee for tea.

We endured the rain and made our way from the Tate Modern back across the Thames and back up to St. Paul’s. We caught the 11 bus and rode it back to Victoria Station.

We took the 24 bus to Trafalgar Square and walked across the Square to the National Gallery. We entered the small building on the left and followed Rick Steves self-guide.

The National Gallery is magnificent. We took the time to go through every room. My favorites were the impressionists. All of the paintings are significant. I love Monet. I also like the High and Italian Renaissance.

We were tired when we finished. It was late lunch time. We walked across the street to St. Martin-in-the-Fields Crypt Restaurant which is downstairs in the church. They have excellent food and comfortable tables with inexpensive prices. We lingered over the meal and had an excellent cafe americano decaf.

Today was a rain day. It rained all day. It didn’t slow us down. We had another great day in London. We got back to our flat about 3:30pm just before the rain accelerated to drenching.

I had to finish my 10,000 steps which I did tonight after dinner.

We traveled by Runnymede where the Magna Carta was signed in 1215. Our first stop was Windsor Castle. Everything in the little town (30,000) of Windsor fit what I thought an ancient town for monarchs should look like. Tiny streets, no parking, lots of smiles (it is a prosperous town) and a lot of security. They are definitely careful about security.

William the Conqueror took over Windsor (originally Windlesora meaning riverbank with a hoisting crane) in 1070 and built a castle for himself here and began what has lasted for 900 years as the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world. It is truly grand.

We toured the castle. Awesome display of guns, swords, body armor, clothing and a stunning doll house built by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

The changing of the guard was accompanied by the Royal Band. My favorite song rhat they played was the Rocky I theme song. There is so much going on here it would be hard to list it all. The Queen was in residence today preparing for the races at Ascot next week.

We drove to Stonehenge. We picked up lunch long the way at a Marks and Spenser Simply Food. Inexpensive and excellent. We ate in the car at Stonehenge waiting for the rain to stop. It didn’t but it slowed down. We got in line for tickets and the rain picked up. We could see sunshine a short distance away so we entered and walked to the rocks. It was powerful visually and physically. I took several pictures and the bottom literally fell out. A torrential downpour with heavy wind, huge rain drops and hail struck. We were soaked. We casually carried our soaked selves back to the car thinking it would pass quickly. It didn’t. The sun stayed where it was and the storm stayed where we were. At least we saw it and took pictures. We returned to our flat which took 2 hours.

We had dinner at Grumbles. Our niece, Mary Beth Hogue, texted us wanting to know why we weren’t smiling in our pictures. I told her we were in our hearts. Another spectacular day touring in England.

An early start at 5:45 a.m. to be ready to leave by 7:15 a.m. Our travel today would be to Stratford Upon Avon, home of William Shakespeare, and Warwick Castle.

Stratford Upon Avon is a beautiful, picturesque town. They have done a great deal to communicate about William Shakespeare’s life there, his home and his friends and family. We walked the entire town. Going through Shakespeare’s home and birthplace was a very good experience. We loved the town. We did have coffee at Starbuck’s and Carol shopped for books in a book store next door.

Warwick Castle was about 20 kms. further northeast from Stratford Upon Avon. It is a recreation of how the castle would have looked in its day. The castle is well preserved and they do a good job of showing it off.

Today is July the fourth. America celebrates its independence day. I pray that the Lord will continue to send Godly leaders to lead our nation. My prayer today for you is that you will be everything the Lord created you to be. Jesus is Lord.

London is expensive. It is difficult for me because I am so tight. I could say it more nicely but that is the simple truth. I’ve been careful with money my whole life so as wonderful as our trip is it eats away at me that it costs so much. Lord help me spend wisely.

We are making friends at all of the places we are frequenting. For sure the Starbuck’s nearby and the restaurant Giraffe, the grocery, the newsstand at Victoria Station and several other places. I’ve also struck up conversations with the same guards at the British Museum. The first day we went to the Museum I had on dark slacks and dark blue NOBTS button down which is identical to their
uniform. The guard I’ve talked with several times now pulled me aside and warned me that I would questioned by patrons since I looked like an employee with my dark shirt and slacks. I was and at first it surprised me but by the time we left it was old hat. The guard greeted me when we went in this morning. I had on a light tan shirt so I wouldn’t get any questions today.

We had a stellar day. Used the bus to traverse the city and had no problem. What a great public transportation system. We also experienced the “black taxi’s” today from the British Museum to Harrod’s Department Store. Sorry but I found Harrod’s to be very, very expensive. So much so that it took some of the joy out of the visit. Oh well we can change locations but we seldom change ourselves.

Adam goes home on Sunday morning. He has been quite a help on the trip and has made it a much more enjoyable trip by being with us. He is helpful and thoughtful. Carol and I are aging and as much as I try I can’t do what I once could. At the end of 15,000 steps it is all I can do to get back to the flat. My thanks to Adam for being such a great traveler and son. We will miss him when he leaves. I will be emailing my posts for Monday thru Friday to him and he will post them for me.

This trip has been a great encouragement for me. I’ve now completed a good overview of the Bible Lands and the repository of so many Biblical artifacts. The British Museum is just superb. We waded through so many items that dated from 3,000 BC to 5,000 BC. A long time ago. It did make me realize that the Lord used Britain to safeguard so many items that would have been lost to mankind if they hadn’t dug it up and brought it home. Yes, I know those countries want those items now but that is a relatively new idea for them. I’m glad it is around for us to see.

I was thinking about Dennis Cole and praying for him this morning. They are in Israel on the dig at Gezer. Dennis and those with him are doing a remarkable thing there and hopefully will uncover even more data that relates to our Bible. I’m looking forward to their discoveries. Thanks Dennis for your indefatigable focus on your work.

We have a long list of things to see. We made it to St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and the Sanctuary, Westminster Hall and the House of Commons, and the Imperial War Museum. We learned how to change Underground lines, read the bus schedule and literally travel to all parts of London today.

Carol did very well climbing stairs. The Underground did have some escalators and elevators. The bus was easy to get on and off. All of the people we met were very nice. As a matter of fact we have been impressed with how nice everyone is. It makes a journey much easier when folks are kind.

London is a marvelous city. Its complexity and charm are its character. So many of the buildings are new and yet they pay homage to the past by listing on their facade the name of the building that was on that site the longest.

We passed the Griffin (bronze dragon) going into the City of London on the bus. We had lunch at GBK (Gourmet Burger Kitchen) across from St. Paul’s. When we finished lunch we walked across the back of St. Paul’s where the locals had scattered across their lawn having their lunch. There were several hundred people enjoying the sunshine and cool breeze.

The Imperial War Museum has as a special event the Holocaust Museum. It is thorough and moving. This museum is excellent. The visit was encouraging and discouraging. The Holocaust Museum does that to me every time.

We visited in Central City, Westminster, and across the Thames to the South Bank and the borough of Lambeth. The Underground was very easy to traverse. The bus system was easy to use getting back to our flat. We were bone tired! So tired that Adam went out and got food for us to eat in tonight.

I’ve been thinking about my friend Jimmy Dukes today. I am grateful to God that He sent me such a good friend. The only thing that would make our trip better would be for Jimmy and Retia to be here with us. I am praying that one day soon they will both be able to travel with us again.

Beautiful weather today. We jumped on the 38 bus from Victoria and rode direct to the British Museum. The bus stop was two blocks from the museum and those two blocks were covered with shade from the buildings and trees. I stopped in at the Starbuck’s across the street for a decaf espresso and then on to the museum.

What a museum. The Rosetta Stone was the first exhibit. I was captivated. The real Rosetta Stone. We never came off of that high. Ninevah and Nimrod, Mycenae, and so many other cities and civilizations and individuals were on the first floor. We decided to work through the whole first floor and then lunch at the Cafe. We left to browse around town after lunch. Our plan is to come to the British Museum a second day and do the upper floors.

We caught a number 8 bus to the Liverpool Street Station and wandered around in that area. We checked out the Old Spitafields Market. It is totally reconstructed and integrated into a modern skyscraper. Starbuck’s was one of our stops. It was an upscale development and everything we saw was very expensive.

We walked back to the Liverpool Street Station and caught the 11 bus that comes back to Victoria. That was an interesting ride at the afternoon rush hour. It took a while to get across town but we made it fine. We decided to pick up something and eat in our flat. We were worn out.

Wow, this was a really active day. In going about our activities I’ve walked 15,000 plus steps. That is why weight isn’t a huge problem in Europe-folks walk everywhere. It all went smoothly, every single step.

We began by boarding the 24 bus and traveling to Westminster. Three blocks and we were at the Churchill Cabinet War Room Museum. We hurried and still spent more than two hours. I wanted to visit the Foreign Office when we finished but didn’t have the proper introductions and appointment so we walked on down the street to the nearest underground.

The Tube was a quick ride to the Tower of London. This is a massive complex that is a historical museum and also houses the Crown Jewels. Went there, saw it all, took a while and a lot of steps but we survived. It was 1:15 p.m. and we hadn’t eaten lunch so we took the Underground back to Victoria Station and had a quick bite at Pret a Manger (upscale fast health food).

This evening we had dinner at the Giraffe. This is a family friendly restaurant. Loud, lots of kids and good food.

We hopped on the London By Night bus at Victoria Station. It was a great two hour experience touring around all of London. Things look different at night. Central City was empty and the buildings were beautiful. Lovely experience. All of us enjoyed it. The guide commented that they didn’t get many nights as beautiful as tonight. Warm weather and clear skies is a rare event in London.