In July 2015, The Salvation Army had a large international congress in London. My parents had been expecting that one would be held in 2015 for over ten years, so we’d been planning to go for a long time. Fortunately, the dates lined up with my holidays from study, so I was able to join.
Our flights to London included a stop-over at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We spent the night at a hotel at the airport, and the next day, took a taxi into KL city. The taxi driver drove us around many of the popular tourist sights including some memorial garden, the royal palace (Istana Negara), and lunch at the Petronus Towers.
The first week in London was the week of the Congress. We had a small apartment that was about a ten minute walk from the O2 centre where the events were being held. We attended great meetings, listened to brilliant speakers, and went to fantastic band concerts. Congress ended with a fantastic march down The Mall to Buckingham Palace.
After congress ended, we moved from our accommodation in Greenwich to an apartment in the city. The day we moved, we left our bags in storage until we were able to enter the apartment, and went to see the Cutty Sark. It wasn’t something we had planned on seeing, but we had time to kill and it was nearby. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
That week we saw several of the touristy (and not so touristy) sites around London. My favourite was probably the Tower of London. I also enjoyed Hampton Court and the British Museum. However, the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace was over-rated; it was too crowded and there wasn’t all that much to see.
We also attended my sister’s wedding. There was a tube strike on that day. The ceremony was held at a cute little registry office with a lovely garden. It was a sunny day but there was plenty of shade outside (really good, as there was a heat-wave on – road-cones melted).
We spent the night before we left at my eldest sister’s place in a village just north of London. It was great to see the place where she lives and walk along the canal that she writes about on her postcards.
Then we had a couple of days in Paris. We did a river tour down the Seine and went up the Eifel Tower for a night-view of the city. We took a bus tour around the city, saw all the tourist sights, and ate at a French café.
My brother and I headed back to New Zealand after Paris, while Mum and Dad went on to the Holy Land and Istanbul. It was a memorable trip and unlikely to ever happen again. While I might go back to many of these places, it is unlikely that any of it will be with both my parents.
