London: Day 14 (May 26, 2012)

Today we slept in a little, got up, dressed and Pete cooked us an English breakfast of sausages, bacon, eggs and toast.  It was delicious.  Actually, I can’t eat the English sausages, which are apparently really good – they all have bread crumbs in them.  But the eggs, bacon and toast were wonderful (I brought some gluten free bread with me).

Alex and I took a little walk with the dogs and I wish that I had brought my camera.  It was so beautiful and we ran into one of her neighbors driving a little wagon pulled by a Shetland pony.  But alas, those pictures shall remain forever only in my head.

Afterwards we got on cycles (or bikes, as we call them in America) and cycled down into town and on the coast.   There was a little food festival going on, but it was much smaller than the advertisement led us to believe, so we didn’t stay long.  It was a glorious bike ride, though.  It was a beautiful warm and sunny day, but not hot, just warm.  There was a great sea breeze and it was mostly down hill.

This is along the way.  The castle in the background is one of 3 (I think...) castles on the island.

Both Alex and Pete said that they have the 2nd largest tide in the world. 

When we turned to go back, the first part was mostly flat but now we were cycling into that strong sea breeze that had pushed on our way before.  It made a big difference to my unexercised legs and lungs.  But I made it to the car show that was also happening in Jersey this weekend.  We walked around the car show and picked out our favorite cars.  I chose I vintage Jaguar in yellow.  I can’t remember what year it was, but mostly I liked the yellow color.

Alex had to go call into a meeting for the Nauvoo Pageant so Pete and I cycled to Gourey Castle.  This is different from the castle in the picture above.  This was quite a long cycle for a girl who never cycles, again into the wind, but not too bad as far as hills go.  I was cycling as hard as I could and poor Pete had to keep looking back and slowing down so that he could at least still see me.  We stopped once for a few minutes at a great picture spot, which was great because I was ready for a rest.  Then we continued on to the castle.  When we got to the castle Pete said that we cycled around about half of the Island. 

 Gourey Castle in the background.

The view of the castle grounds from the top terrace.

 The view of Jersey from the top terrace - looking away from the ocean.

The view from the top terrace - looking out to the ocean.

 Inside the castle on one of the narrow spiral staircases.

The castle is a medieval castle and was quite fascinating.  Different than Hampton Court, older and more rough seeming, crude maybe a good word for it.  From the top of the castle you can see a large part of Jersey Island, from one side and from the other side you can see the coast of Normandy, France.  We are only 10 miles off the coast of France.  You pay to get into the castle but then you just go where you want so it was a lovely little jaunt through the castle.

After seeing the castle we were all starving because all we had eaten for lunch was a bit of Jersey cream ice cream.  Thankfully, I didn’t have to cycle home because it would have been all up hill and I was exhausted from the cycling I had done already.  Alex cycled home after her meeting, got the car and met us at the castle.  We through the bikes in the back and drove home.

After dinner we went to the home of some of the other church members and watched a show called Eurovision Song Contest.  It is an annual event where all the countries of Europe send a representative to this song competition and then Europe votes for a winner.  The winning country hosts the competition next year.  There are some rules though.  I’m not sure what they are, but it seems to be that they can’t be professionals.  Anyway, it was a really interesting look into European pop culture.  Sweden won, if you are wondering.

It was a fantastic day!  Exactly what I needed.  And that bike ride was a great preparation for Southern France. 

London: Day 13 (May 25, 2012)

I am on Jersey Island today.  I arrived this afternoon.  Alex met me at the airport.  I walked up to her hugged her and said, “Alex I’m in Jersey!”  She said, “Is that a little strange for you?”  I said, “Yes! I’ve heard you talk about it so many times and now I am here!”  She drove me directly to the beach to the beach and we got out and walked around for a few minutes.   It was amazing.  We got home and had a few minutes to chat and eat something. 

You may not know, but Jersey is famous for the Jersey cow.  The Jersey cow is famed for its cream.  When I was a child I remember that my grandparent’ had a Jersey cow.  They had a lot of other cows, but just the one Jersey cow.  I remember very clearly one day, after the milking was done, my grandmother telling me that the milk from the Jersey cow had more and richer cream than the other cows. And because the Jersey cow looked different than all the other cows I know what it looks like.  When I first met Alex in 2007 she was amazed that I knew about Jersey cows.

Then we went to her brother’s 40^th birthday party.  It was quite a wild time.  I even got out on the dance floor for a few minutes. It was a rare moment in the history of Christy Rae Turnbow!  I’m not sure how it happened.  The Mackenzie’s are such enthusiastic and happy people and somehow I ended up on the dance floor and then next thing I knew I was doing some sort of kick line to a Queen song.  I took pictures just incase you don’t believe me (not of the kick line, but on the dance floor anyway).

I was so impressed with how loving and open the people here are.  It was a very fun evening.  


This was a very interesting portrayal of women for the women's restroom at the hotel where the party was held.  See the Men's Room first:

 Now see the Women's Room:

??? Is she meant to have spiky pony tails?  I thought it was funny so I had to take a picture.