Porto, Portugal (photos & videos)

After we finished in Spain, we flew to Porto, Portugal to visit Brittany's uncle Chuck and aunt Liz. President and Sister Walton have been serving in the Portugal Porto Mission for the last two years, and are now headed to Angola to lead the missionaries in that part of the Mozambique Mission. It was so fun to spend time with them and see how much the missionaries in Porto love them! I had to split the video into two sections, so the playlist below includes both parts. (I'm experimenting now with Jump Breaks, so you'll need to click Read More to see the content of the post. I'm just trying to make the blog a little more readable, as we'll probably be having several epic posts this week.

Madrid, Spain (photos)

After Barcelona, Sam and I flew to Madrid! We stayed in this hotel that was right around the corner from the palace. Sam provided a little more information about our three days there in THIS post, which also includes a video.

Barcelona, Spain (photos)

Barcelona definitely had some interesting architecture, though it is not quite my taste. Sam loved it though! This will definitely be a picture heavy post. Sorry, I'm not in the mood for writing much at the moment. Check out Sam's previous post about our trip to Barcelona HERE. He posted the video and wrote more info about the city.

Sherlock Holmes Museum, Abbey Road, Buckingham Palace, Dad's Birthday, and the London Eye (photos)

My parents returned to London after traveling around the UK for a little while longer. After a few days hanging out with them again, Jeremy and Maria flew in from California! It was so nice to get to hang out with everyone together for a few days--a great blessing to share this incredible experience with those we love! Here is a link to the video Sam posted about these places a few months ago.

Berrington Hall, Lambs, and Croft Castle (photos)

After our whirlwind road trip of seeing family history sites and castles, we concluded our trip in Leominster. We visited an old manor called Berrington Hall. It is a beautiful old home, and the National Trust had restored it to its former glory. It was fascinating to see how this manor ran. Our tour guide was dressed as the head laundry maid as she explained her duties with us and took us around the exterior of the house and the servants quarters. HERE is a link to Sam's earlier blog post that includes videos for these places, too.

I believe this post marks the completion of our Wales/Midlands trip with my parents. It was so fun to get to travel with them!! Sam and I both had an amazing time with them. By the way, this trip happened in February... So I still have major catching up to do! My goal before we leave for our cruises (less than 2 weeks!) is to do a post a day so that we will be able to get a lot closer to catching up before we don't have really internet access for a month!

Tales From Wales (and England): Benbow Pond, Castle Frome, and Bishop's Frome (photos)

Sam and I had the incredible opportunity to go with my parents to see Benbow Pond. Ever since my mom told me about visiting Benbow Pond (probably about 10 years ago), I have wanted to go there. It did not disappoint. For those of you who have not heard about Benbow Pond and the church history there, I will give you a quick rundown. I actually got to teach a lesson about Wilford Woodruff's experience there when I taught Relief Society in Monta Vista Ward. Wilford Woodruff was an apostle and prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. At Benbow Pond, he baptized about 600 members of a Protestant group called the United Brethren.

Two of my ancestors on my mother's side were actually baptized here by Wilford Woodruff. He stayed in that area for about 8 months and brought about 2,000 people into the gospel. To read more about this story, refer to the Teachings of The Presidents of The Church: Wilford Woodruff manual. The lesson is HERE, and it is a really wonderful read.

I felt such an amazing spirit at Benbow Pond, and I am so grateful that I had the experience to go there. I feel so blessed to have such incredible ancestors who paved the way for me.

Tales From Wales: Raglan Castle

On a beautiful sunny day, we were able to tour through Raglan Castle. We have really been loving the castle ruins around here! Such a cool castle to explore. I love walking around, imagining all of the people who have been there before us. For more details on our explorations at Raglan Castle check out Sam's blogging and video of it HERE.

Tales From Wales: Big Pit and Abersychan

Sam and I had the incredible opportunity to go to the Big Pit coal mine with my parents in Wales. Two of my ancestors, Lewis and John Bowen, worked here. It was a very sobering experience to see the incredibly hard conditions they endured working there. Sam jumped the gun a little and posted about this tour about two months ago. (He is WAY ahead of me in posts!) See the video and his thoughts here.

Madrid, Spain (video)

Our next stop was Madrid, Spain. Rather than doing one of the standard tours, we just got a transit pass and wandered through the city at our own pace. We were nervous because the weather forecast called for rain the whole weekend, but we ended up having clear skies most the time. Although Madrid does have its share of history and culture, it felt much more like a city focused on business and government than tourism. I guess that's to be expected, being the capital.

The video below includes some highlights from the Royal Palace, the disappointing radio tower, and a relaxing day in the park. We also got to pop in at a sacrament meeting on Sunday, though we didn't stay for the whole thing as everything was in Spanish. I took a few years of Spanish in high school, but I only remember bits and pieces. It was enough to ask for directions or order food, but there was usually enough people close by that spoke English, too.

Barcelona, Spain (video)

So apparently, I was really trigger happy with the video camera in Barcelona--30 minutes of video, even after I cropped it down. We spent three days there and did one of the hop-on, hop-off bus tours. We were a bit nervous our first night there, because everything was closed. Even restaurants--at 6:00 and 7:00. Apparently, a lot of their restaurants don't open back up for dinner until around 7:30pm or 8:00pm. Normally, that'd be perfect for us, but hunger struck at the wrong time.

Luckily, the trip picked up quite a bit the next day, and we had a lot of fun touring the city. I think my favorite attraction was Sagrada Familia. It's a huge, imposing cathedral that stands out in a flat part of the city like Shaq at a concert of the Wiggles. It's been "in construction" for the last 130 years or so, and the original creator, Antoni Gaudí, wasn't even alive for half of that. The stained glass windows were abstract, but the colors were very vibrant and bright. The pope just dedicated it last November, but who knows how long it will be until it's "finished."

Waltons in London (video)

Finally got around to putting together a video from our adventures with the Waltons in London. Brittany's parents and her brother Jeremy and his wife Maria came to visit a few weeks ago. This video includes highlights from Big Ben/Parliament, the London Eye, the Sherlock Holmes Museum, Abbey Road, Buckingham Palace, and Trafalgar Square. Sorry I'm too lazy to spend time dressing it up. It's sub-PBS late-night documentary. Think more along the lines of local access cable. Then drop it down a few notches. At least the sets have been carefully and patiently designed by the British people over the last several centuries.



Brittany and I had gone up in the London Eye a year and half ago during the daytime, but it was kind of fun to go up at night to get a different perspective. I'm a sucker for city skylines, particularly at night. You'll probably see a recurring theme as I post videos of our other adventures later on.

The Sherlock Holmes Museum was interesting, but it did make us wonder for a bit, "Wait a minute... was this a real person?" I mean, the guy's house has one of those little blue plaques the Brits put up on buildings where famous people used to live. I was kind of thinking it was one of those situations where there was a real person named Sherlock Holmes, and the stories were just embellishments or something. Wanna know the answer? Look it up.

Abbey Road was one almost traffic accident after another, as tourists casually strolled across the street while sports cars and lorries came precariously close to recreating the scene from Meet Joe Black. We didn't get to spot the queen this time at Buckingham Palace, but I have since learned the system for knowing when the queen is at home. When she's out and about, the Union Jack flag flies atop the palace. When she's in da house, her royal flag is raised instead. Random fact: apparently she was recently watching her sons play on their iPads, and she ordered her iPad 2 immediately thereafter.

Over the next little while, I'll work on trying to get more videos posted. We spent three days in Barcelona, three in Madrid, and three in Porto with Brittany's uncle Chuck and aunt Liz. They're serving as the mission presidents there right now. It was really fun to visit with them. When we got back to London, we camped out for a good view of the Royal Wedding procession. That weekend we then visited Leeds Castle, Canterbury Cathedral, the White Cliffs of Dover, Hampton Court Palace, and Westminster Abbey. They still had some of the decorations up from the wedding, so that was kind of cool. More on that when we get there. For now, you can enjoy Brittany's teaser shot from the wedding. Cheers!

Chepstow Castle

Sam and me in front of Chepstow Castle

Mom and Dad in front of the castle

We really loved this castle. It had a lot of walls surviving and it was so beautiful! I love to tromp around old castles and imagine all of the people who were there before me

The castle was originally built in the 11th century by the Normans

Visit to Seaton, England

 My parents took Sam and me on a trip around England and Wales. Here is part one of the journey! Our first stop was Seaton, England. One of my ancestors was a Reverend at a parish here in the early 1600's. He went to Cambridge before moving to Seaton. He left from Seaton to move to America and was the first of my Walton ancestors to make that trek. It was such a cool experience to walk to shores he walked and visit his parish.

Mom and Dad on the beach right in front of the lovely B&B we stayed at

Sam and me on the same stretch of beach

The whole Seaton beach was pepples rather than sand. The only two beaches I have been to in England are rocky shores. Not sure if they all are, but that is my experience so far!

This was the beautiful parish where William Walton preached

Mom and Dad in front of the church

The wall hanging that shows William Walton was a Reverend here.

My Dad giving us a sermon

Mom and Dad sitting in the parish pews

Me in front of this beautiful old church

London With My Parents

So I definitely have some catching up to do, and I finally have time to do it!

We had SO much fun with my parents when they came to visit us! They came to visit us in London for a weekend, then they went to Portugal. After Portugal we got to hang out with them in Wales and the midlands of England. Then they went off on their own adventures, then came back to spend a few days with us in London before flying out. So here are some of the photos of our adventures with them that first weekend in London.

Sam and me in front of Kensington Palace

Sam and me with my parents in front of the palace

My Momma in me in front of the palace! By the way this is the palace where Princess Diana lived. It is about 3 blocks from our flat

Paige and me at the BYU London Centre where she lived while in London

My parents in front of Garfunkels

All of us in front of Garfunkels where we ate that night. It reminded me of a Chilis or something, which is a welcome break for me!

Banksy sighting in Notting Hill on our way to the amazing antiques market--Portobello Road

Royal Wedding Sneak Peek

Sorry I have been on a blog hiatus lately!! Between school finishing and traveling things have been crazy, but they are slowing down now. Here is a sneak peek of our day yesterday waiting on the mall for the royal wedding route! We were on the first row of the crowd! I am still so excited that I got this picture!! More pictures of the wedding and our Iberian vacation to come!