Charlottesville Getaway Reccommendations

A couple of weeks ago, Alex and I spent a night in Charlottesville, VA. We had an amazing time and definitely want to go back! Charlottesville is a great place for a romantic getaway or a short family vacation. We only spent one night, but I'd recommend spending a weekend there. Here's an itinerary of what we did:

Thursday Night:

Walked Around Downtown
We strolled around downtown Charlottesville. The downtown is adorable and there's lots of cute shops and used book stores (Alex almost bought The Collected Works of John Bunyan...the book was several hundred years old!). There's also a lot of music history in Charlottesville. Dave Matthew's Band got their start at Miller's (a bar in downtown). One suggestion I have if you want to go into the shops is to get downtown earlier in the day. I was sad the find that most of the shops closed around 5 (might be different on the weekends).

Ate Dinner at Hamiltons' at First & Main
We had an AMAZING dinner at Hamilton's! I highly recommend it if you're looking for a nicer dinner out! It's right downtown and it has a great ambience. There was live music while we were playing and I had an unbelievably good plate of shrimp and grits.

Got Gelato at Splendora's
I LOVE Gelato and was super excited to find a gelato place downtown. Splendora's was excellent! My favorite flavor is stracciatella.

Drove Around UVA's Campus
If we had more time, we would have spent a few hours walking around the campus. Since our time was limited, we quickly drove around. UVA's campus is GORGEOUS and definitely worth seeing! I love that all the buildings have Jefferson's distinct Palladian architectural style (he designed the school).

Stayed at the English Inn of Charlottesville, VA
Alex found the English Inn and did a great job! We wanted a reasonably priced hotel that was close to downtown. The English Inn was a great value and was really close to everything. It's an older hotel but was very unique and quaint.

Friday Morning:

Toured Monticello
You can't take a trip to Charlottesville without visiting Monticello! Alex is a big Jefferson fan and has read a lot of biographies about him and so he was particularly excited. Jefferson was a fascinating man and had so many unique interests and ways of thinking and so his home really is amazing. I'd recommend setting aside 2-3 hours for this. The tour of the home only takes about an hour, but then there's fairly large grounds you can walk around (with a beautiful view overlooking the mountains), as well as other parts of the house you can see that aren't included in the tour like the slave quarters, basement, Jefferson's grave, etc. I'd also recommend getting to Monticello 30 minutes before your tour is supposed to start. You have to take a shuttle up to park and take a shuttle up to the house.

Lunch at Monsoon Siam
This restaurant is a gem! It's probably the trendiest Thai place I've been to and the food is amazing! Seriously, not exaggerating, I had the best Panang curry I've ever had. I regret not taking a picture of it but just trust me, it was SOOOO good! Our waitress was also the sweetest and she told us all about the time that Dave Matthews came in and she served him Red Curry.

Visit Carter Mountain Orchard
This is definitely worth doing! I read that Carter Mountain Orchard has the best view in Charlottesville and we were not disappointed! Be prepared for a VERY steep drive up a mountain. You can also go apple picking and shop their adorable store for apples, apple butter, apple doughnuts (they were delicious), etc. 

Visit Ash-Lawn Highland
Once you visit Carter Mountain, you can keep driving through beautiful, windy mountain roads and you'll drive by Ash-Lawn Highland as well as several vineyards. We didn't have time to tour it, but we drove up and briefly saw President James Monroe's home. If we had more time, we'd love to go back and do a tour of Ash-Lawn Highland as well as Montpelier (James Madison's home).

Wine Tasting at Blenheim Vineyards
I wanted to do a tasting at a vineyard (there's 30 or so in Charlottesville) and so to satisfy Alex's Dave Matthew's fanboy desires, we went to Blenheim. Dave Matthews opened Blenheim Vineyards several years ago. I'm no wine connoisseur but I loved seeing the vineyard and tasting wines. My favorite wine is typically Pinot Noir but the grapes for Pinot Noir are mostly grown in California and Italy. Charlottesville is known more for lighter wines. My favorite wine at Blenheim was the Rose. We also drove by Trump Winery at it was GORGEOUS (that's right...owned by Donald Trump himself). Another vineyard I'd love to visit/my dream location to shoot a wedding is Pippin Hill.

I think we accomplished quite a bit in 24 hours! Hopefully next time we'll get to stay a little longer. I highly recommend visiting Charlottesville! If you've been there, what are some of your recommendations?

England Trip Part Four: London

We spent our last day in England in London and had a great time! We began by seeing all the major sights like Big Ben, the London Eye, etc. Then Alex toured Westminster Abbey while I got some coffee (I had already toured it when I studied abroad in London). Then we went to Spurgeon's church, the Metropolitan Tabernacle. It was closed, but luckily, one of the kind secretaries who worked at the church let us in and gave us a brief tour. She updated us on everything the church is doing now and how God has continued to work there over the years!

After that, we went to Bunhill fields (a non-conformist burial site) and then on to see where Spurgeon and his wife Susannah are buried. It was really impactful to see the graves of people who God used so much. Whenever I see graves like theirs, it always causes me to reflect on what I want my legacy to be. I long for my legacy to be that I loved Christ and loved others. Here's a few of my favorite pictures:

Left: Alex recently read a biography on Winston Churchill and now he's obsessed with him so he just HAD to get a picture in front of the statue! :) Right: Alex outside of Westminster Abbey! Alex got to tour it while I relaxed at a coffee shop (I had already toured it when I studied abroad)!

This isWestminster Chapel where Martin Lloyd-Jones preached. I had the privilege of attending this church when I studied abroad in London!

St. James Park

The Metropolitan Tabernacle where Spurgeon ministered for over 30 years. Alex's doctoral work is centered largely around Spurgeon, this building, and the ministry that was carried out from it. You can read more about Spurgeon in Part 2. 

A very sweet woman actually let us come into the building, though it was closed to take a brief look around. This bust of Spurgeon greeted us in the side room where we entered.

Do you recognize this? This is a picture of where Spurgeon was baptized. We got to visit that spot and I posted pictures in Part 2 of this blog series.

This is the current pulpit, not original to Spurgeon's day, but still beautiful. Unfortunately, the building was mostly destroyed during WWII. They were able to keep the original front of the tabernacle intact.

Alex in Dr. Peter Masters' pulpit. Masters is the current pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle and deliberately continues in a Spurgeonic legacy of reformed preaching and evangelism. When he first came in 1970, the church had been whittled down to about 30 people. They now run roughly 1,000 on a Sunday morning!

We were able to make it over to Bunhill fields where many Puritans were buried. This is John Bunyan's grave, which is in the most prominent place in the cemetery. John Owen was buried only about 15 feet away from Bunyan. Fitting given their mutual admiration for one another. I actually had the chance to visit Bunhill fields back in 2008 when I studied abroad and I wrote a post about it here. It's fun to reflect back on all God has taught me and done in my life since I wrote that post!

Just across the street from Bunhill Fields is John Wesley's Chapel and parish. Unfortunately it was closed that day but we still got to stroll around the grounds.

Outside St. Paul's Cathedral

We were able to snap a few quick photos before they told us photography wasn't allowed. Oops! Many famous funerals have been held in this building including Winston Churchill's and Princess Diana's. Also Christopher Wren and Lord Admiral Nelson were buried in the basement of the cathedral.

After some wandering around and getting a little lost, we finally found Spurgeon's grave in Norwood Cemetery. Absolutely amazing!

Spurgeon's stone reads:
"For since by faith I saw the stream/
Thy flowing wounds supply
Redeeming love has been my theme
And shall be till I die

Then in a nobler sweeter song
I'll sing thy power to save
When this poor lisping stammering tongue
Lies silent in the grave"

Susannah's stone reads (Spurgeon's wife):
"His love in time past forbids me to think
He'll leave me at last in trouble to sink
Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review
Confirms his good pleasure to help me quite through
Since all that I meet shall work for my good
The bitter is sweet, the medicine food
Though painful at present twill cease before long
And then oh how pleasant the conquerors song"
 

Other pictures from our phones that Alex took in Westminster Abbey and I took in St. Paul's:

We climbed a TON of stairs to get to the top of the dome in St. Paul's. It was amazing! 

England Trip Part Three: Cambridge

Alex and I were able to spend a day in Cambridge and we had an incredible time! We met up with one of Alex's good friends from his childhood, Kilby, and her husband Paul and their daughter Hillary. I'm not exaggerating when I say that it was the most picture perfect day. The weather was beautiful and we started the day off by grabbing some wine, meats, and cheeses from a local market to take punting with us. If you're unfamiliar with "punting," a "punt" is a flat bottomed boat and the punter propels the punt by pushing against the river bed with a pole. Punting is very popular in Cambridge and there are probably more punts on the Cam than any other river in England. While on our boat ride, we took in the beautiful sites and ate our picnic lunch. Afterwards, we walked around Cambridge, stopped and got turkish delight, had lots of coffee and good conversation, and ended the day by sitting in the beautiful courtyard of Emmanuel college and feeding the ducks. 

To give you a little more history about Cambridge, Cambridge was founded in 1209. After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled northeast to Cambridge where they established what became the University of Cambridge. Cambridge is the second oldest University in the English speaking world. 

Here's some of my favorite pictures from our time in Cambridge:

This is the Airbnb room we stayed in before heading out to Cambridge for the day. It was adorable!

We met up our friends Paul and Kilby and had the perfect day together! We hit up the open air market and got a picnic lunch of fantastic english cheeses, bread, and meat!

And then went punting in Cambridge with our picnic lunch!!! So gorgeous!!!

I told Alex the one thing I wanted to do on our trip was to go punting...and we did! Loved it!!

King's College Chapel where Charles Simeon ministered.

Alex experiencing Turkish Delight for the first time (after reading about it in Chronicles of Narnia, he was pretty determined to try it)

Pembroke College, Cambridge! The Puritan, Roger Williams graduated here.

Emmanuel College, Cambridge. This was the center of Puritanism in the early 17th century. So many of the leading Puritans were educated and trained in this College.

England Trip Part Two: Puritan/Spurgeon Tour

As I mentioned in my last post, one of the main reasons Alex and I went to England is because Alex is doing PhD research on Charles Spurgeon. On our third day there, our gracious host, Jeremy Walker, spent about 12 hours driving us through the English countryside so that we could see various Puritan and Spurgeon sites. If you're interested, Jeremy is actually featured in a documentary that shows you many of the sites in the tour we did with him. The documentary is available on You Tube and is called "Through the Eyes of Spurgeon."

It was an amazing day and it was unbelievable to see so much history and to see the gorgeous English countryside and several adorable little towns! I could have spent DAYS photographing all of the beauty! I especially loved Lavenham and all of the crooked buildings, colorful doors, and flower pots!

I asked Alex to write a little about the Puritans and Spurgeon for those of you reading this who are interested in learning more. Here's a little information written by my husband:

The English Puritans

The Puritans were a group of English Protestants who sought to reform, or “purify,” the Church of England in the 16th and 17th centuries. They were known for their deep piety, their allegiance to the Bible, and their desire to see thorough reform in both the Christian church and in the Christian life. After the Roman Catholic reign of Mary I (“Bloody Mary”), Elizabeth I ascended the throne. Elizabeth, having been raised a protestant, had a more irenic disposition toward non-Catholics. She, in essence, re-established the Church of England but allowed many Roman Catholic elements to remain in the church. The Puritan movement was essentially birthed out of the desire of many protestants to reform the Church of England under Queen Elizabeth and subsequent monarchs.

After years of ongoing tension and persecution, including the Act of Uniformity of 1662 which effectively ejected over 2,000 Puritan pastors from their churches, many Puritans made their way to America to seek religious freedom. In many ways, early America was founded on Puritan ideals. Many in protestant churches today regard the Puritans with great respect for their fidelity to the Bible and their willingness even to die for their Christian convictions.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), often referred to as the Prince of Preachers, is considered by most historians to be the preeminent preacher of the Victorian Era in England. Spurgeon’s mighty legacy as a preacher stems from his unusual preaching gift that began from a very early age. By the time he was 20, it is estimated that he had preached 600 sermons. Spurgeon grew up west of London in Essex. He took his first pastorate at Waterbeach, near Cambridge, when he was only 17. After a couple years of spectacularly fruitful ministry there, he went on to become the pastor of the New Park Street Chapel in London, which later relocated and was renamed the Metropolitan Tabernacle which still stands to this day. Spurgeon ministered in London from 1854 until his death in 1892.

Spurgeon preached weekly to his congregation of 6,000 throughout his life. He often preached to much larger gatherings including one that numbered nearly 25,000. He left behind 63 large volumes of printed sermons with more still being published today. In addition to his legacy as a preacher, Spurgeon was also an incredible philanthropist. At one point in his lifetime as many as 66 parachurch ministries were based out of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, most of which were either founded, chaired, or financially supported by Spurgeon himself. He was also a prolific writer. By the end of his life Spurgeon had published more words in the English language than any other Christian in history.

Today he is regarded as one of the most significant Baptist ministers in church history.

Birthplace of the Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon!

Alex thought this looked like the Prancing Pony from Lord of the Rings

This is the Parish Church of St. Peter ad Vincula in Coggeshall, Essex. This is a small town where John Owen for a number of years before the English Civil War.

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Alex in Owen's pulpit!

This is Jeremiah Burrough's chapel, another famous Puritan.

This bench is a very very long story. Ask Alex about it, he will love to tell you! Suffice it to say, the steel used to in this bench is significant to Spurgeon history.

Looks like a random house, but this is actually where Spurgeon lived for several years as a child with his grandparents.

This was really special. You may not be able to read the plaque, but this is the chapel where Spurgeon was converted. The account of his conversion is well worth reading in his autobiography. The text the Lord used to convert him was Isaiah 45:22, "Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other."

Left: This is just outside John Roger's church. There are famous accounts of John Rogers actually preaching out of that window just above Alex's head. You wouldn't know from this picture, but Alex is facing a town square where over a thousand people would've gathered to hear Rogers preach. Right: Alex in Roger's pulpit.

A bust of John Rogers in the chapel.

The following several pictures are from Lavenham. Lavenham was one of my favorite places that we went. It was an ADORABLE little town with really quaint and colorful buildings.

We had tea in the tearoom in the picture on the left called "The Crooked House." It was adorable! I had an amazing Rhubarb pie with clotted cream!

This is St. Peter and St. Paul's Church in Lavenham where William Gurnall was rector in the 1600s.

This was such a treat! It was a long walk through a working farm in the driving wind, but we finally made it to the spot where Spurgeon was baptized!

And here's the water! Can you imagine being baptized in this water in March as Spurgeon was? Not only that, but he walked soaking wet several miles back to his home afterward.

This is Andrew Fuller's first church located in Soham. Alex has an 1845 edition of Owen's three volume collected works that were given to him as a gift from one of our pastors!

This is Waterbeach where Spurgeon took his first pastorate. This would have been right before he went to London where he ministered for the rest of his life.

This is the church where he ministered.

This stone was laid by Spurgeon!

Here's a few other iPhone pictures:

We stopped in Lavenham and had pasties from a butcher (ignore Alex's thumb in this pic ;)). My family loves pasties and so I was excited to have one in England...this picture is for you Dad!! :)

We ended our tour at The Green Dragon in Cambridge. It seemed only fitting to eat at a pub named "The Green Dragon"! Also, they supposedly had one the "Best Fish and Chips of 2015" award. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of my plate!

England Trip Part One: Oxford

My husband Alex and I had the blessing and privilege to travel to England last week and it was an amazing trip! Alex is currently getting his PhD through Southeastern Seminary and he's going to write his dissertation on Charles Spurgeon. Charles Spurgeon was a well known Baptist preacher in the mid-to-late 1800's in London. So Alex and I took a trip to England to do a church history tour and visit famous Spurgeon and Puritan sites as well as to take a personal vacation. I actually studied abroad in London for 5 months back in 2008 so I'm pretty familiar with London, but it was a joy to experience it again with my husband who's never been there! I also got to see a lot of things (like the beautiful English countryside and Cambridge) that I didn't get to see when I studied abroad!

I'll be posting 4 parts to our trip. This is the first of four and will show pictures from the first two days of our trip in Oxford.

I had so much fun taking pictures in Oxford! This city really is a photographers in dream! Literally every building is stunning and they're all hundreds and hundreds of years old. While I was there, I learned that Oxford began in 1096 (or at least there's evidence of some form of teaching that far back) and all of the buildings you see have largely stayed intact for hundreds of years. Throughout much of London, many buildings were destroyed during the bombings of World War II. However, Hitler wanted Oxford to be his capitol. Thankfully that never happened!

Here's some of the highlights:

The Eagle and Child - where C.S. Lewis and Tolkien used to meet!

Martyrs memorial in the center of Oxford. Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley were burned at the stake at this spot. As they burned, Latimer shouted to Ridley, "Be of good comfort, Mr. Ridley, and play the man! We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace, in England, as I trust never shall be put out."

Bodleian Library-  The Bodleian Library is the main research library of the University of Oxford. It is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 12 million items, it is the second largest library in Britain after the British Library.

The Bridge of Sighs- supposedly a replica of the bridge in Venice

The University Church of Saint Mary the Virgin. Absolutely gorgeous!

Many men have given historic addresses in this building including C.S. Lewis who delivered his 1942 war-time message, "The Weight of Glory." Sadly, this was also the site where the Oxford martyrs, Latimer, Ridley, and Cranmer were tried and convicted. So much history.

Loved all the colorful buildings and tea rooms! Why can't we get more tea rooms in America?!

Magdalen College- Where C.S. Lewis taught!

They say this is the prettiest street view in Oxford...I think I have to agree!

We went to the top of the tower at the University Church to get a view of the city and it was totally worth it! I love this shot of the Bodleian Library!

The pulpit of the University Church (Where C.S. Lewis preached, "The Weight of Glory")

Balliol college, Oxford. Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, attended this college, much to Alex's delight. John Wycliffe was another famous alumnus.

This particular dining hall in Balliol was actually the room that inspired the Harry Potter dining hall scenes.

This door was so cool! So during WWII, C.S. Lewis had an office at the University Church. Every day he would exit the church and immediately enter this door. You'll notice in the center of the door is carved a lion. On either side you can see the gold figurines that resemble Fauns. You can't see it here, but just to the right is a lamp post. All of these objects inspired much of the imagery of the Chronicles of Narnia. So cool!

Christ Church Cathedral of Oxford where John Owen was once Dean. Owen was also Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University under Oliver Cromwell.

Christ Church College

Oxford Castle

Here's a few pictures from my phone (the only way we could get pictures together!!):

Here's a video Alex took at the top of the tower: