Saturday, July 29, 2017

London

Parliament & Big Ben


Alison is a big city girl. On the way home from our mother-daughter trip to New York last year she asked, “Mom, can we move to New York City?” (To which I answered, “Absolutely not!”) She’s the one who was most excited about seeing London, but it was a lot of fun for all of us -- completely different from Iceland and a little more luxurious.

We arrived in the evening of July 3rd and stayed just across the bridge from Parliament and Big Ben. Despite London having a reputation for being very expensive, it’s all relative. £12 for a meal (roughly $15.50) seemed downright cheap after Iceland! We ate dinner around the corner from our hotel, the weather was perfect, and we were incredibly happy to see darkness again.

Playing on the sculpture outside the hotel, with Big Ben in the background


Day 1: Independence Day in the Country We Gained Independence From

For some reason, I really wanted to see the Changing of the Guard, so we built our first day around that. We slept in, then took a leisurely walk across the Westminster Bridge, past Parliament and Westminster Abbey, took the Birdcage Walk along St James’ Park and ended up stuck in the crowd along the fence at Buckingham Palace. The guard changing was OK. There was a band that played both classic numbers and also things like Life is a Highway. It lasted forever. It was really hot. We couldn’t see much. In short, this turned out to be my least favorite thing in London. The Changing of the Guard at Arlington Cemetery is much better. It’s silent, you can see what’s going on, and it’s short and sweet. I was jokingly comparing the U.S. to England the whole day since we were spending our Independence Day in the country we gained independence from. The U.S. won this one.


Buckingham Palace from Green Park 

Photo Credit: Nathan King

Changing of the Guards


I was happy to get away from the crowd and walk down the Mall towards Trafalgar Square. The kids acquired a cute, but annoying habit of chasing pigeons. I was sure I would have to clean poop off of one of them before the trip was over.


Hanging Out in Trafalgar Square


We were starving and so, without looking at reviews or guidebooks, we found a restaurant in Trafalgar Square called The Admiralty where we got meat pies. They had a pretty good local cider too. We lucked out.


I couldn't help but think about Sweeney Todd :/


The National Gallery is across the square. It wasn’t on our list, but we popped in and MAN do they have a lot of famous things! They’ve got a pair of paintings by Leonardo Da Vinci.




They have gobs of famous impressionist paintings (I’ve never seen so many Monets). But the thing that made me so, so happy was the entire wall of Diego Velazquez paintings, including the La Venus del espejo (The Toilet of Venus). Pretty neat and totally beats the other sunflower painting they have.


 Velazquez

I saw this too.


It was late afternoon by the time we left and walked toward Westminster Abbey. We were disappointed not to be able to see the Prime Minister’s door -- you can’t even get close. (Another thing we do better in the U.S.) It was too late to tour Westminster Abbey, so after a break at the hotel, we decided to do what the kids were most excited to do: ride the London Eye. We knew it would be a colossal waste of money ($123 to be exact), but we’re glad we did it once.


Photo Credit: Nathan King



About to Board 


 View from Above

We finished the night at a nearby Italian restaurant called Locale. The conclusion we drew that day was that England, the country we’d gained Independence from, wasn’t so bad, but it wasn’t better either.

The Thames


Day 2: Museums & Trains

We began Day 2 early with a ride on the London Underground and a visit to the Tower of London.


Tower of London


Tower Bridge from the Tower of London 

Me!


Watergate (the prisoner entrance) with the Real World Behind It

I love the Underground and I love, love, love the Tower of London (my 3rd favorite thing in London as it turns out). It’s hard to imagine that by the time the U.S. was founded, the Tower of London was already well over 700 years old. We took a tour with a jaunty Yeoman Warder who was hilarious. He liked to make anti-American jokes and tell historic tower stories in the most gruesome way possible. (Luckily, the kids weren’t paying attention most of the time.)

 Yeoman Warder

We saw the Crown Jewels. No pictures allowed, but not as extravagant as I expected. I guess I was expecting something more like this:



We learned about the exotic animals that used to live in the Tower.


Scarier than Lions & Tigers & Bears


We saw the armor that various kings used hundreds of years ago.


 The White Castle

Best Use of Old Armor

View from the White Castle


It was all very, very cool -- everything except the temperature. We had to stop at an ice cream stand afterwards to cool off. Halfway through her cone, Maddie said, “Mom, the ice cream is so low, I can’t bite it!” She didn’t know you could eat the cone...and that’s how we discovered that Maddie had made it four entire years without eating an ice cream cone. Parenting win or fail?!


Maddie's 1st Cone


From there, we took the Tube again to the British Museum. It pays to have taken over large swaths of the globe at a time when randomly stealing things from other cultures was not very difficult. They have the ROSETTA STONE!


Rosetta Stone


And an Easter Island statue.


Easter Island Statue


And they have chunks of the Parthenon from Athens. (How?!)


Some Famous Horse Head


Luckily, it didn’t take all that long to see everything we wanted to at the museum and we got out of there before it closed at 5:30pm. For dinner, we walked down the street to Rock and Sole Plaice to get fish & chips. Nathan claims the fish & chips he had at the restaurant right by the hotel was better. I thought it was pretty good...for fish.


Then, we did my second favorite thing in all of London. We visited Platform 9 ¾! We waited in a photo line long enough to make anyone that isn’t a diehard Harry Potter fan angry. Luckily, three of us are pretty big fans. One of us was angry.


Off to Hogwarts!


This could not have made me happier. :)


Day 3: Westminster & Tea

We thought we’d spend the final day eating like a Brit. So, we ordered a traditional Full English Breakfast. Each one was big enough for about six people to eat and for the most part, everything was good. I disliked the “black pudding” which was like a stale, burnt hockey puck and I also disliked the fact that there was no way I was finishing everything.


Full English Breakfast


Then, since time was running out on our vacation, we decided to split up. Alison and I went on a tour of Westminster Abbey and Nathan and Maddie went to the Imperial War Museum.


I went to Westminster Abbey primarily because most people say it’s really neat. I thought it would be just another impressive gothic cathedral like the one I used to pass everyday on my way to school the semester I studied in Spain. What I didn’t know is that it’s basically a cemetery for a lot of really famous people (AND impressive gothic cathedral)!


Alison @ Westminster Abbey 

Waiting to Get Inside


Darwin, a bunch of Kings and Queens, Isaac Newton, Chaucer, and Dickens -- the list goes on and on. I don’t know what it is about stumbling upon old cemeteries with famous people in them, but I just love it (Boston’s got some good ones too)! That made Westminster Abbey my favorite spot in London. The best area was Poet’s Corner, where many of Britain’s most famous authors are buried or have memorials (like Shakespeare and Jane Austen). Anyway, the audio guide is pretty great and even a six-year-old understood how important this place was.


Westminster Abbey Courtyard 

Alison & I in the College Gardens


We had reservations for high tea at the Kensington Palace Orangery at 2:30pm. It is inside Hyde Park, so we had a lovely walk from the Underground through the park to tea. I hate cities. I really hate them, but I appreciate touring them and seeing all the famous things. However, I never tend to realize how stressed out they make me until I find a quiet spot in the middle of, say Central Park, or in this case, Hyde Park. It’s a literal breath of fresh air in the middle of all the hustle and bustle. I’m really glad both New York and London thought far enough ahead to add a bit of nature to their monstrous cities.


Ready for Tea! 

We got there a little early... 

...and explored the palace gardens. 

Kensington Palace Gardens 

Maddie

Tea was unbelievably good. (Shout out to Sarah, Marie, and Amanda who have made it a tradition to do high tea at every girls’ weekend we have. This was probably the best one I’ve been to yet!) We ate on palace china. There were finger sandwiches (the egg salad and curry chicken were the best), scones with clotted cream, and pastries. The kids found a sweet, berry tea they enjoyed and didn’t break any dishes (my expectations for their manners were easily exceeded).


Choosing Tea 

Maddie Shows Off the Palace China 

Tea (and Lemonade and Mom's Champagne)! 

 The Kids Probably Ate More Sugar Cubes Than Finger Sandwiches

All of Us


We didn’t have anything left on our agenda for the day and so we rode the carousel and played at the Princess Diana Memorial Playground. This is such a gem. There are several small areas with play equipment separated by forest, but the main section is a giant ship surrounded by sand and water. It’s a kid’s dream and I was so glad we had all the time in the world for the girls to enjoy the place. We stayed for at least an hour and a half. They got their dresses soaked and dirty and I didn’t even care. There were kids everywhere and they were all having a blast. What a cool way to memorialize someone -- by making a ton of kids so, so happy.


Best. Playground. Ever. 

Carousel 

A storm began to come in, so we finally had to leave. No one was super-hungry, but we needed to eat a little something, so we went back to the same restaurant we visited on our first night. We ate appetizers tapas-style and drank our favorite beers and ciders from the visit. It was a perfect ending to a really nice three days.


Madeline Fell Asleep During Our Two-Minute Train Ride


Side note: There is only one thing this entire trip that the kids made truly impossible to do. Wimbledon was going on and I could have easily spent an entire day watching tennis. Unfortunately, kids under 5 aren’t allowed on the show courts (smart!). Next time!


Day 4: Back Home

Good-bye Europe!


I told the kids that our trip home would be, literally, the longest day of their lives. We left London at 8am (3am EST) and flew back through Iceland, arriving in Baltimore at 7pm EST. We got home after 9pm. 18 hours of travel.


Despite all of the amazing things we did and saw on this trip, the very best thing about it was realizing that everything we’ve done to raise the girls for the last seven years is finally paying off. It’s been really hard. I’ve put off a lot of my own goals to do it. But now, they are excellent travelers. They are excellent and fun humans. We share actual adult interests (like Harry Potter and playing board games :P). That realization was priceless. I look forward to many more adventures with these two!



It's hard to explain what these were used for to a kid these days...


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