London
We flew to London. London is really big, you guys, and there are a LOT of people there. It was overwhelming.
Things we saw:
Westminster Bridge, and the London Eye, though we did not ride on it. We shelled out for a bunch of extravagant things on this trip (moving away from my previous touristing approach, which was predicated on free-ness), but I couldn't quite bring myself to shell out for this, especially given my preference for staying close to the ground.
Roman Wall. London is really old, too!
St Martin-in-the-Field Cafe in the Crypt. This was fun because it was a crypt, but bad because the food was bad.
Tower of London. This was Skipper's favorite attraction of the trip, because torture and imprisonment and execution are fun in the abstract.
Tyburn Tree! Because execution.
Samuel Johnson's favorite cat, Hodge. Because Skipper loves cats and all of us love words.
A sign that struck me as being particularly British. Not that I would know, but I have stereotypes.
St Paul's Cathedral, though we took no photos from the inside, sadly. Cook and the girls climbed to the very top, but I stayed close to the ground, which is always my preference, and paid my respects to John Donne and also to a very lovable chapel in memory of Americans who fought in WWII - I spent some time finding little American symbols (George Washington!) in the stained glass window. There was a choir practicing while I was poking around, and it was lovely.
The Temple, which was pleasantly serene. Many people here were, unlike us, VERY well-dressed.
The last day in London was a long one, because we checked out of the apartment in the morning and toted our stuff around all day before getting on the train at 10:30 PM. We went to the British Museum, which was full of astonishing things like the Rosetta Stone, canopic jars, and my very favorite historical items of our entire trip, the Lewis Chessmen.
Trafalgar Square because we were in London, and I thought we had to go, being as it is the center of the city and all. We weren't allowed to climb on the lions (London was, as you might expect, on fairly high security, and some stuff was closed off that isn't normally), but Cook seized some photo opportunities nonetheless. Please note the last photo, which encapsulates our trip in many ways.
The British Library, which I LOVED - I loved it more than the Lewis Chessmen, which is saying a lot. We saw a Gutenberg Bible, and the Magna Carta (THE MAGNA CARTA!!!!!) and Beowulf. BEOWULF!!!! Cook's favorite item there was an amazing book called The Art of Swimming from the 16th century. It made me laugh so hard that I cried a little. Humans. We're so ridiculous.
We went over to Kings Cross to pay our respects to the Harry Potter books (though we did not pony up to have the girls' photos taken at the Platform 93/4 tourist trap) and enjoy the food and sitting-around facilities there, which are far more pleasant than Euston's (that's a pro tip for you, should you also be considering taking an overnight train from London).
And THEN it was time to get on the overnight train. I had a lot of apprehension about this. When I booked the ticket way back in November, I thought it would be a really fun and memorable experience for the kids, but as the date rolled around, I started to feel that it would just be miserable dragging our stuff around all day and then not sleeping, and that we should instead have stayed in place and taken the train during the day. Happily, they let us onto the train earlier than we expected, and staff were super-nice and welcoming, and we all slept reasonably well, and it was absolutely fun and memorable.
Things we saw:
Westminster Bridge, and the London Eye, though we did not ride on it. We shelled out for a bunch of extravagant things on this trip (moving away from my previous touristing approach, which was predicated on free-ness), but I couldn't quite bring myself to shell out for this, especially given my preference for staying close to the ground.
Roman Wall. London is really old, too!
St Martin-in-the-Field Cafe in the Crypt. This was fun because it was a crypt, but bad because the food was bad.
Tower of London. This was Skipper's favorite attraction of the trip, because torture and imprisonment and execution are fun in the abstract.
Tyburn Tree! Because execution.
Samuel Johnson's favorite cat, Hodge. Because Skipper loves cats and all of us love words.
A sign that struck me as being particularly British. Not that I would know, but I have stereotypes.
St Paul's Cathedral, though we took no photos from the inside, sadly. Cook and the girls climbed to the very top, but I stayed close to the ground, which is always my preference, and paid my respects to John Donne and also to a very lovable chapel in memory of Americans who fought in WWII - I spent some time finding little American symbols (George Washington!) in the stained glass window. There was a choir practicing while I was poking around, and it was lovely.
The Temple, which was pleasantly serene. Many people here were, unlike us, VERY well-dressed.
The last day in London was a long one, because we checked out of the apartment in the morning and toted our stuff around all day before getting on the train at 10:30 PM. We went to the British Museum, which was full of astonishing things like the Rosetta Stone, canopic jars, and my very favorite historical items of our entire trip, the Lewis Chessmen.
Trafalgar Square because we were in London, and I thought we had to go, being as it is the center of the city and all. We weren't allowed to climb on the lions (London was, as you might expect, on fairly high security, and some stuff was closed off that isn't normally), but Cook seized some photo opportunities nonetheless. Please note the last photo, which encapsulates our trip in many ways.
The British Library, which I LOVED - I loved it more than the Lewis Chessmen, which is saying a lot. We saw a Gutenberg Bible, and the Magna Carta (THE MAGNA CARTA!!!!!) and Beowulf. BEOWULF!!!! Cook's favorite item there was an amazing book called The Art of Swimming from the 16th century. It made me laugh so hard that I cried a little. Humans. We're so ridiculous.
We went over to Kings Cross to pay our respects to the Harry Potter books (though we did not pony up to have the girls' photos taken at the Platform 93/4 tourist trap) and enjoy the food and sitting-around facilities there, which are far more pleasant than Euston's (that's a pro tip for you, should you also be considering taking an overnight train from London).
And THEN it was time to get on the overnight train. I had a lot of apprehension about this. When I booked the ticket way back in November, I thought it would be a really fun and memorable experience for the kids, but as the date rolled around, I started to feel that it would just be miserable dragging our stuff around all day and then not sleeping, and that we should instead have stayed in place and taken the train during the day. Happily, they let us onto the train earlier than we expected, and staff were super-nice and welcoming, and we all slept reasonably well, and it was absolutely fun and memorable.
Comments