Random London

This is the third (and probably the last!) of the London posts -- be sure to scroll down to the other two if you want to get the full picture of what we did in London.
Although speaking of that there is one notable activity of which there are NO pictures and that is our trip to see The Lion King. It was a great show in a beautiful theater, but I left my camera at home. :( So you'll just have to imagine Hannah and Liz agog at the spectacle of it!

But here's some of the other stuff we did! Oh, but before we get to that, I realize that I never posted the picture of Hannah with the "ghostly" film in front of her -- here it is:

This is the changing of the Guard. It was so crowded it was nearly impossible to see anything, so Lizzie stood on my walker to get it. I do have a video that I'll post if I ever get it edited down to something watchable. There were LOTS of people there!

In fact there were so many people there we didn't stay for the whole thing, since we were pretty much crushed against everyone else and the girls couldn't really see anything. However, here are the very very VERY patient British police officers who were in charge of crowd control. Shelby commented that in America we probably would have been pepper sprayed after about 10 minutes:

And here's a picture I snapped on Sunday morning as we were walking over to St. James Park to feed the swans. That's Buckingham Palace in the back:

And speaking of the swans, bird-feeding was a fun activity throughout the time we were in London. Those birds are hungry! Here's a baby swan:

And here is Lizzie feeding the baby swan:

As I said, here's another bird picture, this time feeding the pigeons. Shortly after this picture was taken a woman walked by as the girls were surrounded by pigeons and laughing hysterically, looked at me and said "wretched creatures!" I am pretty sure that she was talking about the birds...

We visited the Victoria and Albert Museum where Hannah was quite taken with the shoes. She borrowed my camera and I came home with about 50 pictures that looked like this (although these ARE nice shoes):

Of course we had tea at the Athenaeum and it was delicious. The girls both chose a blueberry infusion since they wanted to drink tea like the adults (I had suggested hot chocolate.) Hannah particularly liked the smoked salmon tea sandwiches and Lizzie ate two crumpets. Neither one was interested in the scones, which just meant more for the rest of us. Here we all are at tea:

We ate out a lot, even though our apartment had a kitchen and the room service was wonderful. Here's Lizzie using chopsticks for the first time (they are kid chopsticks -- sort of like large tweezers) at Wagamama's near the Tower of London (where I had a delicious curry, by the way):

We ate at The Diner at Harrod's, too, before we did some shopping. Here we are going up in elevator (the mirrors made my camera crazy!)

At The Diner Shelby and Lizzie worked on a word search until our meals came:

There was time (and necessity!) for relaxing, too. Here are Hannah and Lizzie skyping with their dad (and Cash) on my iPad:

And here is Hannah playing with her teeny tiny Paddington Bear (in a robe provided by the hotel):

And then proving that she is a Wii champ on TWO continents:

The day before we left I had planned a special adventure for Hannah and Liz with a children's party planning company, Sharky and George. They devised a treasure hunt (actually a spy hunt) throughout the local parks and Buckingham Palace where the girls had to find clues and open locked boxes with combinations and keys with the help of Rich, an actor and all around nice guy. It was POURING the whole time we were sleuthing, but it was so much fun, none of us minded.
I had given the girls some clues about it ahead of time (which somehow led them to believe they might be going Trick or Treating with the Queen!) but here's them finding out exactly what the mystery was and what they needed to do. Isn't Hannah's expression priceless:

And here they are already soaked to the skin after they hopped a fence in St. James Park. Just before this we had a REAL treasure hunt when Hannah lost the key we found at Clue 3, which we discovered when we needed it at Clue 4. Luckily we were able to retrace our steps and Lizzie found the key on the walkway. Whew!!

I am happy to report that after two hours of fun (in which they had to ask the doorman and a police officer for help with clues!) the Crown Jewels were all found and the girls restored them to the British Government (except for two which they were allowed to keep). It was TONS of fun, and we have to give a special shout out to Aunt Anonymous for making sure it happened!

Unfortunately, our trip came to an end all too soon. I remembered at the last minute that I never got a photo of a London phone booth, so I snapped this just before we got in the van to come home:

But we did have to get in the van to come home ...we were a lot sadder than this picture indicates:

So that wraps up the photo tour of the girls' 10th birthday trip through London. As Hannah not so subtly  suggested ... Paris is next!!

The first day in London

This is the second of several London posts so scroll down to see more!

Our trip started at 5:30 p.m. on October 3rd when the girls and I drove over to Aunt Terry's house. Then I had to drive back to MY house because I forgot our tube passes. All's well that ends well though because I was back to Terry's in plenty of time to get on the van to the airport.

We were very lucky with security (no body or bag checks or line!) and then found a place to wait for the next several hours to board our 10 p.m. flight to London. Yes, I was something of a nervous wreck, but Hannah and Lizzie's crazy excitement distracted me enough (for those of you who don't know I get nervous before a flight, but once I'm on the plane I am fine!) We had snacks from Au Bon Pain and waited...

Here's Hannah in the airport:

The flight was just about perfect... probably a little bumpy at places, but we got in a little early to Heathrow. Lizzie curled up like a puppy in her seat and slept a bit. Hannah tried, but couldn't, so neither one of us got too much sleep. The was the girls' first plane ride. Here they are on the plane somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean:

But that was okay because a few hours later we were in LONDON!!!

Let me give you a quick tour of our "London Home."
This is Lizzie relaxing in the living room:

 This is the other side of that room, with the television and the dining alcove:

 This is the bathroom where you had to prime the handle to get the toilet to flush. It's also the scene of a huge flood when the maid was cleaning the upstairs bathroom and left the water running in the tub. Eventually it overflowed and came POURING into our bathroom through the light fixtures. And I POURING. I made a frantic call to the front desk and it was fixed in a matter of minutes ... but I'm pretty sure some heads rolled after that one!

My bedroom which I refused to share with the girls. They slept in the sleeper sofa in the main living room, which the main/porter prepared for them each night at turndown service:

 Our kitchen. You can't see it, but it's filled with complimentary items such as ben and jerry's ice cream, candy bars, potato chips, soda, juice, milk and water. Each day we got fresh fruit, too: bananas, plums, strawberries, peaches and apples. There was also coffee and tea in the room.

 Real live plant (orchid?) in the room:

 

This is the view of the park (and a double decker bus) from our living room:

And now let me show you London!
This shot was taken on the London Eye, a huge enclosed ferris wheel that moves slowly around giving great shots of the city. Here you can see Big Ben and Parliament on the banks of the river:

Here are some more shots of us on the Eye. You can tell we are a little tired, but I have to say that it wasn't only the lack of sleep but that Terry suggested we walk to the Eye from Buckingham Palace (which we'd already walked to) and I believe it was about 16 miles.
This is the view of the Thames, plus you can see the type of capsule that we were in:

Hannah, with London at her feet:

And here are Bean, Liz, Terry, Shelby (the only smart one to wear sunglasses to hide the bags under her eyes!) and Hannah. You can see Big Ben over Lizzie's shoulder:

And speaking of Big Ben, I snapped this quintessential London shot during our forced march walk through the city to get to the London Eye:

Eventually we got back to our apartment (and we took the tube back which was better even though it included three HUGE escalators down to the center of the Earth). This is what we got in our room when we arrived back. The Athenaeum gave the girls yoyos, coloring books, birdseed and the use of a frisbee, a kite and a book about London. They also set up a Wii for them with the Mario games and gave us an extensive list of DVDs that we could order from reception. When we did that a few days later the movie arrived with a large bowl of popcorn (freshly popped -- no microwave here!)

Once the girls were done rejoicing over this stuff there was a knock on the door and they were presented with these cakes. Lizzie's was vanilla with whipped cream and Hannah's was a dark chocolate. The girls and I ordered in dinner that night and got to bed around 9 p.m. We got up the next morning around 9 a.m. and were ready to enjoy the rest of our vacation:

The Tower and London

As I hope you'll see in the next few posts, we had a SPECTACULAR time in London. I cannot thank my sister Terry enough for making this happen for us. The girls will treasure this memory forever, as will I.

I'm going to start with some photos that don't have a lot of people in them, because it was my most favorite part of the trip: The Tower of London.

I suppose everyone who goes there from America is struck by the history that literally hangs over the place. America has been around as long as Europe, but there are more structures there that give better boundaries for history. You can see buildings that were built by people 1,000 years ago, and it just sort of runs through you.

And, if you're like me (with the dead people talking and all) it has all that much more meaning. And to answer the inevitable question I've gotten, YES, I did talk to some dead people at the Tower of London. Even one very notable person who lost her head. In this case it was very lucky that I know nothing about European history, except for what I learned watching The Tudors on Netflix over the summer....

So first here are some photos:

This is the gang just before we went into the Tower of London. When we started the day it was sunny and breezy, but by the time we got to the tower and got our tickets, it was overcast -- totally PERFECT for hanging at this historic site. This picture was shot in front of the Tower Bridge with (left to right) Beanie, Terry, Shelby, Hannah and Lizzie:

 Here we are outside the Tower of London (which actually has 14 towers) and Shelby is pointing out some of the landmarks to the girls. The grassy area is where the moat used to be. It was used by the people inside the tower as a way to keep people OUT of the tower, but it was used by the people outside the tower as a garbage can and sometimes swimming pool:

This is what you see when you walk down from the Tower Hill Tube Station ... it's very intimidating and cool at the same time. It's amazing that this was built without cranes or dump trucks (or microstation -- ha, ha!)

They've added these mesh figurines to add some perspective, too. In addition to archers guarding the place, they also had mesh lions and monkeys around:

 

Once inside the tower, this guy took us around and told us all sorts of gruesome (and funny) stories about what happened at the tower ... and also how he's trapped there now with his wife of 42 years. He also told us that the number one question he's asked is "where are the bathrooms" followed by "where is Harrod's" and I am happy to say we found BOTH of those things without having to ask him! 

 As we were walking around the grounds I saw this dove sitting on one of the walls that overlooked the torture chamber:

 I'm pretty sure that this is the white tower -- the oldest in the complex (but hopefully Terry will correct me if I'm wrong).

Then, of course we had to see the execution place of Lady Jane Grey. When I was growing up and Mom was angry with any of us, she referred to us as Lady Jane, referring to the girl who named herself as queen for just a few days before she was imprisoned and then executed. (For presuming to be Queen.) I also refer to my children as Lady Jane when they are misbehaving and now they know what happened to Lady Jane... This is the place (inside the Tower walls) where they executed the nobility, including Lady Jane:

 And in the tower directly behind this Lady Jane's husband Lord Guildford Dudley watched as she was executed and carved her name in the stone, where it has remained for nearly 500 years:

 

And, of course, no trip to the Tower is complete without a look at the Ravens. There is a legend that if the ravens ever leave the tower, it will mean the end of the Monarchy, so the Brits, who may or may not be superstitious take care that doesn't happen by clipping their wings and serving them sirloin burger every day and a boiled egg every other day:

So here's my dead person talking story for you to believe or not --
Beanie and I were walking from the Tube station and she asked if anyone was talking to me and I said that it sounded like it, but I was having trouble understanding because it was a heavy French accent and I didn't even know any French people were imprisoned. Beanie informed her European history-challenged sister that LOADS of people from France were wandering around London back in the day. I said the name sounded sort of like "Miary" or "Maaaahry" but I wasn't sure. Mary just seems too easy.
So anyway, this spirit told  me that she was beheaded inside the tower walls and that beheading wasn't really as barbaric as we think it is, because there were lots worse ways to die.
She also told me that her death was political (duh!) and that she was much more beautiful than history remembered her.
I was telling Beanie all of this and we couldn't figure out who it was and then we got distracted by the ACTUAL LIVING people at the Tower.
I shot photos everywhere, but at the crystal pillow I heard a very distinct HERE HERE, and if you look at the picture above you'll see that Hannah appears to have a white film over here. It was in those two pictures only.
I didn't notice that until I got back to the hotel, though.
It was also once I got back to the hotel that I was telling Terry and Shelby about the experience and she said she was sure it was Mary Queen of Scots, who had grown up in France and was executed at the very spot where I heard the HERE HERE. The legend also is that she had been pretty in her youth, but had grown to have pox marks on her face, making her ugly in death.
The clincher? Remember that dove we saw high atop one of the walls of the tower? Well, it turns out that the dove is often associated with Mary Queen of Scots and was in fact imprisoned in a castle on the banks of the Dove River. Terry said in all the times she's been to the Tower, she'd never seen a dove before.
So ... that's my Tower Ghost Story. :)

And here are just some artsy pictures I took of the Tower and the bridge:

From the banks of the Thames:

From inside the tower walls:

Closeup of the bridge with flags:

 Finally, here are the cousins hanging out at the Tower Bridge. In the next few days you'll see some of our other adventures, so stay tuned: