After a short week of work/school and basketball we hit the road Wednesday night bound for England. We took Ryan Air again so it meant a 4 hour drive to Frankfurt to catch our plane, which actually left Thursday morning at 6am. We ate dinner in the car, got to the hotel around 9 pm and then got up a little before 5 to catch the shuttle to the airport. The flight was uneventful and we arrived at the Stansted airport at 6:30am (England is an hour behind us), and then jumped on a train for a 45 min ride to London. We got to our hotel at around 8:30am I guess and dropped off our bags and marched off toward our first tourist site - the Tower of London, which was only a few blocks away.
The Tower of London is located right on the Thames next to the Tower Bridge and has been used for the past 1000 years as a prison, armory, castle, Royal mint, and currently is the home for the Crown Jewels. Our guidebook recommended that to avoid the crowds we should head straight to the jewels upon arrival. The jewels were quite impressive, a lot of diamonds (a couple of the crowns had more than 2,000 diamonds each) and most notably the two largest diamonds in the world - the Great Star of Africa and the Lesser Star of Africa, coming in at 545 and 317 carats respectively. Looking at them I wondered who in Africa they stole those from.
Outside the Tower of London
"The safest place in London" - The Jewel House
After admiring the jewels we went back to the front gate to pick up a tour by a Yeoman Warder, more commonly known as a Beefeater. These men are veteran non-commissioned officers of the British armed services who have served 22 years and have earned the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. They are the guardians of the Tower of London, provide security for honored guests, and also give tours of the castle. They also live on the premises. Our guide was great and ended with a question and answer session during which Lydia and Haaken fell asleep.
After the tour we had lunch in the cafe on-site and then walked through the White Tower, which was the keep of the palace and now houses some great displays of previous kings' suits of armor, weapons, and instruments of torture.
Haaken in the White Tower
We all were tired and had a big night ahead of us, so we went back to the hotel for a rest. Haaken was particularly out of control and really not listening - unfortunately we realized later this was due to the fact that he had a cold and couldn't hear us because his ears were so clogged. Everyone napped for an hour or two and then we got dressed for dinner and the Lion King at the Lyceum Theater. We had dinner at a Thai restaurant just down the street from the theater and then sat in the very last row in the highest balcony, which actually were pretty decent seats. The kids loved the show, especially Haaken, who stood the entire time.
Waiting for the show to start
Friday we slept in a bit and then I took the kids for breakfast in the hotel while Carissa got ready. We walked back to the Tower of London where we picked up a Hop-on Hop-off bus tour on a red double decker bus. We rode it for probably 30 minutes and got off at Big Ben and Parliament. It's a little known fact that Big Ben is actually the bell inside the tower, which you can't see, not the clock or the tower itself. I had downloaded a walking tour audio guide to all of our iPods so we walked and listened to those until we got to Westminster Abbey. The coronations of every British and English monarch since 1066 has been held there and it is also the final resting place for most of them along with many other famous aristocrats, writers (Chaucer,Shakespeare), scientists (Newton, Darwin), and other national figures. Elise and Lydia got a kids worksheet that helped them explore and learn about the Abbey on their own while Carissa and I listened to the audioguide. We stayed there for a couple hours I think. At one point when I was off with Haaken, the girls were invited into an area not open to the public by a worker, and got to see where the Queen sits during church services which they thought was pretty cool.
Afterwards we continued my downloaded walking tour down Whitehall which is lined with many important government buildings, including the Prime Minister's residence. As we walked by the gate to the residence a car was being admitted out of which Kevin Spacey emerged. He's a lot taller than I thought.
We ate a pizza lunch a block off of Trafalgar Square and then visited the National Gallery so Elise could see some paintings by Monet (Water Lillies) and Van Gogh (Sunflowers). The kids were pretty bushed by now so we got back on the bus and took it back to the Tower of London. I went to the grocery store and we had dinner in the room and all went to bed early.
Saturday we rode the bus to Picadilly Circus and hung out there a while and then got back on and rode for another hour past Marble Arch and Buckingham Palace before getting off at St. Paul's Cathedral. Carissa and I agreed that it is our favorite church so far, mainly due to the incredible glass mosaics covering the ceilings. We wandered the floor and then climbed to the top of the dome for some good views of London.
Next we hustled over to the Natural History Museum and made it with about 30 minutes to spare to see the dinosaur exhibit we had read about. Haaken got a kick out of it which was the point - too bad we didn't have more time - the poor kid has been dragged around to so much stuff he really has no interest in. That night we ate dinner at a place called Giraffe that our neighbor recommended.
Sunday was our last day, and we considered going out to Windsor, but decided to keep it a little more low key and went to the British Museum instead. The museum had kid packets to help them explore - I followed the girls and Carissa went with Haaken. Surprisingly he had a great time. We ate a late lunch at an Indian restaurant. That night we had booked a room back out in Stansted near the airport so we packed up our stuff and took the train back out of London. Monday we had another early morning flight and a 4 hour drive and ended up getting home around 2:30 pm.
