Loving London: Week 1, June 1-6

My first trip to London was in 2005, for my 30th birthday.  The trip was only two nights long (not two weeks long, like this one).   I can't say I fell in love with London back then, but I regarded it in high esteem, as they might have said back in Jane Austen's day.  But I was also holding it up in comparison to Prague, Florence, Paris, and other foreign locales - back when we were living overseas.  I guess then, an English-speaking city wasn't that exotic to me.

Of course now I travel quite differently, with these new companions of mine, and I have found myself falling head over heels for London.  It is a fantastic city with loads to do, and the fact that English is spoken (most of which is understandable and pronounceable), made it so easy to fit right in to London life.

Our first quick flight up to Seattle

But first, we had to get to London.  All my fears of flying that far with the kids really did not come true at all.  I was lucky that my sister, Natalie, decided to join us and flew over with us.  It was so great having another set of eyes on the kids at the airports, especially. On the long flight from Seattle to London, the girls did great!  I was pleasantly surprised that they slept a fair amount on the red-eye flight, and were otherwise mesmerized with the individual screens in front of them.  It was a much quicker 9.5 hours than I was expecting!

Both girls wore their wings and read the safety card

London + Daddy!  Morgan's first ride in a black cab

It was a happy reunion at Heathrow when we all got to see Daddy again after being apart for nearly a month.  We refer to it as our Love Actually moment.  We settled in to London pretty quickly (some of us more than others), and it was so nice to have Sam as our tour guide.  Compared with my first visit to London, we saw so much more this time around, and I feel like we (my daughters included) were able to tick off all the sights we were most eager to see.  Our first day got us out on a boat on the Thames River.  It was a nice way to get our bearings in the city, and it didn't involve a lot of walking as we got over jet lag.  We cruised down to Greenwich, where the meridian is, strolled along the river, and had a lovely outdoor lunch at Meantime Brewing.  Yes, Sam had already scoped out breweries for us to stop at!  We did get a bit lost trying to find the brewery -thanks, Google Maps!- but a kind local stopped to help us out.  (That wouldn't be the only time!)

Our first sighting of Big Ben!

Holding up the London Eye!

Shard Head!

Lunchtime at Meantime Brewing in Greenwich

My delightful travel buddy and me

An empty boat became an impromptu playground

The Waterhouse Building was built in 1881.

Feeling adventurous and still on a high from being in a new place, the next day Natalie and I ventured to the Natural History Museum while Sam was teaching.  This involved a tube ride across town, a few blocks walk to get to the museum, and of course lots of natural history.  We hoped getting an early start and picking and choosing what we saw at this amazing museum would set us up for success.  Looking back on it, I'm not sure we could have prepared at all for a major Sasha meltdown, but such is life when you take a three-year old across the globe.  The fact that her tantrum was in the café of this ancient building (can you hear her shrieks echoing on the old stone walls and thirty-foot ceiling?!)  A meal and a modified sightseeing plan helped ...as well as some ice cream on the way home.  The girls' best memory of the place is probably getting to buy matching stuffed bunnies from the gift shop.  They had nothing to do with London but they played with them for the next three weeks, so it was a good investment. On the way home, both girls fell asleep on the tube ride (the first of many times), making it a rough slog home the 9 or so blocks from the tube station with Sasha in my arms and Morgan in the stroller.  I'm thankful I had my "sister-wife" Natalie along to help haul home the girls in the rain that day!

The dinosaurs were impressive!

Animal details were everywhere

Stormy skies were the theme of the day

And the daily ice cream bribe...along with a bit of wind and rain

Post ice cream:  Skipping through the tube!

After a few days chilling in our neighborhood to rest up from that exhausting adventure, Natalie and I were ready for the Tower of London.  She had been there back in college, but I had never been.  Morgan had also seen a TV show about it so it was important that she be able to check that off her must-see list.  Sasha was still not too keen to sightsee (I need another blog post to tell about that), but it was a sunny day and we were feeling optimistic!

The Tower Bridge through an old window

Kids on "School Trips" were everywhere - in uniform, of course.

Seeing a guard close up was cool!

It is quite incredible to visit a structure that is so incredibly old, with so much history.  While much of the history is bloody and gruesome, the fact that the Tower has withstood so many rulers, wars, diseases, and change is remarkable.   Words like coronation and beheading were suddenly becoming part of our conversations with Morgan, and she was starting to get the hang of all those Roman numerals she saw after the names of royalty.  I can't even comprehend 1000 years of history, let alone expect the kids to.  But I know what Morgan will remember is seeing huge displays of impressive armor, walking along the tower's walls, peering out of holes that soldiers once shot arrows at enemies, and seeing the Queen's Crown Jewels in person.  History really comes alive when you see it in person.  Even though she has such a small perspective on history at the age of 6, I know this left quite an impression on her.

A rare sisterly moment at the White Tower

Halt! Who goes there?! 

Meeting a cheerful Yeoman Warder

Morgan loved all the armor - even on the horses!

A very heavy helmet!

Meanwhile, Sam was still teaching during the two weeks we were in London as well as taking his 20 students on lots of tours.  He had already been to many of the places we were seeing, so it was fine that we were sightseeing without him.  But he also wanted us to come along on his "field trips."  One of them was a visit to Hampton Court, a famous palace built long ago.  It is a bit outside of London, so I decided not to drag Sasha there, but Morgan was excited to go.  So she got to be a tour leader for a day!  We were starting to get to know Sam's students, many of whom had already offered to babysit the girls.  Morgan loved hanging with the older girls and loved the attention they showed her.

The ladies in costume

Morgan fits right in with the college kids at Hampton Court

Another thing on Morgan's must-see list was to have afternoon tea.  Now, she had never tasted tea in her life but seemed to know that this was an important thing to do whilst in London!  But when we started looking around at the prices for afternoon tea, we realized we couldn't all go - or we would have to skip seeing a major sight.  It would have been about $50 US per person for a tea at a hotel!  So, we decided to go to a lovely neighborhood bakery, named Gail's, that Sam discovered.  Morgan was a bit disappointed it wasn't more fancy, but once she saw the desserts she didn't seem to care.  So we ordered our own pot of tea and a couple of rich desserts so we could say we had officially had afternoon tea in London!  And for the record, she did try the tea but I don't think she will become a big drinker very soon.

Tea Time!

To be continued.......more about our second week in London coming soon!