Still Loving London: June 7-9

"Mom, it stinks in here!!"

Our second week began with a meeting of an old friend of ours, Angie, who we first met Angie back in Prague. As veterans of the international teaching world, Angie and her husband, Tony, were great mentors in helping us adjust to life as international teachers.  And thanks to Facebook, we have kept in touch.  She took the train down from Nottingham, where she now lives, to London to see us and both her grown kids. We had a nice lunch in our neighborhood, catching up and sharing memories, and then strolled around town, stopping by the British Museum.  It was both surreal and completely normal to see a friend we haven't seen in nearly a decade, but that is the unique bond of international teaching.

A lovely lunch with our friend, Angie

A quick peek inside the British Museum 

Morgan up close with real hieroglyphics

Sasha loves her first double decker bus ride!

Paddington Station!

A big highlight of the week was a beautiful day trip to see the town of Bath.  Back in May, when I was still in Portland and Sam was in London, he sent me gorgeous photos and texts of his trip to Bath with his students.  I was quite jealous, I have to admit, so we had started planning on a trip there when we all arrived.  The train trip to Bath was beautiful and it was nice to see some English countryside.  And we got very lucky with the weather - actually we did on our whole trip.  Bath was charming and old and surrounded by green rolling hills...such a nice change of pace from busy London.

Morgan and Aunt Nat relax on the train 

The gorgeous Bath Abbey

As soon as we arrived in Bath, Nat and I headed for the Jane Austen tour, which was about to start.  Our mom is a big fan of Jane and got Natalie and I hooked on the BBC miniseries and movies made from her novels.  It was a nice walking tour where we had a chance to see a lot of the town as well as learn about the famous English author's time in Bath.  And of course a visit to the Jane Austen Centre was fun too, where they had all things Mr. Darcy.  Bath was so charming, relaxing and beautiful, I wished we could have spent the night.  But we had an afternoon train to catch and the kids were getting pretty restless!

The Pulteney Bridge has shops built into it

The original Roman baths where the town got its name 

I love all the old chimneys

Thank you, Jane Austen!

Sisters in Bath

More sisters in Bath - enjoying a pub lunch

By this point in our trip, the days were really starting to fly by.  But I realized in order to keep everyone happy and counteract some of the girls' homesickness, we needed to do more kid-centered activities in the remaining days in London.  This didn't mean giving up on sightseeing, but rather changing our priorities to keep the kids, and therefore the adults, as content as possible!

Captain Morgan!

There was no better way place to go than the Diana Memorial Playground.  I honestly think it was the best playground I have ever been to!  Named after the late princess, they spared no expense or creative thought in creating a true wonderland for kids.  Not only was it free to enter, but it was completely secure with a fence and attendant at the gate and it had a huge pirate ship surrounded by sand, better than any play structure I had ever seen.  Morgan loved climbing to the top of the crow's nest, while Sasha enjoyed steering the ship and going 'below deck' to play buried treasure in the sand.  I went down there with her and it was every kid for themselves.  With no grown ups around kids were in charge!  I loved hearing other kids shouting, "Aye matees, we've got to drive the ship!" in their little English accents.

All hands below deck!

Very happy travelers!!

Off to explore secret gardens

I think I loved the playground as much as the girls did.  But the playground was much more than that:  little forested trails to explore, different structures for different ages, nooks and crannies for kids to imagine the day away - and I loved how it was all secure, but gave kids the freedom they need to play. Top that off with some ridiculously expensive ice cream and a carousel ride and we not only made the girls very happy, but we made the adults quite happy as well.

Carousel time!

Compulsory ice cream break!

Well, considering this was only three days worth of activities, I see I will need a few more posts to finish all I want to say about lovely London....more to come!