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It's been quite awhile since we've updated. I'll try to Mind the Gap better in the future. We are still loving London. For a real treat, the sun even came out once!
We've been doing a lot of wandering and riding the rails. On New Year's Day we started at St. Paul's. It was $50 for our family to walk in the door. And I am only a little embarrased to say that we skipped it and went to a pub! I am sure it is beautiful and Celeste was eager to try the whispering room, but we have seen about 30 churches in Europe (all of them free), with the most recent being The Vatican a few weeks ago. We thought we just might survive without St. Paul's.
On January 2nd we took our first of several great walking tours around London. We joined a Shakespeare and Dickens walk guided by a Richard III. We were treated to a great afternoon viewing bits of London that remain from the time of Bill and Chuck, as well as, ideas on how their lives in and around London likely influenced their work. Afterwards (you will notice a trend starting here) we headed to a pub. We wandered in the rain (another daily theme) to Westminster Abbey. This also had a fee, which we gladly forked over. What a beautiful place full of rich history. We enjoyed every minute. The people buried there are a who's who of English history. Celeste loved heading down the aisle that Kate Middleton walked down just over a year ago to marry her prince. We also loved Poet's Corner and had to say a special hello to Shakespeare and Dickens as we are tight now. Then to top off an already full day we headed to Somerset House for a little ice skating. I was the photographer and sat with a lovely little lady who was watching her grandchildren. She was a retired nurse who volunteered at the Olympics in the medical tent. She also told me how she loves to travel on the weekends to see dancing shows put on by "Strictly Dancing" stars. From what I've seen the UK is really into reality tv and the "Strictly" stars are the top of the heap. I love meeting locals and getting a feel for ordinary life in the places we visit.
For lives that are nothing normal, we headed to another tour on the 3rd, this one was all about the Royals. Other than Charles, Diana, Will and saucy Harry, I don't know much about the Royal Family. The tour was really interesting and we watched the changing of the guards and checked out Buckingham Palace. After, we had lunch at a pub that was older than the United States!
Yesterday, the 4th, we had a visitor arrive! Scott Nelson, a friend of Anthony's from work decided to take a quick trip across the pond and visit the G4's. We are so grateful. We took a spin together on the London Eye then, wait for it...headed to a pub. Later we went to Chinatown for dinner, but not before stopping at Scott's hotel to pick up a duffel bag full of things he had brought for us. The girls were beside themselves! He had offered to bring them anything they wanted from home. They thought for many days about their requests. Celeste asked for an American magazine and Nina asked for Premium saltine crackers. Yep. That's right. While we were still in the cab on the way to dinner Scott handed over the One Direction "Love Edition" magazine and Celeste was in heaven. Nina got TWO boxes of saltines, which she decided to save until after dinner. When we were done eating the guys went out for a beer and the girls headed back to our apartment with the duffel bag. They decided not to peek until we were back in the apartment. I wish I would have videoed them opening the bag. It was full of candy from home and they went crazy!
Today we separated. Don't know what the guys are up to as Anthony is not home yet. I heard it was going to involve betting, football and likely a pub or two. The girls headed out on one more walking tour. For the grand finale of guided tours we went on the Harry Potter tour. On a geeked out scale I would put it lower than The Sound of Music bike tour in Salzburg where we sang our way through the city, but slightly higher in fanatical patrons. No one actually came in costume, but they wanted to. These people were hard core. There were more than 40 people in our group. The guide had to carry his own speaker system to be heard by people in the back. He took a show of hands of who had read at least one book (most), all the books (half), seen at least one movie (most), all the movies (half). Then he went deep. How many had read any of the books in another language. Two people had. The first girl had read all of them in 3 languages; German, English and Portuguese. And the second kid claimed to have read them in English and Klingon (I told you it was geeked out). One guy had watched all the movies in a row, 22 hours, without sleep. The guide, gave a sticker if you could answer his questions. Pretty soon he was asking harder and harder questions. I have read one book and seen 2 of the movies. Listening to the tour I sort of felt like I did the day I went to see a movie in Italian. I didn't know what anyone was talking about and then they would laugh and I had no idea what was funny. We saw many spots where the films were shot and there were a lot of connections to the stories and English history, government and astronomy. All good stuff. But I really enjoyed watching the people in their late twenties or so answer the questions. Clearly these books and movies were a huge part of their childhood. Fun to see.
After the Harry tour I wanted to go to the original Boden store. What an epic failure. It is a long story, but the net net is that the train we needed to take was shut down for the weekend. Very sad mum. So off we went to the movies. We saw "The Impossible" about the tsunami in Thailand a few years ago. It was horrifyingly scary and stressful. Why did we do this 5 days before we head to Thailand ourselves?! Why? Because Nina begged. And Nina usually gets what she wants. Celeste and I were boo-hooing away and that little stinker just sat there munching her popcorn.
Big plans for the rest of our time here. We have tickets to the theater performance of Les Mis and the girls are having afternoon tea at Wolseley's. We are also going to try to fit in a visit to Wimbledon. There might be a stop at a pub as well.
Amy
- comments
Kathy Essma I love reading your blog. What more can I say! I am thrilled you are having such a wonderful time. Awesome! Love, Aunt Kathy (I think I have that movie on my Netflix list; maybe I should cancel it.)
Amy Aunt Kathy, You should watch the movie. Just don't head to Thailand right after viewing. Thanks for reading the blog! Miss you.
Val Marbury Sounds like a fun week! We did several of the walking tours too...One of the best was at night ...Jack the Ripper...