Half-Term Jaunt to London

We're on a year-round school schedule here, which means a lot of vacations scattered throughout the year. This past week they had a week off for half-term. Mostly we spent a lot of time lounging around, but Thursday and Friday we took a mini-break to London. The highlight was going to see Phantom of the Opera for a Thursday matinee. Seeing a London production is a treat. Seeing a production with my kids who love musicals and knew very little about the show was an even bigger treat. Their smiles and cheers and gasps were everything I could have hoped for.

In between lunch - for my girls London means a great opportunity to get American fast food - and our show, we had a little time to play tourist. Here's Trafalgar Square of course.

Right now there's a giant blue chicken in Trafalgar Square. I'll leave it to you to look up the meaning of the piece.

And here's Mike and the kids in Piccadilly Circus, roughly equivalent of Times Square in New York. 

On vacation my kids' idea of a perfect evening is to get take-out, bring it back to the hotel and spend the evening on electronics or watching t.v. This works out great for me and Mike, as our perfect evening is going out for a nice meal without anyone complaining about how long it's taking or the lack of hamburgers or chicken fingers on the menu. We left them happy as clams at the hotel with their grocery store dinner while we enjoyed a really nice meal out. From this photo it looks like we picked an alarmingly unfrequented place, but it just turns out that Londoners eat dinner a lot later than we do. It was hopping by the time we left.

Friday morning we decided to finally check the London Eye off our to-do list. We'd heard the lines could be bad without a reservation but decided to take our chances. You'd think February would be off-season, except that the whole country is on the same holiday schedule. Anywhere remotely family-friendly can be crowded when the kids are out of school. There was a crowd when we arrived around 10 am. It turned out fine though. Maybe 20 minutes of a line to purchase tickets (which Mike did by himself while the girls and I checked out the gift shop), and then another 15 minutes in line for the Eye. I felt like that was the way to go. Reserved tickets are more expensive, and when I'm on vacation I really like the freedom of no appointment times.

I actually had no intention of going on the Eye. It seemed too much like a ferris wheel to me, which I avoid when it all possible (the height, the speed, the rocking - yuck!). Anya talked me into it though, and I'm glad she did. It's quite different than a ferris wheel. No rocking, no open spaces, and no speed. And the height doesn't bother me when I'm in an enclosed space.

Although you don't have your pod to yourself, there was still plenty of room for everyone to take pictures.

It was so pretty looking out over the city.

After a nice lunch at Pain Quotidien (although a chain, a nice compromise between kid-friendly and a place where adults will actually enjoy their meal), we headed off to the British Museum. Have you ever noticed when traveling that there is almost always a crane strategically placed in every scene you'd like to shoot?

Ha - side-angle to side-step the crane. As you can maybe tell the from the pictures, the British Museum is huge. We only attempted the smallest section. The nice thing about London museums is that they are free. It takes away the guilt of only going for an hour or two and not getting the most out of your ticket.

We saw the Egyptian, Roman and Assyrian section. This whole thing was brought back piece by piece in the early 1800s. That must have been quite the undertaking with the equipment they had available then!

I don't think I quite have the writing skills to do the experience justice. It's just impressive walking among all the marbles. Does Camille's ability to identify the various gods on display justify all the hours she's spent reading Percy Jackson?

 Totem poles! I felt quite at home.

My only disappointment was that the Reading Room was closed, which was actually at the top of my list to see. Maybe we'll make it back again on another little London trip, which I'm already anticipating.