Day Tickets London

Having the kids back in school is a great excuse to take the train down to London for a day out on my own. I wanted to stop by and check the progress of the art installation at Tower of London: Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red. Mid-August when I was there with my parents there were few poppies after the fall of poppies from the window.

I had a few other places to check off my London list. I visited the British Library to see their original copies of manuscripts from Bronte, Austen, Dickens, Da Vinci and others. I enjoyed seeing the Da Vinci's, since the pages were full of sketches. I would have thought I'd be most interested in seeing the manuscripts from all the authors I enjoy. The thing is, the handwriting is so different from today that I couldn't read any of it. If I could, it would have been interesting, with the cross-outs and additions. Sadly, I enjoyed the Beatles lyrics more, as I could read them. They were the original lyrics scratched out on items like birthday cards. They also had copies of illustrated bibles, that were beautiful to see.

Besides the British Library, there were several markets in London I hadn't seen yet. I didn't have time for all of them, so decided on Leadenhall Market - a beautiful Victorian market that was also a film location for Harry Potter - and Spitalfields - specializing in antiques.

The most exciting part of my day turned out to be going to see a show. I feel a little too self-indulgent paying full price to go see a show on my own, for no particular reason, so I'd decided to check out the half-price ticket booth to see what they were offering. People line up early to get the best tickets there. By the time I arrived, close to 11, there weren't a lot of great discounts or shows I was particularly interested in. I'd noticed that one of the theaters I had passed on my way to the ticket booth had a sign up saying "Day Tickets Available." It turns out that shows will sell same-day tickets to their box offices for ten to twenty pounds. Sometimes you can get lucky and get a great seat at a great price. Most of the time though, there's a reason these tickets are left: they're obstructed view seats where you will be missing out on some of the show. In busy times people will line up by 7:30 in the morning for the popular shows. On a Thursday in September though, some theaters still had tickets at 11 when I was walking around.

I bought a ticket to the show "Shakespeare in Love." The ticket agent warned me the tickets were front row and that the stage was high. The price was so low, I decided to risk it. When I walked in the theatre, I was quite concerned. Sitting in my chair, looking straight forward, I was looking directly at the wooden edge of the stage. I was worried I wouldn't see a thing. Once the show started I found that if the actors were in the front half of the stage or on the upper levels of the set, my seats were fabulous. The back half of the stage I could barely see at all, and one scene where the actors were lying on the stage I couldn't see either. Luckily, a vast majority of the show was where I could see. Anyway, the show was soooo good - the lead actor Tom Bateman is going to be a star of the West End I think - that I'm very pleased with my day ticket discovery and might try to go again before I leave England.

Goodbye Visitors

Although our touring and outings definitely slowed down after we returned from the Lake District, they did not slow down as much as my photos might indicate. Mike, who is generally the designated photographer, went back to work. Without him along, I'm afraid I barely took any pictures. 

One day we drove to the nearby town of Stamford, Lincolnshire. It's famous for all its stone buildings, and also for having the country home of Burghley.

We ended up wasting a little time trying to walk over to Burghley House from downtown Stamford. It was a longer walk than it looked, and we ended up turning back around before ever even making it to within viewing distance of the house. But we still had a little time for walking around the town, doing a little shopping and getting some fish and chips. I would definitely enjoy spending more time there another day.

Another day Mom, Dad and I went to London for the day. We toured Westminster Cathedral, which I hadn't done yet. There's really so much to look at in the way of memorials, that I'm not sure what my impression is of the cathedral as a whole. I suppose, though, what really makes it unique is the dense amount of history it holds.

We also did a little shopping at Harrods. Their shoe department is called "Shoe Heaven." It's a big name to live up to. I'd say if your price point for shoes starts at about $500 and comfortably goes up into the thousands, then Harrods probably is your shoe heaven. Every luxury shoe brand I've ever heard of has a beautifully presented space there.

After shopping, we spent a little time picnic-ing in Hyde Park, saw Buckingham Palace and Covent Garden, and then Mom and I went to see the show War Horse. If you've been at all tempted to see it and get the chance, go! The puppetry is amazing, the story is a nuanced view of war and is also very emotionally engaging.

And now my parents are back home. We loved having them here. I hope we were able to show them enough of what has made us fall in love with England.

Visitors! and Remembering in London

My parents' visit has been hoped for and planned for a long time. As they've had a crazy year, we've spent a lot of time worrying it wouldn't happen at all. But as you can see, circumstances came together and the happy day finally arrived! 

We spent their first couple of days showing them some of our favorite Cambridge walks and sites.

We also went to our favorite place to eat scones in the countryside - The Orchard at Grantchester. But then it was time for a bigger adventure.

Saturday it was time for a day out in London. I'd read about a new art installation at the Tower of London that I was interested in seeing in commemoration of the 100 year anniversary of World War I. I think it is beautiful and a touching tribute.

It's an installation of ceramic poppies, one for every fallen British soldier in World War I. They'll slowly be adding more, filling the moat, up until November 11th of this year, reaching a total of 888,246. I'm sure most everyone has read the poem "In Flanders Fields," which inspired the symbol of the poppy for war veterans:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
      Between the crosses, row on row,
   That mark our place; and in the sky
   The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
   Loved and were loved, and now we lie
         In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
   The torch; be yours to hold it high.
   If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
         In Flanders fields.

The Tower of London is very near the Tower Bridge, so we had to take a quick peak at that as well.

Next we decided to explore the Imperial War Museum. It was quite crowded, but it has nice exhibits on the Holocaust, families living through the second world war in London, planes and other war equipment, a new World War I exhibit (we we came too late to get tickets to it), among other things. A real history buff with lots of patience could easily spend the day. 

This picture is Camille trying out a World War II bomb shelter. My girls can be a little hit and miss with museums, but both seemed to enjoy this one.

We decided to take a quick walk to get a few more glimpses of iconic London.

The crowds and intensive walking required in London are a little tiring, so it was time to call it a day and take the train home. Another day closer to seeing everything London has to offer!

London in the Springtime

There's a concentration of official holidays in England in April and May. For the latest one we headed to London again to right a wrong: we had not yet taken our kids to see the Changing of the Guard in front of Buckingham Palace.

Some people call this experience overrated - too much waiting, too many crowds. And it's true you won't be the only one there. 

But where else can you find such a concentration of English pomp and circumstance in such a short amount of time? And for free? There's the uniforms, the horses, the music, the guards calling out, the marching - all with Buckingham Palace with its famous balcony for a backdrop.

I didn't know what my kids would think, because they're not fond of crowds and waiting, but they loved it. Not in any particular order, here's what they've loved in London: Tower of London, open-top bus tour (Camille), checking out the street performers around Covent Garden (Anya), Harrods browsing and ice cream, seeing London musicals, riding the London Eye and Changing of the Guard. If you count the Harry Potter WB Tour as being in London, then that would definitely be on the list too. And getting American fast food, but that's just kind of sad.

Is there anything nicer to do on a warm, springy day than sit in the sun in a park eating ice cream? Green Park is right next to Buckingham Palace.

Next, I decided it was the perfect day to check out Kew Gardens. Kew Gardens is huge. We walked miles just seeing a small part of it. The top thing I wanted to see was the treetop walkway. It's 118 steps up into the treetops.

Besides being up in the trees, there's pretty views toward the greenhouse and other parts of the gardens.

Anya loves thrills and heights. Camille, not so much. She still enjoyed the treetop walk though, even with the feel of the walkway swaying lightly in the wind.

I always pictured Kew Gardens as very structured, English-style walled gardens. It's possible there's parts that are like that, but not the parts we saw. Despite that I'm sure it was all planned, it feels like wandering in a beautiful, natural wilderness.

My girls would have liked to make it to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower. That isn't going to happen, so as a consolation prize Mike had Camille take this silly picture at Kew (instead of the traditional holding up the Leaning Tower picture that everyone takes in Pisa).

The traditional "fighting over not letting my sister give me bunny ears" pose. What age do kids outgrow that? We have a version of this picture at about every place we've ever been.

Just more pretty garden scenes.

The famous saying about London is, "Tired of London, tired of life." It's so true! There's endless things to do in London. With all our time there, I'll still open guide books and find we haven't even seen everything on the must-see in London list. We had a great day checking out two more experiences though.

Kenwood

Many historical homes, grounds, or archeological sites in England are owned by either the National Trust or English Heritage. Each of the organizations has a yearly pass that allows admittance to all their sites, which is a good deal when you're planning on doing a lot of travel and seeing as much as possible. Of course, just about every site has a gift shop and the first one we entered Anya spotted this Monopoly: English Heritage game. I groaned inside and steered her away from it, because Monopoly is not my favorite game in the world. She did not forget it though, and ended up buying it with her own money a few trips later. I'm actually so glad she did. I still don't like Monopoly, but what I do like is that each of the properties is an English Heritage site. It's gotten her excited about outings so much more than talk of beautiful grounds or historically significant houses ever could.  

This is all just to say that Anya was actually the instigator of this little outing to Kenwood House. It's a beautiful country home on beautiful grounds just outside London. It would be a great outing for someone traveling to only London who wanted to get an idea of the English country estate experience.  

This was one of our favorite country estate outings. I'm not sure if it's because the grounds and estate are qualitatively better than others, or if it's because my girls were happy to be along, it was a beautiful spring day and the weather was perfect. 

From the house there's a slope of grass that leads down to a little lake. From there, there's all kinds of walking trails to explore.

We encountered a cute little bird family and this unusual bird. Some kind of a fancy duck?

There's lots of great places for lounging on the grass on a sunny day.

Flowers were blooming all over the grounds, especially the rhododendrons and azaleas - reminding me of my home town Seattle. Kenwood House was a great way to spend a sunny Bank Holiday in April.

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.