24/25 May 2017, Wednesday & Thursday

Today was the last day of school (Josie 6th, Holden 8th, Bella 11th) and goes down in history as the semester all three of our kids earned straight As.  (YAY KIDS!!) They’ve all individually earned straight As before, but they’ve never managed to do it together in the same semester.  It’s also the day we fly to London to meet up with John and Elaine for an early 50th wedding anniversary celebration.  We left our house as soon as Holden and Josie got off the school bus.  (The flights from Atlanta to Europe are almost always overnight.) Today is a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for the kids.

Our first time flying on Virgin Atlantic. (They codeshare with Delta Airlines). Adam had heard wonderful things about Branson’s airlines, but this one was a dud. The flight was fine, but the seats were not comfortable (less so than normal) and the plane wasn’t clean.

The next 8+ hours were spent exactly like this:

Adam:  We landed into Heathrow at 7 a.m, but it wasn’t until nearly 10 that we made it to our apartment. It took more than an hour to stand in line at Immigration (they’re claiming stricter policies now in light of the Manchester bombing at the Ariana Grande concert a few days ago), then get luggage, walk to train station, take train back into town, walk to flat, etc.

The place we’re staying will be perfect for us – plenty of sleeping room for 7. It’s a bit cramped in the main living room, but that is to be expected. The neighborhood is “ok” – quite ethnic (probably 50% Arabic/Muslim) but clean and bright and not seedy feeling. Lots of good restaurants and grocery store options. Most importantly, it has good access to the Underground to get us where we need to be.

Weather here was “hot” yesterday at 80 – since nobody has AC in England, it did get warm last night, but cool breezes kicked in around 7 p.m and it wasn’t uncomfortable to sleep.

After we got in, some of us showered and then we crashed for awhile. I only slept for about 20 minutes, then took care of work email and went out to explore a bit and get some early shopping done. Brenda and I went out later and bought more supplies to get us through a day. For dinner, Josie and I went out and bought “take away” fish and chips from a recommended restaurant. We only bought 3 orders, but each was huge and just 2 orders fed the 5 of us. We ended up throwing away what seemed like a couple of pounds of fish.

We spent the evening watching TV; cracking up at UK game shows (kids love these), and flipping channels since there’s never anything good on in the UK, but we have fun remembering shows we watched the last several times we were here. Brenda and the kids were in their jammies by 5, everyone had bloodshot eyes and walked around lethargically, so we didn’t explore much except for our immediate surroundings.

View of our living room

View of our kitchen

View from front hall; living room/kitchen is off to the left, directly ahead is John & Elaine’s bedroom, and the stairs lead up to the rest of the bedrooms.

John and Elaine’s room.

Proof Adam is here, too!

26 May 2017, Friday

Our first full day in London.  We are all jet-lagged so our plans are fairly loose and not too demanding.  The weather is gorgeous, so we decided to do a good bit of walking. In the end, we covered 8.6 miles today before taking the Underground back to our house.

We decided to walk through Hyde Park on our way to the Science Museum.

Swans!  And many of the grebes had babies.  (Grebe babies aren’t very cute, poor things. Water birds are usually adorable.  Grebes got the short end of the stick.)

Grabbing an early lunch before heading into the museum – Japanese. The kids love the noodle shops – leftover from our stay in Japan several years ago. Makes getting lunch for 5 easy and not too expensive.

On to the Museums. The kids wanted to go to the Science Museum (first time) and then the Natural History Museum (3rd or 4th time).

The Science Museum is geared towards little kids and therefore not quite as interesting as our older kids had hoped, but it still had some moments of brilliance in it.

They did have some pretty cool items – the first 2 steam locomotives in the world. A V-2 rocket, space rockets and satellites, items from Apollo 10.

Below: the actual DNA model Watson and Crick developed to explain the double helix shape and interaction.

The Science Museum boasts the oldest clock and watch collection in the world.  The collection was assembled by the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers: this remarkable array of timepieces traces the story of the capital’s clockmakers from their first marine chronometers and mechanical clocks through the evolution of the wristwatch. (excerpt from the Science Museum’s website)

One of the first locomotives.

Famous photo by Nick Ut (taken in Trang Bang, Vietnam) of a little girl burned in a napalm attack, along with the other photos on that same roll of film.  The Leica camera he used to take the photographs is in the display case as well.

Apollo 10 return module.

After awhile we all started “jet-lagging” and unanimously decided we weren’t in the mood to visit the Natural History Museum next door.  Also, the day is getting hot. On to Gelatos.

We’re all tired, but it’s too early to go back to the house and be in for the day, so we walked to the Leica shop in Mayfair a couple miles away to see if they had the new Leica camera body in stock. They didn’t.

Adam: I had been on a waiting list in the US for almost 4 months this year – hopeful to get the new model before this trip. Unfortunately, it didn’t arrive in time, so I cancelled my order and am using my same ol’ “crappy” gear for this trip.

Time to head home – taking the train.  Josie and Isabella found some new skirts and dresses at Uniqlo. We hit the Marks & Spencer grocery store near our house to re-supply and then spent the evening watching zoo documentaries and The Simpsons in our jammies.  Dinner was fruit and cheese.

Adam: My folks arrive Saturday – around 11:00 a.m. We’re going to do some more grocery shopping in the morning, take care of laundry, garbage and other chores to get ready for them. Plus another morning of sleeping in won’t hurt anyone. I’ll go to the airport to greet them and bring them back to our flat this afternoon. I’m guessing they’ll want a) Shower b) Nap c) Food and then d) More Sleep. That’ll pretty much be our day.

27 May 2017, Saturday

John and Elaine arrive today at 11:00 a.m.  We had planned to do something this morning before we headed to the airport, but we all slept in way too long.  (We needed it!!) Adam left around 11:00 a.m. (allowing time for his parents to make it through the long immigration line and collect their luggage) and the girls aren’t even awake yet.  Holden wandered down a little while ago for some food, then went back to bed.

We’re suffering a little bit from “city noises” that make sleeping difficult.  It’s very hot, so we have to sleep with the windows open.  Unfortunately, people here don’t go to bed before 3 a.m.  Each night (so far, anyway) we’ve been treated to drunken and very loud fighting in the street in front of our house.  At one point, Josie was skyping with one of her friends and the profanity streaming in through our window was so bad she had to hang up.

This weekend is a three-day Bank Holiday so we’re hoping the shenanigans are going to be over by Monday.  The neighborhood actually has a lot of families with small children and (of course!) the noisy troublemakers are all young adults.  City neighborhoods tend to be more age-diverse than suburbs.  ♫ You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have … the facts of life. ♫

John and Elaine arrived tired but it was too early to call it a day.  We decided to take a walk through Hyde Park and find a place for early dinner.

Spring in London is gorgeous.

People were holding out fruit in their hands to lure down the feral population of Indian Ring-necked Parakeets. I was disappointed that I didn’t have any fruit.  We had to stand by and watch like lonely birdless losers.

John and Elaine.

The massive crowd surrounding the Princess Diana Memorial fountain.

28 May 2017, Sunday

We headed over to the East End and the famous Sunday Columbia Road Flower Market.

Really cool door knocker we saw on the street.

The Columbia Road Flower Market.

The array of fresh-cut flowers and plants were mind-boggling.  The picture below doesn’t do it justice.  The place was so crowded Adam couldn’t take many pictures.

Elaine and I both would have gone nuts in the flower market had we lived here.  It was truly a gardener’s paradise.

Our next stop was The Geffrye Almshouse.  (From their website:)  The Geffrye is set in almshouses built in 1714 by the Ironmongers’ Company, with a bequest from Sir Robert Geffrye, twice master of the Company and former Lord Mayor of London.  For almost two hundred years the almshouses provided homes for around fifty poor pensioners. They are now recognised for their historical importance as Grade I listed buildings. 

Many of the rooms have been converted into displays representing daily life in the middle classes of London through the ages, starting in 1630 (hall, pictured below) and going up to the 1990s and 2000s.  It was an interesting visualization of how family life changed over the decades between the early 1600s and the early 2000s.  This museum is well worth visiting.

Drawing room, 1830

Afterwards, we decided to revisit The Clink.  We really enjoyed it the first time we visited several years ago (blog here) and John and Elaine had never seen it.  It’s still as awful, fascinating, disgusting and disturbing as it was the first time.

Holden sitting in one of the torture chairs. (He’s 14 1/2)

Holden sitting in the same chair 27 Dec 2013.

Bloody heads displayed to keep the other citizens in line.

Replica of an old man who managed to survive The Clink longer than anyone else.  He developed a thriving business inside the prison selling rats that he raised himself as food to other prisoners.

29 May 2017, Monday 

Today’s docket:  the National Museum, the Imperial War Museum, and our favorite cafe in Piccadilly.

First up: The National Museum in Trafalgar Square.

This is how the kids take in art. (John, me, Elaine in background; irreverent children in foreground.)

The beauty of Seurat juxtaposed by the philistinism of our kids.  You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.

John and Elaine wanted to spend some extra time in the museum, so Adam and I took the kids for an early lunch at a pub across the street.  Afterwards we walked around the block to take in some sights before our meet-up time with John & Elaine.

Guard at the Household Calvary Museum.

I loved this bus advertisement:  “Be the CEO your parents always wanted you to marry. (then find someone you actually like.)”

Extra police in front of 10 Downing Street.

The kids climbing on the statue in Trafalgar Square while we wait for grandma and grandpa to come out of the National Gallery.

We then visited the Imperial War Museum.  The kids declared it “much more interesting than we ever expected.”  This museum has a Holocaust section that comes with what is, essentially, a trigger warning; kids under 14 years of age need parental permission.  Adam didn’t get any photos of that section because it seemed inappropriate.  They don’t pull any punches; this section is depressing, horrifying, and every other word you can think of that means “awful.”  What struck me the most is that had a wall with photos of “The Killers” on it, with actual head-shots of the most sadistic guards at Auschwitz.  You can see what the face of evil looks like.  Joseph Mengele was one of the people.  Several others were there, too (including a woman), but I’d never heard of them.  They were despicable characters, every one.

The rest of the museum was a little less depressing (as “less depressing” as war can be) and Adam took quite a few photos.

World War I Artillery piece.

Looking up from underneath a German V-2 Rocket.

They have lots of documents and memorabilia on display – below: One of Rommel’s actual North Africa maps noting troop movement during this effort to move on Egypt in 1940.

Field Marshal Montgomery’s staff car.  He was famous for wanting his troops to have a good breakfast to start their day and insisted on a large full English breakfast for everyone.  This was the origin of the term “The Full Monty.”

This eagle was mounted at the top of the Reichstag in Berlin – subsequently torn down by Russian troops when they invaded.

It’s full of bullet holes.

Submarine torpedo from WWII.

After leaving the war museum, we found a pharmacy that was open and had all the little bits we’ve been needing and didn’t think to bring:  good shampoo, sunscreen, Dove soap, blister guards.

We took the train back to Piccadilly Circus and visited a cafe that we used to go to frequently when we stayed here over Xmas one year. We got a late lunch/early dinner and then headed back to our apartment for wine time, laundry and TV – game shows and “Britain’s Got Talent.” Early bed.

The corner restaurant with the red awnings has turned into one of our favorite places to stop for a late afternoon treat: Caffe Concerto.

To be continued ….