30 May 2017, Tuesday

This morning we got up early and caught the first ferry on the Thames over to Greenwich. Our destination was the Royal Naval College and the Royal Observatory.

Our little group waiting to cross the street to the ferry docks.

Ready to go!

The ferry taxis are a good way to see the city, but are MUCH slower than the underground train system.  They are great if you aren’t in a hurry.

We walked up to the Royal Observatory. Below: John and Elaine standing on the Prime Meridian. Located right at 0°00′00″… one foot in the East and one foot in the West.

We all had to take a turn.  Sometimes you just have to do the dorky thing.

Up in the observatory itself.

This old telescope had a little photo of Saturn stuck to the end so you could “see” something cool.

The most accurate/precise mechanical clock in the world, John Harrison’s “Clock B.” Harrison designed it in the 18th century, but nobody built it until the 20th century.

Excerpt from their website:
Instead of being celebrated, Harrison’s plans were chastised and ridiculed by his peers. A clock that was accurate to within a second over a 100-day period was unheard of, and a mechanical clock that precise wouldn’t be developed until the 20th century.

In 1737, Harrison — a self-taught clockmaker — invented the marine chronometer, which revolutionized long-distance sea travel during a time when the developed world was rapidly becoming a larger place. But despite his accomplishments, Harrison’s declaration about Clock B’s accuracy was so far ahead of any clock during that time it was considered “an incoherence and absurdity that was little short of the symptoms of insanity” by the London Review of English and Foreign literature.

“It was a claim that Harrison made and a claim nobody believed because the best clocks of the day couldn’t do better than about a second a week, if they were lucky. It was only in the 20th century that people thought that Harrison may have been right.” Martin Burgess, a master clockmaker, used Harrison’s mechanism and design along with modern materials like duralumin to construct the Martin Burgess Clock B, which has been sealed in a Perspex case at the Royal Observatory. In the 100 days since it was sealed, Clock B has only lost five-eighths of a second, setting a Guinness World Record for “most accurate mechanical clock with a pendulum swinging in free air.”

Harrison’s accomplishment, designing a clock in the 18th century whose accuracy hasn’t been surpassed by the thousands of watchmakers who followed him, is truly remarkable and cannot be understated. Clock B even went against conventional clockmaking wisdom. A heavy pendulum bob and a short swing was thought to keep the most accurate time, but Harrison’s design uses a wide swing and a lighter bob. It’s akin to someone building the world’s fastest car in 1940 with a diesel engine, and still holding the record for top speed today.

Old Royal Naval College (white buildings in foreground)

Giant map of the world.  We are standing on Cape Horn, South Africa, a place we’d like to visit someday.

Hula hoops.  We don’t know why they were there, but everyone was doing it so we did it, too.

Adam:  he insists that, despite his facial expression, he’s having a fabulous time.

After the Naval Museum, we stopped at The Greenwich Tavern for lunch.  It was fine, but nothing special.

On to the Cutty Sark, one of the last sail powered clipper ships built. She principally made tea runs from the UK to Australia to China and back.

Below: example of the lead-lined tea boxes stored in the cargo hold.  These boxes are replicas because very few of the originals survived.  They weren’t worth anything, so people stripped them for the lead lining.  Most of the lead went to make bullets and other ammunitions.

Second level of the ship, above the cargo hold.  They have displays of items used on the ship, as well as examples of cargo other than tea the ship would have also carried.  On their Australia leg, they often hauled marino wool.  It was so lightweight they had to save room in the ship for rocks and other heavy objects as ballast.

Ropes and Pulleys.

The dining table in the Captain’s quarters.  Those circular disks suspended above the table were to hold drinks.  The rope suspension allowed the drinks to move with the ship and not spill or slide around.

Kids and John & Elaine on the main deck.  All of the sailors’ quarters were on the main deck.  They were small, but far less claustrophobic than other ships we’ve visited because you could step out of your room directly into fresh air.

Figurehead collection.

The below-water portion of the Cutty Sark was clad in brass sheeting.  The smooth surface helped prevent barnacles from attaching and lasted longer than lead plates used on other ships.  It was also a lot more expensive.

Interior of the building housing the bottom portion of the ship. You can walk up those stairs to get a good look at the ship parts that are usually under water.

On the ferry back home at the end of the day:  view of The Tower of London from the Thames and the bricked-over entrance to the Traitors’ Gate.

31 May 2017, Wednesday

Adam and John got up before everyone else this morning and took a 2 mile hike to visit Abbey Road.  Adam:  Here’s dad crossing at the same locations the Beatles crossed almost 50 years ago. (I couldn’t get him to go barefoot.)

John and Elaine didn’t sleep well last night and wanted to stay in the rest of the morning.  We have tickets for Romeo and Juliet at the Globe Theatre this afternoon and everyone wanted to be fresh and ready for it.  The girls wanted to go walking around/shopping, so 4 of us headed over to Piccadilly.  Holden hates shopping and elected to stay home with Grandma and Grandpa.

Uniqlo has become our favorite clothes shopping venue. The girls and I spent quite a bit of time in here while Adam made work phone calls outside.

Trendy, well-made clothes at surprisingly low prices.  I don’t know how they do it … if there are sweatshops involved, I’m happier not knowing.

St. James Church bazaar.

I lost the rest of the family.  I didn’t see them behind all these trees.  They thought I was shopping but I was really just looking for them. We finally found each other.

Josie at the Burlington Arcade

The Burlington Arcade houses a lot of antique jewelry and watches.

Chinatown.  We were running low on time and had a quick lunch here without exploring much.  The lunch was disappointing.  We needed to hurry back to the apartment to meet up with John, Elaine and Holden so we could all leave by 1:00 p.m. to make Romeo and Juliet on time.

Back at our apartment, getting ready to leave for The Globe Theatre.  Our accommodations  are the entire left side of the building, all three floors (grey-blue door.)

The Globe Theatre interior.  The stage is set for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.  Juliet: Kirsty Bushell; Romeo: Edward Hogg

It was EPIC. We thought it was going to be old-fashioned — white wigs, big skirts, corsets and tights, etc. Instead, they did an updated goth/steampunk version that blew everyone away. They made it FUNNY!!! I never knew Shakespeare could be so entertaining. During the first act, Isabella turned around and said ” I LOVE THIS SOOOOO MUUUCCCHHH!!”

Romeo was the epitome of a surly, angsty teen (goth make-up, ignoring his dad because he was listening to music on his headphones, etc. He looked and acted a lot like Jimmy in Raising Hope when he went through his “Drakkar Noir” phase.) The lines of the play suddenly came alive: his friends were trying to get a sullen Romeo to go to a party (the one where he ends up meeting Juliet) but he doesn’t want to go because he’s suffering from that teenage phase where everything in life is boring and stupid.  “We must have you dance” they say.  Romeo slumped on the edge of the stage, sullenly eating a bag of doritos and said “Not I, believe me: you have dancing shoes with nimble soles: I have a soul of lead so stakes me to the ground I cannot move.” Mercutio and Benvolio stood behind him rolling their eyes at his silly and overly-dramatic show of existential angst.  Even the kids in the audience were laughing. It was the first time I’ve truly understood in an emotional way that nearly the whole play is about typical teenage kids.

By the end, during the scene when they both die, the whole audience was crying. The audience was full of little kids, too, and they were just as moved as the adults. I never in a million years would have thought that a Shakespeare play could be so accessible and simply breathtaking. (And they didn’t change the old-time dialogue. The modernization was all in costuming and acting.)  We loved every minute of it.

Walking across Millennium Bridge back to the train station.

St. Paul’s Cathedral up ahead.

01 June 2017, Thursday

One of Josie’s goals this trip was to revisit the National Museum and see the Egyptian exhibits, the dinosaurs, and the the blue whale skeleton.  (Edit: We realized subsequently that the Egyptian stuff was in the British Museum, not the Natural History Museum.) We headed out this morning early enough to be first in line for their 10:00 a.m. opening time.

Adam finally looking like he’s having fun!

We were thwarted at The National Museum by long lines.  We took one look and said, “uh, no” like we have in the past for the Louvre and various museums in New York.  Not only is standing in line to get in frustrating, the combat viewing once you get inside ruins the experience.  We quickly re-grouped and went on to Plan B.

Adam wanted to visit Purdey’s (famous mostly for their guns, but they make other sport gear for the English gentleman) to get a new cap.  We had a good time looking around the shop, but ultimately they didn’t have a cap in Adam’s size.  It was the wrong time of year for the winter hat collection and they were running low on inventory.

More underground train travel.

John and Elaine had never been to Harrod’s, so we ducked in for a quick browse.  The store was much less crowded than we’d ever seen it.  In the past, we’ve visited around Christmas time.  During summer they seem to do a slower business.

Admiring the work of Dale Chihuly, which was kind of funny to see here in London since Chihuly is an artist from Washington — right in John & Elaine’s (Oregon) back yard.

J&E admiring the latest and greatest Sub-Zero products.

The perfume section.  Nobody leaves here stinky.

John and Elaine in front of the American Embassy in London.

We walked by Selfridge’s but didn’t go in.  Adam got a photo of their famous clock.

Nearby, a giant Apple Store.  John, Elaine and I sat on a bench and waited while the kids looked at all the newest electronic goodies Apple has to offer. This is one of the biggest retail spaces I’ve seen for Apple — two levels and tons of floor space.  The place was packed.

Walking around.

We happened upon a shoe store selling these strange creations.  The shoes were expensive, and the store was packed with people buying them.  The girls and I all thought they looked like something we could recreate at home (if we wanted to) by getting cheap shoes and investing in a hot glue gun and a few trips to Michael’s.

We found a shoe store that specializes in the Mephisto line quite by chance.  I ended up buying two pairs of new walking sandals (no plastic flowers or bling in sight.) The kids were complimented by the store salesman on their fantastic behavior.  (As you can see, they were tired.  They sat down and were quiet — what every proprietor wants out of  children in their establishments.)  By this time, we’ve walked several miles and all of us have worn out feet and aching backs.

02 June 2017, Friday

Isabella got sick last night (fever, headache, thankfully no stomach problems) and we had to change our original plan for the day, which included a train ride to a nearby town to see a royal palace. Bella needed to stay in the apartment and sleep, and we didn’t want to leave town just in case she needed us to come home for some reason. We ended up doing a walking tour of sites in London, but it was A LOT of walking and most of the buildings were not ones you could go inside. It’s kind of boring to look at the outside of a building and say, “Yup. Here it is.”

We did get to go inside St Paul’s Cathedral (near the Globe Theatre), which turned out to be cool. It had 528 stairs up to the tippy top … we hiked up there (it was SO FAR UP!!! The stairs went on forEVAH!)  The rest of the whole day we had spaghetti legs. Holden ran up the first set of stairs (230 or so) and ended up giving himself exertion-induced nausea and headache. After we left the cathedral we had to go to Starbucks and get everyone a drink. He felt a lot better after a whole bottle of water. He learned his lesson, though, and paced himself better the rest of the day.

This cute little group of school kids was on a field trip, holding hands in what we call the “buddy system” but here in England they call a “crocodile formation.”

Photography is prohibited inside the cathedral.  Adam took a few sneaky shots from the hip.  Pictures of the interior are available online, so we figured they just didn’t want tourists jamming up the flow of foot traffic by holding their phones out constantly, rather than trying to keep the interior a secret.  Adam was quick so he wouldn’t bother anyone.

Just a few of the 528 (steep!) stairs we faced.

Down in the crypt area.

Wellington is interred here.

Back outside, stopping to smell the roses.

Guildhall – since 1411 the offices of the Lord Mayor of London.

At Guildhall, we stumbled on a small art museum we had not heard of before.

During the Guildhall renovations, the ancient ruins of London’s Roman Amphitheater was discovered.  They revised the architectural plans for the art gallery to preserve the amphitheater underneath it.

St. Stephen Walbrook Church, a predecessor to St Paul’s Cathedral. The organist was practicing for a concert later in the afternoon, so we were treated to some really neat music.

The Royal Exchange, founded in 1566. It’s in the banking district and now a luxury shopping center.

Leadenhall market.  It was used as Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter films.

Lloyd’s of London.

At the base of 30 St. Mary Axe – better known as the Gherkin.

After this, John and Elaine split from us and went home to rest. The 4 remaining Mayse’s went over to the British Museum. Josie wanted to see “Mummies and things from ancient Greece,” so that is what we did.

The Rosetta Stone (below).

Mummified people.

Mummified cats.

After all the walking and star climbing we did today, our legs and feet were worn out.  Standing around in the museum was getting to be no fun, so we decided to call it a day and go home to rest.

Isabella is feeling better and we’re all hopeful that she’ll be in good shape for tomorrow’s journey to Pairs.