**I didn't take a picture of the London Eye on the day we went on it, go figure. So I dug out some other pictures I'd taken on different (sunnier) days.
The kids wanted to go to the London Eye from the first moment they saw it, but it was one of those things that kept getting put off for the "perfect" day of clear, blue skies. Those days are rare when you narrow it down to just Saturdays, not to mention how busy it is during the summer. So we procrastinated it until we had no Saturdays left in London that weren't already spoken for, and of course it was cloudy. Fortunately the clouds were high enough that they didn't impede our views. We didn't have to wait in line for long, and then we boarded our capsule with about eight other people. It takes 30 minutes for the complete rotation, and the capsule is made up of glass windows, so you can see everywhere. We gave the kids a hard time because all they wanted to do was mess around on the iPads that gave reference points and information about what you were seeing in the panorama. "Come on guys! Get present!" As obsessed as millennials are with electronic devices, what are the children of millennials going to be like? After we finished we had promised the kids doughnuts so we went on a doughnut hunt. We took a bus to Bermondsy to find a market I wanted to go to, with no luck. So we walked to a bakery I'd been to with Sean and Lori on the dessert crawl, and it was closed, gone, "finished" as they like to say. Our next choice was Borough Market, so we walked there, but decided it was too crowded and so we just settled on a dozen from the Krispy Kreme at London Bridge Station. Not fancy, but delicious nonetheless.
**I didn't take a picture of the London Eye on the day we went on it, go figure. So I dug out some other pictures I'd taken on different (sunnier) days.
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**As an interesting bit of trivia, there are a lot areas in NYC that share names with places in London, one of which being Kew Gardens, which happens to be the neighborhood next to ours in Queens. Kew Gardens, at Kew Palace in southwest London, is the largest and most diverse collection of living plants in the world. It was pretty remarkable. We went there on a Saturday morning, with a picnic lunch. The weather wasn't terrible but the clouds and sky changed so much throughout the day that it was driving me crazy trying to get the lighting right in the photos. The area is massive, and we didn't see it all, but we did see a lot of it, and it was all beautiful. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. We spent hours in the gardens and didn't have time/energy to go through the Palace, which was disappointing. But a day well spent nonetheless.
The kids have a week holiday in the middle of each term, and sadly during their half-term break in February we were fighting a horrible stomach flu. It took eleven days to work its way through each member of the family, and none of us were spared. But between the first wave and second wave, when we were naively believing it was finished, we had one good day to go out. I chose another Adventure on foot and we followed it almost exactly, beginning with the Bank of England Museum. The museum was really kid-friendly, I think in fact it's directed almost entirely for children. It talked about the history of the Bank of England, inflation, the gold standard, and the evolution of British currency. We were also really lucky that since it was half-term there was a man doing "readings" from The Wind in the Willows. Kenneth Grahame, the author, was a long-time employee of the Bank of England, and there is an exhibit there to honor him. The gentleman performing was all dressed up, and did an animated performance of a scene from the book. It was so great, the kids and myself were all captivated. Mim and Simon wanted to stay for a second performance but others of us were getting hungry. We walked from the museum to Leadenhall Market, which makes a brief appearance as the entrance to Diagon Alley in the first Harry Potter movie. We ate lunch there, and a couple really nice women complimented my kids on their great behavior. You'd never know what good kids they are from the expressions on some of these faces... After lunch we walked to The Monument, which is a tall Doric pillar that was built as a memorial to the Great Fire of London in 1666. The monument was begun in 1671 but took six years to build because of a shortage of Portland stone. This caused the king to issue a proclamation forbidding anyone to use this particular type of stone for any projects without the express permission of Sir Christopher Wren, the architect and surveyor of the monument. We climbed 311 steps to the of the monument, although Cameron swears he only counted 307. After we descended the windy staircase with caution, we went to Patisserie Valerie to pick up the birthday cake I had ordered for myself; the cake that we wouldn't get to eat for two days because of the aforementioned stomach flu...
I'm really excited for Cameron and Eli's new passion about WWII because they are pouring over books and movies about history. But I've been worried that they are glamorizing war. I know it's normal for boys to get excited about guns and tanks and courage and heroes, and that's even okay with me. The other day I told Richard that I wanted to find a way to help them understand the horrors and tragedies of war without traumatizing them. Then I remembered that there was an American cemetery near Cambridge where American's who were killed or missing were memorialized and buried. We had a Saturday afternoon with nothing on the schedule and a tank full of petrol, so it seemed like a perfect outing. I had heard of the cemetery from a story I read when we visited a museum in Dover. The story was just on a yellow piece of paper slipped inside a sheet protector and taped to the wall, but I took a photo of it because I never wanted to forget it. It would probably be worth my time to type it up so it's easier to read, but I don't have time to do that right now. If anyone would like a copy send me an email and it will motivate me to get it done! (And hopefully it wouldn't be illegal.) If you have the patience and good eyes, I highly recommend reading it here. We packed a picnic and made the drive up to Cambridge. It only took an hour to get there once we got out of the city. And it was a really pretty drive. The cemetery is immaculate, just as the story described. It was also very peaceful. Richard gave the kids a little pep talk about reverence and respect and the hallowed ground of places like this. There was a Visitors Center that had a short video about WWII and the cemetery. It explained who was buried there and talked about America's involvement in the war. There were other displays and photos and a lot to read about America's relationship with the British and I was quite touched by the gratitude and respect the locals in Great Britain had for the American servicemen. There are 3,812 men and women buried in the cemetery, including military personnel and American civilians who lost their lives while working in England during the war. Then there is a wall of the 5,127 missing men and women who died at sea or whose bodies were never recovered. (Including the brother of John F. Kennedy.) It was a really sacred and meaningful experience for me, and I think it had the desired effect on the boys too. There were nearly 70 million people around the world who lost their lives during WWII. That number is impossible to comprehend for a 7 and 9 year old. But to see 3,000 headstones gave them a somber realization that war has a heavy price. I didn't want them to be depressed, just aware.
I'm personally grateful for the bravery and self-sacrifice of the men and women who lost their lives during this and other wars. I was also moved by the examples of unselfish service and genuine love and brotherhood that motivated many of the men who died. Richard and I talked about how military service can be rough around the edges. The men sometimes have a reputation of being vulgar and reckless or arrogant. But they exhibited levels of charity neither of us could claim to have and we were honored to read their stories. |
JoAuthor and creator of this weblog; phase two of my internet chronicles of just your average middle class, "married with children" family life. Archives
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