Moving on to London

To be honest, we weren’t all that excited about leaving Italy and spending our last 10 days of our trip in England.  The one son who insisted we include London on this trip, had somehow forgotten about this, and everyone we mentioned our travel plans to told us how miserable the weather and food were in England.  Knowing our return to the States is around the corner, it’s impossible to not be aware of the “lasts” while trying to make the most of each day and having to start scheduling certain things for our coming home.  We flew into London and were surprised by how much easier getting SIM cards, money and figuring out public transportation were in an English-speaking country!  It was so, so simple.  We were also surprised by the heat, and much to our kids dismay, we felt it important to be true to our trip purpose and not skimp by taking cabs to our accommodation, but take the Underground and then walk with our packs, ‘One Last Time!’

Our last backpacking hike from a train station to our London apartment

We stayed on the outskirts of the city to save some money, and were in a fun area where the summer 2012 Olympics were held.  Once again we had no A/C, which shouldn’t have been a problem for typical London weather, but we would quickly learn that during our time in the city they would experience unusual heat.  But our apartment did have the most amazing Vitamix blender ever, and we were all so thrilled to get to have smoothies every morning!  So as usual, we take the good with the bad and make the best of it! 

We’d been craving Mexican and found a place nearby that looked good.  Unfortunately, ¾ of the way into our meal we’d had two kids in tears, been given a free balloon and three free adult drinks.  The people were sweet but just couldn’t figure out the food, and we realized that once again travelling is exhausting.

Sunday morning we got a later start than planned, and headed to Hillsong’s London campus for a great time of praise, worship, and message of being salt and light in this world full of change and turmoil (crazy that in the last month Australia took a week to figure out who won their election, the British voted to leave the EU, terrorists attacked Nice, Americans are killing each other, and there's a coup in Turkey).

Hillsong London - love knowing we have a place to worship as we travel!

Great worship at Hillsong

No one was overly interested in visiting museums, so we planned to stop into the British Museum quickly, as it’s free, to see the highlights.  However, once inside, everyone started getting excited and connecting memories of our travels and we ended up staying until the museum closed and still didn’t make it to all of the pieces we’d hoped to see.  We were in awe of the fact that the items were on display without cases, and even though there were signs requesting people not to touch, it just felt like being so close to some of these things was a more personal experience.  Some of our favorites were the Code of Hammurabi, the lion hunt reliefs from the city of Assyria/Ninevah, learning about the Greek Parthenon and observing some of its artifacts displayed here.  However, the kids were disappointed that many of the things they'd hoped to see from Night of the Museum were either greatly exaggerated or not on display at the moment.

Inside the British Museum - fun for all of you Night at the Museum fans!

G in front of the Rosetta Stone - the key to deciphering hieroglyphics

Truly amazing depiction of an ancient lion hunt

Kids with their stone friend from Easter Island

Upon exiting the museum, we learned the story behind the red telephone booths scattered around the city.

Famous London Phone booths

In front of a replica of the Greek Parthenon with actual sculptures of the frieze in the background

Maybe these are the headless Parthenon guys - the actual statues that were on top of the Parthenon

We walked to Trafalgar Square where we sat down and Mom read to us about its history and had a competition to find Britain’s smallest police station and searched for the nose on the Admiralty Arch.

Trafalgar Square 

Great Britain's smallest police station

We found the nose on the Admiralty Arch - riders on horseback would rub this for good luck when passing by

We continued walking towards Big Ben and the Westminster government buildings and ended our day with dinner along the Thames River.  We learned that Big Ben's official name is the Elizabeth Tower, to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012, but most people still refer to it as Big Ben.

On bridge over the Thames River with Big Ben behind

Excited to see the London Eye near where we had dinner

Monday was Mom’s birthday, although we weren’t truly celebrating until Tuesday night.  We headed to Buckingham Palace and saw parts of the Changing of the Guard through the hoardes of tourists before walking through Hyde Park towards Kensington Palace, Princess Diana’s former home.  We toured Kensington Palace and learned some of the history of British royalty as well as the importance of the fashion/style and all that the women represent.  Afterwards the kids played in Princess Diana’s Memorial Playground, which has a Peter Pan theme with a pirate ship and all.  

Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guards

Can you spot G?  Awesome trees in Hyde Park

Kensington Palace

Then we wandered around Notting Hill and the Portbello Market area before taking a cab (much to our kid’s dismay the only one that fit our family was a mini-van) to Camden Town.  Here we wandered around the truly unique Camden Lock market, which is held on multiple levels of old horse stables.   Everything started closing and we grabbed a quick hamburger and tried to find dessert there and back at the mall near our home, but we were minutes late to everything, so no sweets for the birthday girl. 

Camden Markets were fun to wander as they are in old horse stables