Today was very special as we spent it all in London. Our plan was to visit Westminster and Big Ben first, then eat in Chinatown, make our way to the British Museum, wander around and find dinner somewhere and make our way back. Now back home, we can record some of our more memorable experiences. We managed to leave the house at 8 am and on a Saturday at that, and were in time for our 8:38am departure to Paddington. Eric walked the Thames path and the rest of us squeezed into a London style taxi— just pushing the stroller with the baby in it right onto the taxi. Eric walked into the station just a few minutes before we were supposed to leave – whew! – thanks to His long legs. We got some seats and then noticed that we were in the “quiet zone” standard seats. We didn’t know exactly what that meant and since everyone else was silent, we all were too, well, as much as can reasonably be expected of a family like ours. The children were so good. By the way, the family rail card at 20 pounds is very good. For all of us to get there and back in one day, being able to choose which trains, and having the freedom of taking any bus or underground train in central London cost just under 38 pounds. (it seems like a good deal to me anyway).
We were awed and amazed by the architecture of Westminster Palace and Abbey. The domed ceilings were amazing. Walking on top of 300-year old tombs is not something you do everyday. Elizabeth liked the tombs of Elizabeth 1st, Mary Queen of Scots, and of the little princes in the tower, and Ben liked King George VI’s sword and scabbard. I think he had always thought Big Ben was named after him.
New World dim sum (Leicester Square) was very good. But not exactly a bargain at about 43 pounds for all of us. (maybe good price by English standards though). We had a whole plate of garlicky spinach for 6 pounds 50 p. The Cantonese chow mein was really crispy and good (something you can’t find in Bloomington). Lilli and Eric and Amelia enjoyed the chicken feet (ugggh!) – well, it’s not bad really, you just have to get over your prejudice.
Then we decided to walk to Oxford Street to buy a second stroller. Unfortunately we stumbled through a REALLY rotten neighborhood, but quickly moved away. Oxford Street was awash with pedestrians and when we looked onto it from the double decker top decks, it looked impossible that someone wasn’t getting killed at every corner. So many buses, taxis and people. Especially near Selfridges, a huge stone, fluted-column department store. Ben, Faith, and I found a baby equipment store at Marble Arch and quickly got onto a number 7 that would take us back to where we had been and then onto the British Museum. Wonderful! By now Benjamin was having trouble behaving but the baby had napped through lunch (on my lap, and no, I didn’t spill anything on her amazingly), so she was happy.
The British Museum was the place for us. We need to go back there many times as we barely scratched the surface. But what amazing artifacts. The children and I have started studying history since none of us know any, and had learnt a bit about Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. We’ve got some photos to share here. Benjamin was especially keen on the stone carvings of Assyrian lion hunts, which were stunningly realistic and exciting. We HAD to view the Korean celadon since some of us had recently read A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park. Good read. We passed through Ancient Egypt too quickly, but appreciated the Rosetta Stone and the HUGE head of Rameses II. It was so exciting to see some things dating from the times that we had been reading about and to be able to appreciate in person real objects which bore the different symbol systems, the contrasting artistic styles, the skills these people had. It was very exciting for me. We saw a well preserved mummy dating from about 2300 years ago, pretty recent for an Egyptian mummy.
Check out some photos.
After wandering around too long, we finally found a restaurant that would suit us. Govinda, a hare krishna restaurant!! (vegetarian). Since we couldn’t all fit very easily, I ate outside with Faith in her stroller (most of the time), and Lilli, (who was also in her seat MOST of the time). It was good food and about half of what we had paid at lunch. The tricky part was all the hare krishna and hindu and just plain insane people wandering around me. I am quite paranoid in the heart of any big city with people milling around me, on a Saturday night, with 2 little girls to protect and feed at the same time. And I was freaked out by this 50-ish Indian guy who kept creeping up behind me and standing very close just staring oddly and fixedly at us. He tried to put his heavy silver cross pendant around Faith’s head before I caught him and gently asked him to keep it since the baby was too young. I didn’t know what to say to him! Lilli wouldn’t finish her dinner and she needed to get just a couple more bites in before I was willing to leave. So I was getting anxiouser and anxiouser. This older gentleman was probably harmless, but I, being the paranoid protective mother bear, didn’t like his attention and his weird grunts. Anyway, we all left shortly thereafter and I am so glad I’m not a hare krishna, or a Hindu for that matter. Sorry, this blog is not PC: we’re not a very PC family. (understatement) Jesus is the way for us. The people are very kind I’m sure, like the older Hindu gentleman who invited us to the festival next week, but there is no salvation there.
Back to Paddington by tube and hauling occupied strollers with bags hanging from each handle up and down flights of stairs, keeping everyone together, squeezing onto full trains, we just missed our target train back to Oxford by a minute or so. So we got the next fast train and arrived home around 9:25 pm. Faith hadn’t fallen asleep – what stamina. Tomorrow we will walk to church and back (almost 1 hour each way), so everyone will be quite quite tired.