Buckingham Palace and Surprises at Harrod's

 

One day last week we dropped in on the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace again.  The first time we went, we missed the first part and caught the end.  This time we were there at the beginning and then left when we got bored.  Both days the band played a Beatles medley following the guard change.

 

 

This flag means the Queen was in residence

An Afternoon of Surprises at Harrod's
We made our way down to Harrod's. We wandered from the Food Hall to the legendary Toy Department.  They really need a map of this store as it is so big and confusing.  While in the toys, Abbie sees a sign that says there is a Harry Potter shop on Level 3.  When we found the shop, it turned out to be a small HP museum featuring clothing, wands, and props used in the movies in addition to unique merchandise. [Abbie sat right down on the floor and officially started her 2011 Christmas List.]

 Harry Potter's clothing and trolley used at King's Cross Station

 Bellatrix Lestrange dress

Gowns worn by Hermione & Luna Lovegood

A wizard who worked there told us they were having a DVD release party/signing next week.  They will have 4 actors from the movie who will be signing the new DVD which is officially released in the UK on the following day.  Needless to say, the girls want to be at Harrod's first thing next Thursday to try to get one of 300 armbands to meet the actors.  If you get an armband, you return in the evening for the signing.  We'll see what happens come Thursday...

Windsor & Oxford

 

How about a day trip?! We headed out early to take a train to Windsor to tour the castle, then continued on to Oxford to have a look at the University.

Windsor Castle is the oldest and largest occupied castle.  It is Queen Elizabeth's "official residence," and she spends most weekends here.  She keeps horses here to ride and has a private golf course.

Two days ago, we were at Buckingham Palace.  The royal flag was flying which shows the Queen was home.  Today is Friday and since the Queen had come to Windsor for the weekend, now her flag was flying here.  They fly the British flag when the Queen is not in residence.

We toured the State Apartments, St. George's Chapel, and Queen Mary's Dolls' House.  Unfortunately, photographs were prohibited in all of these areas, so we only have exterior shots.

The State Apartments are on the left.

The Queen's private living space is on the right.

In the State Apartments, they showed a video of a recent official dinner taking place in one of the rooms.  Another room was in the process of being prepared for an upcoming formal dinner. This castle has hosted many royal wedding receptions including Charles & Camilla's.

Queen Mary's Doll's House was a highlight.  It is really a doll's palace showing off the current decor and technology of the era.  It even had working electricity and plumbing.  In addition to the house, they displayed a set of dolls given to Princess Elizabeth and Margaret when they were children.  The gift was from the royal family of France and included case after case of French-designer doll's clothing including dresses, shoes, hats, coats, and on and on.  I think the collection would easily fill one of my daughter's bedrooms.

 Yawn. What Lizzie thinks of audioguides and touring castles.

 

 Quick lunch on the train to Oxford

On to Oxford, a location high on our list.  The University's Gothic architecture was the inspiration for the campus of the University of Chicago, where Austin attended graduate school.  J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were professors here--along with many other famous people.  Because Austin and I both missed our chances to be Rhodes Scholars (ha ha), we figured this was the best chance we'd have to spend time at Oxford. 

We learned that Oxford University is actually a collection of individual colleges, many with their own private rooms and dormitories that surround a square.  The University was created in the 11th century with the Divinity School, and a university education could take as long as 16 years. We walked around many of the colleges in the late afternoon and early evening.

We sneaked a picture of the square at Exeter College which was "private".  

The fall ivy was beautiful and reminded us of our time in Chicago.

This bridge was built in the 1800s to imitate the "Bridge of Sighs" in Venice. Luckily, students at Hertford College who cross the bridge are not going to their execution or prison as those who crossed the original bridge in Venice.

This is the Radcliff Camera building (camera was the medieval name for "room"), which is a reading room connected to the Bodleian library by a tunnel. The Bodleian Library is the second largest library in Great Britain, with over 12 million books--growing by 4,000 titles weekly, as a copy of every book, magazine, and pamphlet printed in England is sent to the library.

Austin, Katie, and Abbie took a tour of the Divinity school hall and Duke Humfrey's Library where the library and infirmary scenes from Harry Potter series were filmed.  To the east of this building is a church where John Wesley preached.  We arrived there too late to be able to climb to the steeple overlook and see the city at sunset. 

 

 Entertaining Avery and Lizzie at McD's while the others take a tour of the Oxford Divinity School

 

 View from the window by our table at dinner

After becoming tired and cold, a nice warm dinner was in order.  We found the perfect place that was also family friendly.  Their "kid's meal" came with 4 courses including this fun appetizer plate and a "bambinocinno" of frothy milk.  The kids were smitten.

 

 

 dessert course with after-dinner "bambinochinno"

Thanksgiving London Style

Thanksgiving 2012 was an unusual one for us.  We went to tour the Tower Of London.  We planned to visit the Imperial War Museum after lunch, but the Tower was plenty for one day. After learning all the gory details of the Tower, we explored through Trafalgar & Leicester Square and China Town before heading home for a unique Thanksgiving dinner.

Tower of London

This is one of the oldest and most historic sites to visit in London.  The central building on the property dates from 900ish A.D.  The fortress has been used as an armory, zoo, and mint over time.  Most famously, it housed a prison and is the location of many executions (including Anne Boleyn), off-with-their-heads style.  Because it was constructed from stone, it survived the Great Fire in the 1600's.  There is a display of King Henry VIII suits of armor.  Many twists and turns of English monarch history occurred here. This is also where you can see the Crown Jewels, which are quite flashy. 

 The Beefeater Tour

 Tower Bridge

 Home for Dinner

The kids all wanted a traditional Thanksgiving meal.  I tried to talk them into a dinner at a Turkish restaurant since we love Turkey, but no go.  We learned that while you can find frozen turkeys between the frozen ducks and geese, it costs a fortune.  We opted for a rotisserie chicken instead.  They really craved pumpkin pie, however that was not coming together smoothly either.  So we had:

Chicken
Mashed Potatoes (hand-mashed)
Gravy
a variation of Green Bean Casserole
Fresh Rolls

[movie break]
And Dessert ... Haagen Daz!

About the time of Haagen Daz, Avery declares, "This is the best Thanksgiving ever!"  We'll watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade next year.

Sunday in London

 The church building being renovated

We all looked forward to seeing what church would be like in London!  We leave for the bus at 8:15 to get to 9:00 church.  The regular church building is located right between several amazing museums (Science, Natural History, Victoria & Albert.)  It is currently being renovated, so the ward meets at a rented building down the street.  They are adding a visitor center to the regular building and want the whole thing finished in time for the 2012 Summer Olympics coming here next summer.  The ward has a 2-hour block of meetings due to the meeting-space constraints.

The first thing we noticed were the words "Hyde Park Ward" on the program.  We felt right at home because when we lived in Chicago we lived in another "Hyde Park Ward."  Our first Sunday here was the Primary Program w/ some British speaking primary voices mixed in.  It is a very nice ward that feels much like any urban ward in a big city - a very diverse mix of people with a lot change.  We quickly met several families similar to ours.  Austin even found an old elementary school friend who lives here now with his wife and 4 children!

Walking home to our bus stop through Hyde Park

Hamley's Toy Store + Pics From the Day

Getting Ready to Enter Hamley's

Hamley's is a huge toy store that boasts six floors full of toys.  It is also over 250 years old!  Older than the US!  Our tour here was most entertaining.

I need those magic markers

Abbie drooling over the collection of Harry Potter wands

In front of Kate and William dolls. They are yours for 100 pounds.

Couldn't resist hugging one of each


A few more pics from our day...

Sun setting over Hyde Park (Yes, that is the sun.)

Westminster Abbey

We finally got to tour Westminster Abbey.  Austin took Avery & Lizzie to St. James Park to play while took Abbie & Katie to the Abbey.  We all enjoyed our time!  Thanks Austin!  I learned the little girls would never have done well in the Abbey.  Now I think we will skip the tour of St. Paul's but plan to attend their free Evensong Service held on Sunday afternoons.

Westminster Cloisters

Let's See London

Let’s See London: Take 1
Although I was a bit nervous taking all the kids out on my own in a city I’d never been to,  I figured we had to start somewhere.  There is so much to see, it’s a bit hard deciding where to start.  The traditional double-decker bus tour is a good way to get an overview, however Austin wanted to do that with us, so it would have to wait until the weekend.

We decided to take the bus to Trafalgar Square and see the lions.  Due to London’s crushing traffic, we were surprised our bus trip took us a whole hour!  The little girls were tired and hungry by the time we got there.  We looked up a good pub and tried out our first proper fish & chips. 

With everyone fed, we headed to the National Gallery.  We started in the gift shop and I let the girls each pick a post card with a painting.  The plan was to go find these paintings in the museum. Now someone had to go to the bathroom, so we looked for lifts (elevators) & bathrooms. 

 

Finally, we spotted Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, Degas’ The Dancers, and Monet’s Water-Lily Pond along with Renoir’s, Cezanne’s, Seurat’s etc.  We made it to 3 out of 50 galleries when Lizzie got bored and started singing songs in her stroller and wouldn’t stop.  After trying all our clever tactics to quiet her, we decided we were done with the museum.  It was time to find our way to tea.

 

We were invited to afternoon tea at a fancy hotel.  Afternoon tea is what we think of as high tea.  It’s tea with all the little scones, clotted cream, little sandwiches, and tiny desserts.  We joined Austin and his work colleagues for tea.  We saw men & women dressed in tuxedos and ball gowns while we were there.

“I love tea!” Lizzie says on the way home.

 Let’s See London: Take 2

For our 2nd outing I took the kids to see Big Ben via train.  All were impressed. Lizzie & Avery especially love to see “the Big Ben.”  We walked along the bridge nearby and learned all about the Parliament building.  We decided to tour Westminster Abbey while we were there.  However, it had been closed for a Remembrance service and wouldn’t open for a half-hour.  Our crew wouldn’t last for that.

Our first week in London happened to be Remembrance Week, like American Veteran’s Day.  They honor those fallen all week long by wearing paper poppies.  Outside Westminster Abbey were thousands of small wood crosses with a poppy and person’s name organized into different groups. There was evidence of “remembrance” all over town and on television.

We instead hopped a train straight for the Science Museum.  We looked at a few things and decided we were all starving.  Found a nearby mini-grocery and picked out some snacks.  We boarded a train home which was sardine-packed.  Lizzie had a temper tantrum about Oreos while packed on that train. (just keeping it real, here)  No, I couldn’t get her one while holding onto the pole, carrying the stroller over my shoulder, and holding her hand while packed in against the door.

It starts getting dark here at 4pm and is completely dark by 5pm.  We’ve learned to begin our return trip home by 3pm so we can be home before 4, when rush hour starts in earnest.

Moving In & Figuring Things Out

Moving In

Our little flat is sort of like a town house. We have neighbors on both sides, but enter straight off the street and have 3 narrow floors to call home. I’m curious to find out when these buildings were built. They seem pretty old, have very thick walls, and radiant heaters. We have a living room/dining room and a kitchen on the ground floor, 2 bedrooms and a bathroom on the 2nd floor, a cute kids room and bathroom on a 3rd floor, and a steep narrow staircase that connects it all.

the view from our bedroom window on the 2nd floor

This is our street sign - and what all the street signs look like. 

I learned that "The Royal Borough" part is a designation given by the royal family. Queen Victoria was born here and that is why it is "royal."

The thing that sold us on this flat (besides it being near the right train station, near our budget, and available 7 days out) is it’s great set-up for kids. This place is better equipped than our house! It is stocked with toys in the living room and kids room, has a kitchen cupboard with kids dishes, a stool in the bathroom (this may be TMI, but the toilet seats even have a separate kid-sized seat worked into the lid that folds up and down), extensive kids DVD collection, a playhouse on the back porch, a residents-only garden for kids to play, and a park and playground nearby. Although we thought this would be great for our kids, I underestimated just what a difference all this accommodation would make.

We brought a few toys & books in the kids’ backpacks that we can now stow away for the return trip home. The kids don’t have the energy to do major sightseeing everyday and when we return home from sights in London, we are all exhausted. This flat is a great place to rest up after a day of buses, trains, and walking; and a great flat & neighborhood to spend a day-off.

Wishing I took pictures before all of our stuff got spread out. It is dark now, so I will take some pictures to share of the rooms during the day - even with all our stuff. Here are a few in the dark:

long, skinny kitchen

Katie & Abbie's Room

Figuring Things Out
The first day or two was all discovery as we figured out how to operate everything in the house. The shower, light switches, toilet, dishwasher, front door lock, clothes washer, etc. We were pleasantly surprised to find we even had a dishwasher and a nicely sized refrigerator. We found an extra 1/2 bath off the kitchen that wasn't advertised.

All the symbols on the small under-kitchen-counter washing machine were not so intuitive. We are so lucky to have a washer but do not have a dryer. I found some drying racks in the back closet and after 48 hours, the first load of laundry was dry!

Everyone Loves Going to the Grocery Store

"Wonky" - great word

We walk to the grocery store about every other day so far. We lucked into a very nice one maybe an 8-minute walk away. The kids love going to the grocery store! There are many of the same things as at home. They’ve found many unique things that they love to have daily. Many foods have the British flag on them and say “British cheese” or “British wheat” or “British mustard” (very hot.)

Favorites are:

squash - a drink we’d heard about that is like lemonade. We learned at the store you buy it in a bottle and dilute with water. Lemon and orange are the most common flavors, but it comes in other flavors too. “Lemonade” here is a soda like Sprite.

squash

Crumpets & marmalade, of course!

British Cheddar Cheese - we’ve bought this on every trip to the store. It’s white and the kids can’t get enough. It’s rated from 1-5 for sharpness. The kids like 1 so well, they don’t see the need to try out the others.

British white bread - I’m not sure why they love this so much, but I can’t believe how popular toast is in our house. The loaves are taller and wider that we would find in the US. I heard, “This is the best store-bought bread I’ve ever had!” Gives Mum a break too.

[Due to the above 2 items, grilled cheese sandwiches are a fav. in restaurants.]