July 24 to July 31, London

July 24- July 25

Leave on Bart train and arrive at Heathrow (yah!) -  Make it through border agents (Kate: "Dad, that woman seemed very interested in where we are staying and what we are doing here."). Take a loooog tube ride through commute-time London with 5 people, 5 backpacks and 1 violin, hmm, pretty sure we are winning the popularity poll our fellow riders had going on those trains! We have a place in a "hotel" (converted house..) in Stratford. Stratford is a borough about 6 mi from the center of London, its walking distance from the West Ham soccer stadium. The whole area around the train station was improved for the 2012 London summer games, with a new mall, footbridge, gardens, aquatic center, etc. Our place was across the train tracks from the mall in a more humble area (the only <$200 per night place I could find anywhere near London :).   We settled into our room, found a nearby park (with a great swing that the kids dubbed "the swing thing" that they simply HAD to visit each day), and made it to Scott's #1 restaurant, the South African chicken-chain, Nandos.  We made it! 

At the El Cerrito Bart platform, ready to roll. 

Getting some air on the fascinating London tube.

Getting comfy in our London home for the week, bed-bed-bed and tea kettle, very nice! 

Swing thing, a must-do [almost] every day! 

July 26, Wednesday 

Ah, this was a long walk day, +12 mile day! 

We visited St. Paul's and crossed over the Waterloo Bridge to the south bank for a long walk and then met up with our friend Anu at the British Museum. While enjoying the crowded but still manageable museum,  learned about her family's embrace of their new home in London (no plans to leave!). We also managed to locate all of the artifacts we researched a few weeks prior (something we've discovered makes museums a lot more fun.. pick a few things you really want to see, do little slideshows for each other to get others interested in your artifact, then, hunt for those things and maybe run into other fun items along the way, Rosetta stone (discovered in 1799 in Egypt, written in 196 BC, is a decree from Ptolemy V establishing the ruler's "divine cult".  It is a written in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic [Egyptian] script, and Greek script that allowed historians to learn the meaning of hieroglyphs); Sutton helmet, Sophilos vase (oldest Greek vase painter known to us today, because he signed the vase "Sophilos painted me", Parthenon sculptures (taken from the Parthenon), Benin bronzes (amazing cast plaques, taken from present day Nigeria, actually made of brass, and at least as old as the 16th century, based on medieval, West African relief techniques, for then-ruling Oba [king]). 

 

Post-museum park reward! Play at Corams playground, a big gated play area with soccer pitches, basketball courts, play areas; a staffed park, where the rule that adults are only allowed with kids is actually enforced (Scott and I were approached after a few minutes of relaxing on a serene benth, a staff member wandered over and inquired about whether we were in the park with children, we pointed over to our giant children who were rampaging on the toddler merry-go-round as proof that we are indeed allowed to enjoy the park, thanks kids!). 

 

L: Sunny London, St. Paul's in background, R: So happy to spend some time with our friend Anupama. 

Great finds in the British Museum. 

July 27, Thursday 

Oh Scott and Becca, we couldn't help ourselves, we kept waking up in the wee morning hours the first few days in London of course, so, when we woke up at 2:30am, we turned on the telly and watched the second half of the exiting US-Netherlands match, we watched Horan's great header off a Lavelle corner (that came after Hornan and a Dutch player got a long talking to by the ref about shoving and other misdeeds) to tie the match at 1-1. The US looked much better in the second half and had a lot of opportunities to take the lead but just couldn't convert. Ahh.. Katie woke up and watched some of the match. For the record, I tried to wake up Alex who also wanted to watch but he was out cold (he was not happy in the am that he missed the whole thing). His strong slumber was a blessing though, as by midday, when we were dragging, I was pretty pleased to only have three-short tempered members of our crew, rather than five! 

Other non-tv-watching activities: 

• - exterior of Big Ben and Parliament visit
• - Westminster Abbey, family audio tour; we all switched to the regular tour as the family tour was pretty rudimentary; we also paid a bit extra to go up to the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries, which was well worth it, it was a lot less crowded up top and has a great view down into the Abbey.
• - Walked to the West Ham soccer stadium - and thus it began, Katie's quest for as many Premier league team scarfs as she could fit into her backpack..
• - We ate at a sit down restaurant at the Westfield shopping area near Stratford train station where Katie ordered a virgin margarita (she's 12! Time to get big kid drinks!) and Luke ate all of his tacos al pastor, very adventurous eating, nice job! 
• -We ended the day at the neighborhood park, the draw of the 'swing thing' is strong. 

All enjoying the exterior of the Elizabeth Tower, aka Big Ben. 

Mr. Stephen Hawking, one of the +3,000 deceased folks in Westminster Abbey. 

  R: Luke is REAL excited about the writer's section of the Abbey; L: Group w/ Shakespeare.

In front of West Ham's stadium, uh oh, Katie's scarf collection has started. 

Katie enjoying her virgin margarita, the jalapeno and salt were a bit too much flavor for her!

July 28, Friday  

Scott's favorite day is here!! Prime meridian day!!! 

Background: it turns out, Scott loves clocks and geometry, and scientific breakthroughs developed through engineering and math.. As you all know for sure, explorers have known how to establish their latitude for millennia (since at least the Greeks in +300 BC, simply by measuring the height of the Sun above the horizon at noon). Astronomers and explorer's also have known the theory of how to establish their longitude for hundreds of years. They theorized that, if one knew, with a really accurate clock, what time it is in one one place on earth that they would call 0° longitude, that the difference between high noon on their ship and that 0° longitude place would be 15° west or east of the 0° place for each 1 hour difference in time. But! No one had made a timekeeper that could remain accurate in the difficult conditions at sea, for months and months and months. So! Thank those wily explorers and the unstoppable drive for global trade routes for that super accurate watch on your wrist! (You have one on your wrist, right?) 

So! A pilgrimage to Greenwich (0° Prime Meridian!) is required. Greenwich is a lovely town; easy of course by train from London. The prime meridian museum is situated in a huge park. Walk up a hill and on top is the observatory, where the Royal Astronomers lived with their families while they did their work, day in and out, always recording (quite a privilege to be the Royal Astronomer, but also a heavy responsibility, one man lived there with his family for 40 years with only one assistant to help him make recordings each and every day, no vacations, not like today's Britain!). After centuries of effort, Great Britain offered a reward of 20,000 pounds (~$3M today) in 1714 for an accurate, seafaring clock and a clockmaker by the name of John Harrison won the reward (but it took 30+ years for the full payment to be made) after many iterations of his timekeeper, called the H4 in the mid-1700s. 

Wow, that was a great visit! Only marred by a giant field trip of Italian teenagers who we did not manage to shake, despite our efforts to go faster or slower, oh well, share the great GB visitation sites! 

We also visited the Cutty Sark, a very fast sailing ship for it's day, running between GB and China in it's heyday, before the Suez Canal (which the sailboat could not readily navigate) was opened in 1869. 

We made it to the super crowded Burrows Market (we tried fresh sugar cane juice, see Katie's reaction below).

And.. we made to Arsenal, the big dog, stadium for the scarf. 

Standing astride the Prime Meridian! R: Luke, stop blocking Alex!  L: Alex, stop blocking Luke! 

L: Receiving some instruction (and yes, this 'field trip' does count in our attendance record as part of our home schooling). R: The incredible H4 marine timekeeper! 

Katie, so strong! Holding up the Cutty Sark! 

Katie, try that sugar cane juice. Katie, what do you think of it?? 

Just a normal crowd at Burrows Market. 

Visiting Arsenal stadium. 

July 29, Saturday   

Bike ride time!  On Amanda's great recommendation, we booked a bike tour in the Buckingham Palace/Kensington area.  We had a lot of fun; it was a great change of pace to bike rather than walk/tube and we chatted with a a younger British couple on the tour while Alex and Luke made friends with Jack, a 10-yr old from New York on the tour with his older brother and mom. The tour had some exciting bits (biking in pretty crowded areas - Big Ben, Westminster, Trafalgar Sq.) and  some wonderfully serene, car free areas (Hyde Park, St. James Park, Kensington Gardens).  Watching a whole bunch of Victoria episodes (on Masterpiece theater, a great, pre-London show to watch!) really brought these Victorian locations to life. 

Also on this day... we managed a feat that we would repeat once more in the coming days - a TWO stadium TWO scarf afternoon!  We took the train the Chelsea and made it to both the Chelsea stadium and to the walking-distance-away Fulham stadium. Wow. If you were at all worried about the economic viability of these teams, do not fear, their merch shops appear to be well visited in the offseason! 

L: Katie is real excited about helmet safety (so American). R: the group on Westminster Bridge. 

Another on the Westminster Bridge, kind of a nice spot. 

In front of Buckingham Palace.

L: Luke and Alex in front of Westminster Abbey, R: Alex, really happy in front of the Prince Albert Memorial, with his new friend, Jack. 

L: Enjoying our walk through Chelsea and Fulham; R: A perfect fit for Katie.

Check, one more scarf and one Chelsea rubrik's cube.  

And double check, made it to the Fulham store before closing time. You can feel the excitement!

July 30, Sunday

Last Day in London!  We could not leave without a tour of the Tower of London!  One palace (the White Palace) inside the Tower is from 1066, one of the oldest buildings in London - We learned quite a lot on a tour tour from a Yeoman Warden (staff who live onsite with their family's); a lot of imprisonment and blood stories (who was executed inside the Tower [very few], where more prisoners were executed [up on the hill near the Tower], who many hacks it took to behead Anne Boleyn [only one, she knew the axe method often took more than one swipe and smartly requested the French - sword method of execution which so effectively and cleanly took her head off, that onlookers were said to have seen her lips still moving in serene prayer when the executioner held her head up to the crowd].  

We split up for the afternoon, with Scott and Katie landing last minute London Eye tickets, Luke, Alex, and I went on an unsuccessful mission to ride the longest tunnel slide in the world the ArcelMitoral Orbit - which was sadly sold out.  We did manage to find another fun playground, though our visit was cut short as the slippery ground led to a scraped elbow that Luke took rather into stride (see one of his few smiling pictures below!). 

We regrouped for our last Nando's meal.  Alex ordered the kids bottomless frozen yogurt. He has decided he is going to train himself to not feel ice cream headaches.  Photos below show he has a small ways to go yet on that venture. 

In front of the Tower of London.

A very popular knight-training game in the Tower

L: Prince Alex. R: Katie and a Yeoman Warden. 

L: Ill-fated trip to the tunnel slide.. We'll ride next time! R: Injured but unfazed Luke.

London Eye, up high. 

Katie is crushing my head!  And Alex and quickly devouring his third cup of frozen yogurt.. until..

Ouchy, looks like an ice cream headache. 

Goodbye London. 

We just scratched the surface of the place.  As a starting point for our multiple months in Europe, this was a great jumping off location.  Getting over jetlag in a familiar place makes that whole process much easier. Getting used to the left-side traffic before we have to drive in it is also great. Staying in one-room hotel room, without a kitchen is not sustainable for very long though - we need a place with tables and chairs (to blog! and for school work :)) and a fridge and stove for everyone's dietary-desires..  

Onward to Wales!