Day 4–British Museum, Kings Cross 9 3/4, Westminster Abbey

Finally, temperatures were in the mid 70’s today, there was even a little rain this morning.  The Londoner’s were ecstatic! And we were pretty happy too.

The British museum contains so many things in it from all places and time periods. Our museum guide, Caroline was just wonderful choosing just a few main areas while we were there. I only saw one youngster’s eye glazing over ( and it wasn’t Stella, who seemed to listen carefully.) 

We saw the Rosetta Stone of course, then moved through Egypt to Greece and the famous Elgin Marbles from the acropolis where she did a wonderful job of explaining how the friezes were placed all around the temple.

A quick run through of the European eras, then upstairs to the mummies where we saw cat mummies, studies of human bones. And plenty of real mummies and sarcophagus examples.  

Onto a lovely lunch in the restaurant there and then time to make a decision.  A Sherlock Holmes Spywalk around Coventry Garden was planned, but the elder teen group and their families (us and the parents of 4 kids, two of whom Stella has been hanging out with) really wanted to go the Harry Potter Platform 9 3/4 which is in the Kings Cross railway station.  

We walked there from the museum, bonding with Carol and Patrick, parents of these great kids along the way. 

After a few minutes in the very long line, we figured out that it wasn’t worth the wait of over an hour just to pay to get the kids picture taken with the end of the suitcase cart which was stuck in the wall. 

We went inside the large store instead where there was every kind of Harry Potter and Hogwart’s  paraphernalia and tchotchkes available.  The kids ( and grownups) had a blast and everyone came out happy!

Since the Underground was right there, we took it back home to our hotel. 

An hour later, after packing for our suitcases to be picked up tonight, we headed out to Westminster Abbey where we had timed tickets to visit this incredible place. It was right across the bridge, about a 15 minute walk. 

We couldn’t get an audio guide as our tickets were for the extended hours on Wednesday, but we had downloaded some apps that helped us navigate the hundreds of monuments and burial places of famous monarchs, writers, musicians, scientists, politicians, etc that are housed there. What an incredible piece of history and tribute to Western Civilization.

We had bought tickets when we were here 3 years ago, but the queen had the audacity to die right when we arrived so Westminster was closed.  This made up for it and Stella, when she finally realized how important it was, enjoyed it as well.

Back again to the hotel for a bit.  Jim and I walked along the South Bank area and found some great Mexican food at a place called Wahaca.  After our big lunch, the small tacos, some guacamole and chips and a couple of margaritas were a perfect ending to this fantastic day.  Stella went out for a couple of hours with all the teenagers. It is such a fun, hopping area, and although we were a bit worried, they are six really good kids and they had a blast (it also helped that their parents were nearby, too).

Our time in London is coming to an end.  Tomorrow late morning we leave on the Eurostar for the Chunnel crossing and Paris!

Day 3, Tower of London, speedboat on the Thames, London Eye, and west end’s Mamma Mia

Another jam-packed day, very fun and exciting. Off with her head!To the Tower of London we went, the bus detouring a bit through parts of the city we hadn’t seen before: the business section, the more modern buildings built because that section sustained terrible damage in the Second World War, and the waterfront areas Jim and I visited a few years  ago.

It was hot —record- breaking hot— so we were glad we got there early and went right into the Crown Jewels with no waiting in line. They don’t allow pictures, but those diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, crowns, scepters and gold banquet dishes were really quite exquisite.

One of the beefeaters (a term they really don’t like preferring instead “Yeomen Warders of His Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, and Members of the Sovereign’s Body Guard of the Yeoman Guard Extraordinare“), a rather grumpy one, talked to us about their role and responsibilities. He also shared with us that it was he who had to stand for over four hours next to the coffin at Princes Diana’s funeral in his formal dress uniform weighing over 10 lbs. with all the regalia on it. And that doesn’t even include the big beefeaters hat!

Jim and I also visited some of the sections we hadn’t seen before (Stella was doing her touring with her new friends) but the heat and crowds really got to us. Every school group in greater London seemed to be there too. We learned from Hannah, our friend Patti’s granddaughter, that British children are usually in school most of the summer with a short break in early August so this would be an ideal time for “field trips”.

We met up in the nice cafeteria and afterwards, a bit refreshed but now in the hotter midday, we headed down to the banks of the river to go on a high speed RIB boat ride down the Thames.

Our boatman, Simon was quite funny, in an in-your- face Irish kind of way and got everybody laughing as we raced down the river to wild music, all  the way to Greenwich where the boat hovered in the river as he explained Greenwich Mean Time and showed us the crosses on top of spires where it is measured. 

Then back we went, crossing over other boats wakes— a real roller coaster ride-until we had to slow down to make our way to the dock of the London Eye which is right next door to our hotel. 

The pods on the Eye are air conditioned ( 🤗🤗🤗) which felt wonderful as we circled the Thames waterfront, looking in every direction in our private ( just our group) pods. Also, bypassing the long lines was kind of cool.

After a short break, showers and trying to get this blog going, we opted for walking towards the theatre in the West End to get some dinner and go to our show, Mamma Mia. We walked about 20 minutes along the “Queen’s Way, the south bank lively area along the river. Crossing the Waterloo bridge, we got to the “Strand”, a long famous street, had some BBQ for dinner and then across the street to the performance of the show Mamma Mia!

Despite our (I guess we should say Wendys) misgivings, the show was fantastic. Fabulous choreography, cast, and energy in a very old theatre made the perfect ending to a long hot day. A curious thing though- about 10 minutes from the end of the first act, there was an announcement that they had to stop the show for technical reasons.  We never found out why, but chances are it had something to do with the heat— maybe the audio got fried or something similar. It also got very hot in the theatre. Luckily, it resumed after about 10 minutes without any further glitches.

Tomorrow we actually don’t have to board the bus to go to the British Museum until 9:30.  YAY!!