London!

June 27 - June 30

Tower of London
Harry Potter Tour for Muggles
London Bridge
Natural History Museum

June 28
Today, we all woke up around 5am due to the rising sun and lack of blinds. We were able to get our laundry started at the laundry mat (almost 30L for 3 loads!) before we left which was a bonus.

The Tower of London was interesting. They label towers like The Tower of Torture which makes it sound more interesting than it actually is. It has examples of the rack, Scavenger's Daughter and manacles. We saw the Crown Jewels - amazing pieces of art and wealth. We saw the tower where people wrote interesting graffiti before they were killed or released as well as the White Tower with many examples of medieval armor for men and horses. The third floor had video-game-like consuls that my boys especially loved.


 We also took the tour provided by the beef eaters and learned juicy facts like 1,200 bodies have been found under the Royal Chapel, some with heads, the majority not. After being beheaded or executed, the heads were put on stakes on the London Bridge and the bodies buried under the chapel. A beefeater's uniform costs about 8,000 pounds!

Brianna started to feel sick to her stomach shortly before we finished our last tour. She vomited in the White Tower and continued to vomit in various places in London as we made our way home, like a grate in the sidewalk and on the subway tracks after vomiting on her jacket, shirt and pants. Poor kid.

Bonuses: I found and promptly bought peanut butter for only 0.99 pounds! I love the architecture here, even of the apartment buildings. They almost all seem fancy and built to last. It's so green!!

Accomodations: I've learned through traveling that you never assume anything. I'm always surprised different ways I learn this. For example, our apartment has a kitchen - very sparsely furnished - but no table or chairs! There is also a dearth of any kind of towels in the kitchen or bathroom. (Good thing we always bring a few towels, thanks to our lack of them in Tangier, Morrocco.) Also, this apartment has a very nasty couch. It's full disgustingness is made apparent when the kids take off the cushions to play with them which they do all the time. So gross! There's no vacuum cleaner or broom to clean. Also, this place doesn't have black out blinds so the kids woke up at 5am with the light! Then it doesn't get dark until 10 or so. Our kids are tired! We're loving London despite the few inconveniences.

June 29 2018
The British Museum - the Rosetta Stone! and lots of cool mummies (Brie was in heaven)

Yummy bakery - store attendant gave us 3 free raisin rolls for the kids! We tried a cinnamon social and a custard pastry that must've had almond oil because Spencer puked a bunch while we walked around.
Harry Potter Tour around London - cool, but was a lot of walking for our kids who had been walking all morning (our fault)
            Spencer reinacting Ron in Movie 5                              Inspiration for Diagon Alley
Bookstore to buy Harry Potter books 1-3
    - Spencer had a massive meltdown because we wouldn't buy him a stuffed Hedwig. Ugh.

June 30 2018
Dan bought aluminum foil and tape that blocked out a lot of natural light. So, for the first time since we got here, our kids woke up at 7am instead of 5am. This gave us a lot of hope for a better day with sickness and meltdowns. How foolish we were!
Tower Bridge: We arrived at the tower bridge around 10am. There were very few people which was great. Dan spent about an hour in the museum (it would've taken me 10 minutes but he's really into seeing how things work).                                                Kids reading while Dan nerded out

We then went up the bridge which, by then, had a long line and lots and lots of people. Talmage was mad because we made him be in a picture where we took a picture of everyone's feet over the glass floor looking onto the bridge below.

Then he wanted to go all the way down the tower alone instead of waiting at the top with the girls while we quickly saw the other walkway. Thus began a 3 tiered melt down, meaning he had three successive and massive meltdowns with like a 2 minute interlude. He was extremely loud, full on crying for about 40 minutes!!! We tried everything we could to get him to stop - empathizing, taking away Harry Potter reading time, begging, bribing, threatening - nothing worked. We got loads of stares! Trying to figure out what his power struggle is all about or if he's just deeply and emotionally disturbed.

Tower Bridge, London

Buckingham Palace: We walked through Borough Market and tried some delicious fish and chips and juices. Yum! Such a unique and sensation-packed market! We then headed over to Buckingham Palace with a delightful stroll through the forest park there from the Green Park subway stop. It was i interesting to see Londoners sun bathing and picnicking on the brown grass. I guess you use what you have.

Buckingham Palace park

I walked around the big memorial in front of the palace (where Queen Victoria looks like she has black hair growing out of her nostrils) while the tired kids sat on the base of the fence with Dan. We stayed until the security guard told us the kids were setting off an alarm for climbing on the fence. It's kind of disappointing as far as palaces go; it's like an extended White House; nothing fancy.

Amy was nice enough to take several family pictures for us!

Richmond Park: We then began a painful two hour (should've been 50 min) journey to Richmond Park to meet Stevie's friend he's never met in person! Brianna left Spencer's backpack with the newly purchased Harry Potter books at the metro stop. When we went back for it, it was gone. Then Spencer began to cry because his stomach hurt so much. He cried and cried and cried - like Talmage, only not nearly so loud. We finally met up with Amy an hour late. She was super kind and treated us all to icecream (except Spencer who we tried to persuade to drink a Coke). We went to a little park where Spencer had a multi puking cleansing of the stomach. We walked around some and Spencer threw up even more. We saw a small herd of the royal deer. Allison ran after them like a hyena and Brianna followed suit with our sweet, new friend trying to call them back. They were breaking a well-known park rule and stressing out the deer to the point of aggressiveness. The kids got loads of stickers in their socks from trying to feed/hunt the deer. It was great.

Allison stalking the deer like a lion!

With Spencer going through intermittent fits of moaning, we decided it was time to leave. Amy was kind enough to give us a ride to a nearby train station which took a fraction of the time of the buses we took. She also told us about the Lost Items office which we went to and, to the kids jumping up and down for joy, found the backpack! We arrived home around 9:30pm. Man, traveling with kids is tough!!!