London adventures

January 3, 2013 Happy New Year!!! We are now settled into our flat in Kensington, London, UK! So cool. Before I write about our Norway trip, I want to summarize our whirlwind visit in London. We'd heard that to beat jet lag we should keep awake the whole day, so that's why we bought the London Passes, to help us keep busy. We headed downtown. Erik, Andrew and Bryn were especially good at figuring out which tube lines to get on and which stops to get off at. The rest of us just followed them. We made quite a scene, I'm sure. All 8 of us in a bunch. The double decker buses are part of the regular mass transit system, so we got to ride on several of them. Such fun to ride in the top-a better view by far. Our first activity was a boat tour on the Thames. It was such a gorgeous sunny day, quite unusual for mid-December. Our guide was a funny character and made the tour even more entertaining. It was so cool to see lots of sites that you've seen in movies or books: the London Eye, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, the Globe Theater, etc. I can't remember the order of the rest of the activities, I'm sure if I looked at my photos I could figure it out, but oh well. We went to St Paul's cathedral, of course climbing to the Whisperer's level and the top viewing area. We got to the top just about at sunset, gorgeous. We went to the Tower museum, started out on a tour, but didn't have time to finish with that-saw the crown jewels and lots of interesting things. I am looking forward to having more time there when others come to visit. We also walked across the top of the Tower bridge, interesting displays there too. One of our tube stops was at King's cross to see Platform 9 3/4, of Harry Potter fame. Ryan and Emily each got wands there! We went to Portabello Road, remember that from the movie "Bedknobs and Broomsticks. It's got lots of antiques shops and other unique stores all up and down. Andrew and Emily got some scarves there and Kari and I got postcards. We went to the Christmas Market along the Thames. I bought some yummy licorice, similar to the kind at the Markets in Australia, not quite as good, but close! The kids played some free video games that came with the London pass while several of us were at the market. Another free thing that came with the pass was a movie, most of us went to "The Life of Pi"-3D, very good and thought provoking. One morning the 6 kids went on a 3 hour bike tour of the city, they really enjoyed that. While they did that, Erik and I went to Leicester Square and got discount tickets for a musical. We went to Warhorse and really loved it (except Bryn who was so tired and kept falling asleep). Everyone but me went to The Crypts under the London Bridge, like a haunted house. I went across the way to the Southwark Cathedral and heard a boys choir rehearsing for evensong-beautiful. We enjoyed several meals in London: Wagamama-fancy yummy ramen, etc. A very nice Indian restaurant and pizza-quite different, but good. The rest of the time we just grabbed from shops/stands as we went. It was really enjoyable all being in London together, what fun kids we have and such good travelers. The last day it was dreary and rainy so we went to Herrod's - a huge department store with expensive items. Quite an experience. Thankfully, Erik reserved us a van to get to the Gatwick airport, which is about an hour away. So much nicer than hauling all our bags to the tube. On to the Northern homeland!