London Holiday Day 2 & 3

London Holiday Day 2

Philip and I woke around 8:15 and went down to join others at the hotel breakfast. After fortifying with the very English full breakfast of eggs, mushrooms, tomato, toast or croissant, fruit, bacon, and various other sides, we split up to each get in some places of interest. Drew, Tjitske, and Dad went off to see Baker Street and the Sherlock Holmes Museum while Bill, Joseph, Philip, and Mom went back to the Tower Bridge to walk across it. Abby and I set off for some London shopping!

Abby and I boarded the tube and got out at the Oxford Circus stop to see what was there for shops. We walked down a little bit of Oxford Street and part of Bond Street, stopping in at stores that caught our fancy. Sales were incredible, but we didn't find anything perfect to purchase. After about an hour of this, we once again got on the tube and headed down to Knightsbridge to visit the world famous Harrod's department store. This is apparently the largest in the world and is very elaborate in its decor. People (like us) do not go here to shop but rather to gawk. Clothing and accessories are multi-thousands of pounds and are from the highest end designers. The main attractions here though are the food halls and the Egyptian Hall and Escalator.


We entered the main door, held by a uniformed doorman, into the House of Luxury. Here Hermes scarfs were displayed in glass cases. We then went through a doorway on the right into another House of Luxury - this time handbags. The entire ceiling was elaborately carved and painted, and carved Egyptian tiles were around the upper walls. We then entered the first of the Food Halls - there are a bunch of them and each is elaborately decorated according to what is contained within. The Fruit & Veg hall had grape and vine chandeliers, the Tea and Coffee Hall had Chinese decor - lanterns, etc. Each food hall is the size of a small supermarket. After touring through all of them, we returned to the hall that had sandwiches and other prepared foods and chose a sandwich to share and some salmon sushi rolls.

It was also in this hall that I had my first ever sampling of haggis. Knowing what haggis was, I had no desire to try it in Scotland (or anywhere else) but there was a lady giving out samples in a cup and she claimed it was fresh lamb meat and very delicious. So I took a cup and gave it a try. This Haggis at least was not greasy or disgusting at all. It was very tasty served over taters and neeps. I saved the rest of the sample for Bill to try.

Then it was back to confectioneries to chose a treat for Abby. We then headed to the Escalators - five floors of them all stacked in an atrium with many Egyptian decorations. The bottoms of escalators were covered with mosaic tiles and if that wasn't enough to keep you interested as you rode up to the next floor, there were plenty of carvings and statues lining the walls. Abby and I rode up a few floors and then back down, enjoying the sights. We then exited via the crush of humanity in the Cosmetic and Perfumery section and headed to Trafalgar Square via the tube. We were all to meet up at Trafalgar to spend the afternoon touring the West Bank sights.

We met Bill and Mom and the boys near the doors of the National Gallery and found that they had a great time touring the Tower Bridge. Drew, Tjitske, and Dad showed up shortly after, having had a good time touring the Sherlock Holmes Museum and eating at a nearby cafe. We then all struck off through the square and down Whitehall. After reaching Big Ben and Parliament, we left Mom, Dad, Tjitske, and Drew at Westminster Abbey (we had just toured through in August) and headed back up, taking a leisurely tour around Parliament Square to take some more pictures.

Then it was a stop at the Horse Guards to snap pics and let the kids pet the horses. We went through the Horse Gate into the park behind to figure out what is was and caught the Horse Guard changing as we came back out. After walking all the way back up Whitehall, we headed to Starbucks off of Trafalgar Square and chilled out for a few minutes with our coffees and hot chocolates.

Then the five of us went to visit the National Gallery. This Gallery contains quite an astonishing collection of art. We started with the left side of the gallery, working through 15th and 16th century artists. The Kruppa Srs met up with us after a while and we whiled away some more time, hitting a good portion of the Impressionist rooms. Philip was getting very tired and cranky and had a few bad moments in the museum but Joseph and Abby did pretty well all in all, putting up with a more adult activity with the promise that they would get to go to the Science Museum the next day. I myself was very tired of walking and standing by the time we were all done. My personal take on the art was that some of the paintings I would view and not be particularly captured by, but then there were others that I would look at in astonished wonder - like how did he get that pink gown to shimmer?

We then collapsed in a tired and hungry stupor on a bench in the main hall of the gallery, waiting for a few minutes before heading out to dinner. It was a short walk down to the Texas Embassy where we guzzled down the iced tea. Tjitske and Drew joined us after a short wait and we found that they had gone into some War Museum and then into the western portion of St. James park, where hungry squirrels were aggressively looking for food. One particularly brave squirrel raced up Drew's trouser leg in search of food - I am thinking that lots of people feed the squirrels here, as they do the birds at Trafalgar Square (thank you Mary Poppins). Then it was back to the hotel, where the kids were divied up in the rooms and we all crashed in exhaustion.

London Holiday Day 3

Joseph was staying in our room that night, and we gave him permission to quietly play his DS if he woke up before us. The next morning, I stirred as he rustled a plastic bag to get to his DS. He then made a lot of noise getting up to use the toilet. I was laying there, waiting to go back to sleep, when it occurred to me that I didn't feel 6:30 or 7 AM tired but more like 8 or 8:30 AM tired. Since we were meeting up to go to the Science Museum at 9:45, I figured I should get up and look at the time. Hmm, it was 9:30!!! I quickly woke up Bill. Needless to say, it was a very late start for us. When we called over to the Kruppas, we found that Abby again was sick with a fever. So after eating breakfast as quickly as possible, everyone but Abby, Mom, and me set off for the Science Museum. Mom decided to stay in her hotel room with Abby that day, so I got ready and packed up all our stuff, took it over to the Kruppa's room and checked out (the Kruppas were staying another night to go to the airport the next day, while the rest of us were taking the train home).

I have to say that I myself was very tired that day - I wasn't too keen on standing and walking around all day, after two solid days of it. I got to the museum just in time to sit down for lunch! : ) After lunch I took Philip down to the exploration area for kids his age, where he spent an hour playing with this water contraption. Bill, Dad, and Joseph hit some more exhibits, while Tjitske and Drew took off for Buckingham Palace and other highlights they hadn't gotten to. At 3:30, I blissfully sank into the seat of the IMAX with Joseph, Philip, and Bill to watch Fly Me to the Moon - very cute animated movie about the lunar landing. After that, we went to get our coats - Bill and Philip leaving to go back to the hotel, and Joseph and I going back to watch another IMAX - Sea Monsters.

After Sea Monsters, we booked it to the tube to get to our restaurant to meet everyone on time. We found the restaurant easily and were hardly late, despite the tight amount of time to get there. There we celebrated Tjitske's birthday - New Year's Eve - and ate our Thai dinners, topping it off with lots of fried banana desserts. It was then a huge rush to get back to the hotel for our stuff and make our train home at St. Pancras. I was somewhat concerned about the timing - taking the Piccadilly line seems to be very time consuming because it is so far underground, and at St. Pancras, it is always a hike from the tube to the trains. We said our very sad goodbyes to the Kruppas at the tube station. The tube stopped for a bit on our way to St. Pancras, but fortunately got going without too much of a delay. And we were so quick getting from the tube to the trains at St. Pancras, that we ended up being a half hour early! The train ride home was fairly empty and we purchased some teas to settle our fried-banana-laden stomachs (oh, and scarfed down some cookies to help with that too) and enjoyed a nice ride home.

At home we did a quick unpacking and got the kids to bed and then ushered in the New Year watching Big Ben chime the hour and the London fireworks display over the London Eye. Happy 2009!!!!!!!!!