There & Back Again

Kevin here.

A few of you know this already, but I purposed before leaving on our trip that I would get up most mornings -- before Kelly and the kids were up -- to explore London on foot.

And that I did.  There is really nothing like learning a place by getting out and about for an hour or two when possible.  You learn things that you can't really learn otherwise.  You learn the rhythms of the people that live there, the people that open and close their stores, when the trash gets picked up, what a place looks like before tourists arrive, etc.  It's interesting stuff, I think.  In fact,  I had hoped to post a blog entry with pictures for every walk.  But that turned out to be way too much work.  So I'll take some time to hit some of the highlights of my morning walks here in London.

During the first few days of London, we were put up temporarily in a different flat than the one we expected.  We were a bit disappointed at first since we were ready to get settled after spending 10 days on the road in Scotland.  Nevertheless, being in this other area -- Chelsea and Kensington -- afforded a couple of great morning walks.  One of my favorite places I visited during these first few days was an old, old graveyard off Old Brompton Road.  Spooky and atmospheric, it felt like something out of a Jack-the-Ripper movie. The picture doesn't do it justice.  Further research tells me that it's been used as a set in several of the more recent Sherlock Holmes movies.  And that Beatrix Potter once trolled the headstones of this cemetery for ideas for character names.

Brompton Cemetery

Apparently, something called "anti-climb" paint is popular in London as a way to prevent people from climbing over gates and fences.  I felt it.  It feels like regular paint, nothing slippery about it.  Does it really work?  Dunno.  Regardless, I saw signs like the below often in London.

Does this work? I would just stick with the metal spikes.

Once we moved into our more "permanent" digs in the Fitzrovia area, I decided to go in a different direction most every day.  On some days, that turned out to be a poor choice: not much to see but miles of stores.  Some places in London look no different than your average American Mall.

But other sections look like this, a beautiful old building along Russell Square, near the British Museum:

Along Russell Square, near the British Museum

I spent quite a bit of time over here.  It's a beautiful area -- called Bloomsbury -- and a bit more residential.  The centerpiece of the area (aside from the British Museum) is a lovely little park called Russell Square.  Embarrassingly, I can't seem to find my pictures of Russell Square.  Disappointing.  Nevertheless, it was a great spot to sit, watch the fountain, journal, reflect.

Bloomsbury also has a great history of literature and arts, in the sense that many great writers and artists once lived and worked in this area.  Several of the flats around Russell Square were marked as such:

The flat in Bloomsbury where Virginia Wolf once lived.

The artist Randolph Caldecott's old flat.

I saw a similar sign for George Orwell out in Notting Hill.

Closer to our flat in Fitzrovia, there was this spooky "close" or alley that I enjoyed taking when going anywhere eastward.  Once in here, you would think you were back in the 1600's.  I loved taking this route.

Newman Close off Newman Road.

One of my chief disappointments in the UK is to find that many of the local pubs do not allow children in.  Apparently there is a special license they have to have to let kids in when alcohol is served on the premises, and many pubs just don't bother.  The closest pub in fact -- a popular one called The One Tun -- wouldn't let us in when we had the kids with us (which was almost all of the time).  However, there was one just down the street -- the Fitzrovia -- that was licensed.  So, we ate here a couple of times.  Good folks, at the Fitzrovia:

Our pub, the Fitzrovia.

Most of my walks were close to our flat.  But a couple of times I took the Underground to get a bit farther from home.  One day included a pretty cool walk over Tower Bridge:

Tower Bridge.  Lots of car traffic on Tower Bridge in the morning.

Another day I took off (on foot, about a 25 minute walk) down to the Thames.  That included going through Trafalgar Square and seeing Nelson's Column.  Cool stuff.


These morning walks were one of my favorite things to do.  And I can't wait to repeat this in Paris.  We'll be there soon for the month of May.  I hear it's an even better place to explore on foot.  Expect a gratuitous amount of pictures.

Kevin Here.

One day in cloudy London, while we were shivering in the damp waiting for a bus, suddenly the heavens parted and sun began to shine and warmed us up considerably.  Our dispositions changed noticeably.  Just then, a gentlemen standing near us remarked:  "there are two Londons.  The one in the shadows and the one in the sunlight."

After spending three weeks there during late March through mid-April, we can verify that.  I'm not sure we've had any days where we could venture outside without our coats and/or jackets.  Regardless, the difference between London in the shade and London in the sun is remarkable.  The temperature varies 10-15 degrees easily.  It was often that we would find ourselves crossing a street just so that we could walk down the other side in the sunlight.

But there is also a difference between London during the day and London at night.  It's a big, noisy city with something always happening.  So it was with a sense of fun and expectation that we decided to use one of our last nights in London to journey down by the Thames together and take a walk around.

Once again, we hit the Tube.  It was almost always the Tube for us.  The closest tube station to us is Goodge Street.  And, of course, the Underground in London goes just about anywhere you want to go.  So, we headed on down to Embankment, near the London Eye to walk along the Thames down towards Parliament.

It's a beautiful stroll, plenty of people out and about.  Here's a bit of what we saw.

The view to the north, towards St.  Paul's Cathedral, from one of the foot bridges over the Thames.

The London Eye.

As always, it was cold.  So we grabbed some hot chocolate.

Our final stop:  pictures of an illuminated Parliament and Big Ben.







Good times.  And as usual, the highlight for the kids was the hot chocolate.  Hey... whatever it takes.

Kevin here.  On one particular day in London, we attempted to visit the London Natural History Museum.  For the second time.  On both this occasion and the previous attempt, the line to get into this (reportedly) great, free museum stretched out for longer than we were willing to wait with three kids.  One side affect of choosing to go to England during Easter is that British kids have a 2-week long break around Easter weekend.  And during that break, many parents throughout Britain travel on holiday, and often take their kids to London; and, of course, it's free museums.  The place was packed.

So, twice thwarted, we gave up and decided to take a 15-minute walk northwards towards Hyde Park, one of London's great green spaces.  Rain threatened, but up to that point it had been a beautiful -- if a bit chilly -- day.

From a bridge in Hyde Park, overlooking the Serpentine lake.

Kelly and Anna among the Hyde Park flowers.

One of the great things about the Serpentine lake in Hyde Park is that you can take a boat out on it.  We opted for a 6-passenger foot paddle boat (as opposed to row boats).  The woman who sold us the tickets admonished us to "be quick about it before it rains."

This was great fun and we all loved it.  Each of the kids was adamant about helping to provide foot-power and steer so Kelly and I reluctantly (hah!) let each take turns being in the back of the boat.  I got us going, then Justin and Daniel took over.  Anna was unhappy with this arrangement, since she wanted to be one of the first kids.  But she got her chance (much to her dismay).

The boys paddle.  Anna pouts because she wanted to do it too.

Anna happier now since she got a turn to paddle.

"This is harder than I thought."  Anna tries her hands instead.

My lovely wife enjoyed relaxing and feeding various waterfowl.

"Here ducky ducky ducky..."

A duck and a Swan heed the call.

Great fun!  If you ever get a chance to go to Hyde Park, check out a paddle boat!

The happy family

Now, for most families, boating the Hyde would be more than enough fun and excitement for one day. But, not us.  No way.  We're not your average family (I heard that snicker).  What's a visit to London without also heading to the West End to see a musical!

So after resting a bit in the afternoon, we set off on the tube again to the Apollo Victoria theater theatre in the West End to see Wicked!

At the theater, uh, theatre.  Showtime!

In our seats for the show.

Wicked! was great fun.  Our seats were quite good and they even provided cushions for the kids to sit on to improve their view.  The kids all had a great time watching the show and were spellbound throughout (Heh.  See what I did there?).  Seriously, they really got into it: bright eyes, mouths wide open.  Certain parts were a bit hard to follow for them (especially since it presents a somewhat alternative history to The Wizard of Oz that they know so well), but we guided them through it and they loved it.  Another great day during our time in London.

Kevin here.  One thing I was particularly excited about when planning our trip to London was realizing that we would be here over the Easter holidays.  And that the Easter holidays would include the 158th edition of the Oxford-Cambridge rowing race.  Or... as they call it:  "The Boat Race."

Now, it's not like I'm a great fan of rowing.  But still. This is a grand tradition between two of the oldest universities in the world.  I like tradition.  So... off we went!

First, a couple of tube rides to get to Putney Bridge on the River Thames.  Putney Bridge is where the race -- 4 miles or so long -- begins (and also where we ventured to to see Fulham play at Craven Cottage).

Then we find a place near the starting line at the bridge.  Now The Boat Race is a big event in London.  Some 250,000 people line the river to watch.  Parties, hanging out in pubs, etc.  Lots of people. We even saw the Goodyear Blimp high overhead (which the kids thought was cool that it came all the way from America. :-) )

Everyone is ready at the starting line.

It was cold.  But my wife remained chipper, as always!

Oxford and Cambridge both line up:



And they're off!

Oxford takes the lead early.

It's pretty cool stuff.  At least for about the first 45 seconds.  Then, like any distance race that you are watching in person... well, they keep on going way past you off into the distance where you can no longer see what's happening.   Pretty anti-climatic.

A flotilla of judges and VIPs follows after the racing boats.

Nevertheless, the kids were great sports about being out in the cold and watching two boats from schools they don't care about race in a sport that have no interest in.  I teased them that perhaps one day they'll be back here on the banks of the Thames to root on their alma mater!


By the way:  Cambridge won in a bizarre finish that included a protester jumping into the Thames to disrupt the race and Oxford breaking an ore.  If you're interested:  read the results.

Ok.. here is about 40 seconds of video I shot.  It's not edited or anything, but might give you an idea of what it's like to be there at the start of this big event!

Kevin here.  As I think we've mentioned in the past, we threw dozens of ideas of things to do in London out to the kids and let them decide some of what we would go see.  They each got to pick two.   Their choices:

Kevin here.  OK, this post on a recent trip to the London Zoo will be short.  Here's why:  I wasn't there.

I guess every zoo has a merry-go-round?  Is that some kind of international law?

The kids loved this:  A big bird play structure where kids pulling on it could make it flap its wings.

Penguins are BIG at the London Zoo

Anna loved the Penguins.  And points out the only non-Penguin in sight.

Some bizarre kind of English stripped horse.  Odd.

In case you haven't noticed:  virtually every picture of us has us in our coats.  Taking this trip in the off season gives you a clue as to why it's the off season.  It's chilly here.  We look forward to what we hope is milder weather in Paris in May.

Kevin here.  This will be a quick hit.  Mostly because we didn't take very many pictures.  But, regardless of that, it's worthy of special mention.

One of the things that we did during our time in London was visit the London Science Museum.  And it turned out to be one of the kids favorite things.  They begged to go back, but we never had time.

Like most museums in London, the Science Museum is free.  Sure, they hit you up for a donation at the door, but you still get in whether you give or not. :-)

But I have to say that this is one of the finest science and technology museums I have ever been to.  It's over 150 years old but continues to be upgraded and refined.  It houses some fascinating scientific devices from the past several hundred years.  Think astrolabes, telescopes, and whatnot -- all hundreds of years old.  Beautiful pieces.  They have more modern inventions too, such as one of the first microchips from Gordon Moore of Intel fame.

But what the kids loved best was the floor full of interactive science displays and experiments.

Anna learns about burglar alarms.  Hmm......

Anna instructs Daniel on how she intends to pursue a life of crime.

Justin works with blocks to see how far he can balance and extend them.

Anna being Anna.

More experiments for Justin, these involving the viscosity of liquids. Viscosity, I say!  Well done!

Again, a great museum.  Probably my third favorite after the British Museum and the National Maritime Museum.  Definitely worth another visit on our next trip, especially if we have the kids with us.