London Part Two

The next part of our London saga was to see "Wicked". I have seen it before with my sisters, but Mark hadn't. So a few months back, we planned to take a few days in his half term break and go see the show and then spend the night in London and explore the next day. This we did and had a blast! We also walked over half of London, so I feel I got my exercise in. There is so much to see and do in London and, aside from the cost of getting there, it is largely free!! So on this trip we went to the Imperial War Rooms, the Victoria and Albert Museum and into the world's largest toy store. The pictures I took of the war rooms are largely for my dad and other history geeks. If any of my former students are looking at this: be jealous. Be VERY jealous. :) (Which you should be since history is the best subject as I'm sure you all remember.)

As we arrived, this is what greeting us outside the station. I was seeing pink elephants? Already??!??  :)

British naval guns outside the museum.

Full shot of the front of the museum to give you an idea of the size  of  these guns

This is me, looking rather pleased with myself for being there. (I was)

Mark likes the guns

More size scope. Yes, I could basically STAND inside that thing!

If you look up as you walk into the museum, behold the Spitfire

No, I don't know what sort of gun it is. I just know it's WWI vintage and cool

This is Tirpitz the pig. He was onboard a British ship in WWI that was hit and yet he survived, swimming in the ocean.  A sailor jumped in and saved him and he became their mascot for the rest of the war. He lived beyond that in a zoo I think to a ripe old age and was stuffed upon death and given to the museum. I thought this was great. 

Really fabulous painting of the Treaty of Versailles

The enigma machine. History people should know what this is.

More great weaponry. 

I loved this inspirational poster. If I was still teaching, I would totally have bought a replica for my class. :)

This my friends, is the Rolls Royce engine used in the fighter planes. 

And THIS, this nearly had me keeled over I was so impressed. It is indeed the Eagle from above the Reichstag when Berlin was taken by the Allies. You can see the bullet hole in its wing. Whew!

Harry Potter fans would know which film this shows up in. But I think St. Pancreas station is lovely without being in movies. :)

Since I taught Peter, I had to take this for him. 

This theatre was fantastic!!!

Mark and I had a lovely Italian dinner before the show,   and decide to get TWO packages of cookies from Marks and Spencer for dessert. No regrets!! :)

The dragon above the stage

And you can sort of see how cool this theater was. 

This is the giant statue in St. Pancreas of two people meeting after a journey. I really like it a lot

There are loads of fabulous bakeries in the UK. This one made me think of my own wedding (colors) but also of Kathryn, so the next shot is for her too.

All of this is edible by the way. Spun sugar flowers and edible gilt. Wow.

And this part is for the kids! This is the world's largest toy store with five floors of joy! This bear said hi when we came in.

This was a section on the girls floor. Naturally I took this picture for Amara and Madeline. :)

And look who I found you guys! I was riding the escalator up to the boy's floor and there was Wall E! He's very nice and he said to say hello to Hobbes, Madeline, Amara and Asa. He'd like you to come visit him soon!

Mark and I have started getting into the habit of bread and cheese for lunch on outings like this.  This is one of our favorite combos: White stilton with cranberries. Mmmmm.....

And Mark's happy. (Food has this effect on him)

These pigeons are sitting on the park bench. I thought that was OUR job. They're also grossly fat.

I don't know what it is with me and pink elephants, but it seemed chiastically appropriate that we saw one upon leaving London. :)

London Part One:

So we recently made not one, but TWO, yes two ladies and gentlemen, jaunts into London in the space of two days! :) Many of our English friends thought we were insane (possible) but as an American and Irishman respectively, we pooh poohed this perspective and jaunted happily. The first jaunt was a Saturday and we went expressly to meet up with Brooke and Dan as we felt it had been too long since we'd seen each other. As they live in Cambridge, and we live in Bristol, London is the best place to meet up. I use the term 'best' rather loosely as we would all far rather meet up in say, Oxford but according to everyone over here, London is the black hole of transport. Oh, don't get me wrong: the airport is one of the best in world and if you've been through it, you already know it is not the black hole. No, I am referring to the insanity that is the British rail system. Due to many complicated and hard to understand reasons (they don't get them either, so don't feel badly) there is no direct rail link from Bristol to Cambridge. In fact to get from the west side of the country to the east side, one HAS to go through London. Just how they did it. This has led me to speculate frequently as to how the British get ANYWHERE (their roads are better but still odd) but then it is these little oddities for which we love them. No one does anything about the appallingly out of date state of the rail network because that would mean a politician sacrifices his current popularity for something that has long term future generation benefits. Okay, sorry about that rant on rails; I just finished a book called Eleven Minutes Late, about the history of how the British rail network came to be. I promise, it's not boring. But you are left wondering if the British will continue to use a system from 1914 until it just falls apart and they have to replace the whole thing!!

So anyway, we met up with Brooke and Dan and had a grand time in the London drizzle. Well, we didn't stay in the drizzle, we went into the National Gallery since it's free and dry. But we did have fun casually 'meeting up' in front of Buckingham Palace. It is useful. :) So here is London Part One in pictures: 

Brooke posed for me in Trafalgar Square. If you peak over her umbrella, Queen Victoria is watching you.

And there she is unobstructed

Do they look English or what? (Well Daniel is so.....)

These are statues of Queen Elizabeth and King George VI. After seeing the King's Speech and adoring it, I felt it was right that we stop and pay a bit of homage here.

I just love the lions in Trafalgar and can't resist taking their picture

The fountain is also quite nifty

What are they all looking at you ask? An Asian church in a side street. 

Do I need to explain this? It's just cool

So we went to a burger place for dinner and I looked up to see a picture of my parents back in the....well a decade beyond memory. :)

That is exactly what it looks like:  a giant ship in a giant bottle. 

My awesome mood shot of Brooke and Dan in rain with bus in background. 

Lions! (Wouldn't it be cool if they came alive at night like Night in the Museum?)

We popped into this church where this fantastic group was practicing Vivaldi. It was amazing. 

Adventures in England Part One

So, I decided that I would start posting some blogs just for my nieces and nephews every so often. I've been told I need to post more often (Kajsa! :)) which is very true and then I thought, I should do some just for Asa, Amara, Hobbes and Madeline. So without further ado, here is my first blog for the kids.

Uncle Mark and Aunt Carolyn live in a country called England. This country is very old, very rainy, and they have a Queen instead of a president, which is definitely an improvement. :) This country is almost the same size as the state you live in.

This is the big church spire in Bristol where Mark and Carolyn live

They also live near the Atlantic Ocean (have your Mom and Dad show you on a map) This means that they have a harbor near the city with lots of boats. This is a very pretty sailboat

In England, the mailboxes are red and they are called 'post' boxes. Can you see where you put the letters? 

This big red bus is a very normal way for people to get places in England. They drive cars as well, but they have many more buses than we do in America! This bus has two levels! It is quite fun to ride on the top and look down on all the other cars. 

This is Paddington Bear. He lives at Paddington Station in London. Mark and Carolyn stopped to say 'hi' on their way to see the Newmans.

In October, Mark and Carolyn went across the English Channel to see Paris, France. This is a famous tower there called Eiffel. Aunt Nambi likes things from Paris. 

These leaves were very pretty on some steps in Paris.

Mark and Carolyn met this frog in Paris. He is very large. And green. What do you think his name should be? 

Uncle Mark likes ices cream a LOT. This is in Rome Italy. Italy is a country that looks like a boot. Aunt Carolyn loves Italy. 

But she also loves to come home to Bristol for a cup of tea. English people really like tea. Have you tasted tea? You should ask your Mom and Dad if you can try it! The English like to have biscuits with tea. We call biscuits cookies in America. Love you all! I shall tell you about London next time!