Author: magrilless

So, we’re ready to be traveling home now. We either timed it perfectly to leave Europe exactly when we tired of traveling abroad. Or about a week away from our travel date, whatever it might have been, we would have started getting excited about our return anyway.

However, of course we are still in London! A place people spend a year saving and planning to visit, many for less time than we even have left. So we can’t just spend our last days twiddling our thumbs, watching the clock tick down to our anticipated departure. Get out there and enjoy yourselves, you spoiled brats!

Bill took the girls on a sketch crawl at the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery one day. (There’s still boring things that have to happen, like Mom paying bills and buying train tickets and doing laundry, even on grand adventures.)

We went to the Tower of London, of course, to see the crown jewels, the fabled ravens, and carved graffiti up our eponymous tower. Bill and Maggie sketched one of the guards, showed him the results, and they got a wink! It was spectacular!

We walked over the Thames on the iconic Millennium Bridge.

And we walked under the Thames, through a ruddy long tunnel.

We played at playgrounds, found a wee farm in the city, and rode the Tube for cumulative hours.

Plus we found a whole slew of canal houseboats, and of course we indulged in high tea.

And now, tomorrow, finally, we are allowed to be only excited about our return to the States. We can wave goodbye to London knowing we did lots. And lots!

And then the heat descended. Which to normal people would mean time for air-conditioned museums or pools or cheese cave tours. But we already had a few reservations, things we had purchased tickets for way in advance knowing they were must-dos for us. So we soldiered on, stocking the fridge with cups of water and tea for our hot evening returns, resigning ourselves to paying 3 pounds for a scoop of ice cream (London is expensive!), and pouring pitchers of cold water over ourselves spread out on the cold tub porcelain.

For our 14th anniversary, Bill and I wanted to go to Kew, the Royal Botanical gardens. We figured there would be shady breezy walkways and carefully climate-controlled glass houses and fountains delicately misting us. Well, what we got was some sprinklers, at least.

And it was beautiful and interesting and educational and inspiring. And very hot. Guess what: the tropics (whose plants are contained in those beautiful glass houses) are actually really really hot places.

And we were introduced to a fascinating historical figure, Marianne North. In the mid-1800s, she traveled the globe alone for 15 years, painting plants in their natural settings. She created hundreds of canvases, all wonderfully detailed live stills (ask Bill the difference between those and still lifes), some of which documented heretofore unknown species. Then she built a house in Kew Gardens and mounted her works from floor to ceiling, side to side, on every wall. Bill has a new hero.

Next up, the London Eye. We were a little nervous this would be like standing in another small greenhouse with a bunch of strangers for half an hour. But the pods are air conditioned(!), and somehow we lucked out by having less than ten other people in with us. For such a touristy attraction (which you know we generally avoid), it was pretty awesome! We spied all sorts of places we had already visited, and scouted out the way to a splash pad too!

Then the highlight of the hot days: a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Globe! It was colorful, light-hearted, and fancifully staged, with audience participation! None of us were picked, but there was piñata smashing for a couple lucky kiddos, a stage role for a random groundling (in Pyramus and Thisbe), and lots of squirt gun action, finger-pointing, and water-bottle filching. Plus, we stayed behind afterward and met much of the cast, including Queen Titania, whose costume Maggie sketched during the performance. An amazing inaugural Shakespeare experience for the girls!

When got home that night, there was a big windy thunderstorm, the heat broke, and the city was washed clean. Now we only have a few days left. Time to wait out our time while also resolving to make the most of it! Part III coming up!

So we’ve been in London for, like, a long time now. Actually only about a week. But it’s been so jam-packed, and so different from itself at some points, that it’s getting hard to actually remember everything we’ve done so far!

Must be time to put it all down before we forget completely. I feel like our time has been divided into three parts: comfortable and exciting, then sweltering but still fun. Lastly bearable again, but we’re getting anxious to be home! So let’s start at the very beginning. (“A very good place to start.” Oh wait, the Sound of Music was Salzburg. Sorry.)

We left Oxford in the pouring rain. (And actually Bill had to run an hour to the station soaking wet because we only had enough cash for 3 bus tickets. Our hero!) We layered our sweatshirts and rain jackets and walked through the bustling streets of the big city (and it feels big!) to the nearest reasonably priced restaurant. There we waited out the heaviest of the rain before paying a quick call on Sherlock Holmes. The museum had a high price of admission and a long queue, so we just left a message for the detective at 221b Baker St. with the Constable.

It felt good to arrive at our last Airbnb of the year and settle in one last time! Although, this one is a bit of an adventure. We have decided to think of it as camping. We “shower” with a pitcher in the tub, gently usher out the frequently visiting cat (whom we have named The Borg), and walk sideways around the tightly packed furniture which has been upholstered with a stapler.

But we’re here to see the city, right?! So first day we tried the British Museum, whose atrium is spectacular! But it was so packed with people that we were constantly jockeyed around and couldn’t read any of the information. Plus, they had run out of children’s guides(!).

So we headed out to take our chances on the streets. What we do best! Wandering through neighborhoods playgrounds to massive Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens was much more up our alley.

We tried the tourist thing again on Sunday, heading to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards. Knowing that the actual palace was going to be a zoo, we opted to watch the mounted guards down the road instead. We popped in to peek at the palace an hour after the changing ceremony, and we were able to elbow our way through to try to spy the Queen peeking through the drapes. (No such luck.)

Then we happened upon a 7-story toy store in the middle of a street fair. There were many temptations, but we escaped having only purchased some eclairs and two journals. Whew!

The last day of forecasted good weather, we headed to Greenwich, where there are several good big free museums and a large park dating from Henry VIII’s time. In fact, the Queen’s House there is where Elizabeth I was born! And the beautiful spiral staircase has no central support. So cool!

We also got to step over the Prime Meridian, see the clock keeping Greenwich Mean Time, and watch the ball drop. (No, not for New Year’s. The Royal Observatory has a big red ball on top so ships in the Thames can set their chronometers to correct GMT. It rises at 12:55 every day, and drops exactly at 13:00.)

So thankful our first couple days were so pleasant! The next few were forecasted to be scorchers, and they did not disappoint. Stay tuned for Part II!

Oxford (the town of the famed University) is a fun little place to visit. If you’re over 30 and have some disposable cash. Or probably if you’re a college student attending the school. If you’re a kid, or a parent who likes your kids to have fun, well … good luck. We were turned away multiple times because the minimum age to visit something was 10 or 11.

And the city center is beautiful, of course, but much of the beauty is tucked behind tall buff walls guarded by stern admission guards. Outside those walls, the town is a bit gritty and widely littered, with few playgrounds for kids older than toddlers.

We always find a way though! We discovered a fun (and free) natural history museum where you could touch a lot of stuff and with an adjoining building stuffed full of curiosities (think shrunken heads and a witch in a bottle and a rattle made out of puffin beaks).

Plus we joined a walking tour where we learned a lot about the university. Like that the 39 colleges are more like dorms or Hogwarts houses, and not necessarily indicative of your course of study. Also that each college has its own tortoise and they hold an exceptionally boring race once a year (one animal was victorious so many times that she was actually stolen by a rival college). We also got some wonderful literary information, as Lewis Carroll, CS Lewis, and JRR Tolkein were residents when they authored their famous works.

And we did manage to sneak in to a college one day. We figure they’re all similarly special on the inside of their walls: own church, own gardens, own living apartments, own dining hall, own aura of privacy and exclusivity.

Really, the highlight of our week was probably the bus ride into town every morning where we sat at the front top of the double-decker, white knuckled as the driver expertly maneuvered through tight and crowded streets. Not once did we ever hit a bicyclist or street lamp or neighboring bus, but it always looked inevitable!

Maggie has designs to attend Oxford University now. So stay tuned in about 10 years for the post about her college from an insider’s perspective!

As I said, we specifically stayed in the region so we could hop on a little train and speed up to Edinburgh a few times. Our day trips were magical (literally)!

Because we took a Harry Potter tour to orient ourselves in the city. JK Rowling was inspired by locations in the city, wrote the books in cafes, stalked the cemetery, and lives there still. So there was plenty to learn about! And we got to learn a few spells on the way too!

And although we’d planned on visiting the castle too, 65 pounds to be out in the rain seemed a bit to much for us. So we visited an optical illusions museums and wandered instead. Edinburgh is an absolutely beautiful city.

I think we would have been able to fill our days easily had we stayed in the city. As it is, our few trips make Edinburgh feel even more special and leave us with more to look forward to. When we come back for Maggie’s wedding, we’ll have lots to still see!