London: day 5

A rest day—or at least a half rest day—was definitely called for, at least for myself. And so it was just in time that the kiddos were headed to the Making of Harry Potter Studio Tour Monday afternoon. Henry and I had opted out of this trip highlight when we saw the price tag (although I probably would have enjoyed it). It also required an hour-long tube/train ride, so we had plenty of time to rest and recuperate by ourselves.

But we started off the morning at the lovely Fulham Palace, just a short walk from our Airbnb. The gates to the grounds are in the picture above. There are some gardens, too, with more of the gorgeous roses we've gotten used to seeing and smelling...

It's certainly not as impressive as some of the palaces we were to see later on, but it's still worth visiting, actually free, and easy to access.

courtyard entrance

obligatory chapel

There were also fun activities built in for the kiddos: mainly, looking in all the Palace's rooms for little mice. Here's one tucked into some fine woodwork:

Give these kids a mission, and they are all over it!

girls in the garden looking forward to Harry Potter

After they departed, I had a very welcome nap (when I'm home alone I nap almost every afternoon, but so far in England I'd had none!). But Henry and I couldn't completely shut down the sight-seeing imperative, and took a stroll in our lovely Fulham neighborhood.

First stop was the local team's home ground. (Here's a blog post from 2008 when I was actually inside.)

The sign shows their next match, which was set to happen after we've left the area. There was all kinds of construction going on around the stadium, possibly involving a new hotel? condos? apartments? built into it, taking advantage of its prime Thames-front location (and apparently doing away with traditional stands on that side of the pitch):

But there's still plenty of club history on display:

read about the Johnny Haynes stands here

A walk around the grounds finds you at the Thames path, which affords an extremely pleasant way to find your way home. Before you get back to the busy Fulham Palace Road, there's one of the ubiquitous handsome London churches—this one is All Saints Fulham. We got into kind of a dead end in their cemetery, since it was too late for all the gates to be open. But there were still photo opps!

serene All Saints cemetery

We still had some time before the kids returned from their adventures, and were able to have a nice, quiet dinner on Fulham High Street, and even watch some BBC4 back at the Airbnb. A well-deserved and needed rest day, to save up for more strenuous activities tomorrow.

London: day 4

Today was iconic London landmarks day. First stop: Trafalgar Square. [Note, again, the gorgeous weather.]

We started off (after the obligatory, and entertaining, transportation) with a stroll around this wonderful urban space, skipping going inside anywhere, like the National Gallery in the background above...

...or the musically famous St. Martin in the Fields (maybe once it was in the fields?).

But the lions, Admiral Nelson, and all the steps and ramps, provided ample entertainment for our kid-centric morning.

Especially since we had more on our schedule and had to find a place for lunch. We hit upon another fantastic food court, 7 Dials Market in Covent Garden, to fill that need. Which it did, admirably [my choice of Nigerian cuisine, in honor of favorite fake soccer player Sam Obisanya, was particularly tasty].

The kids all found food to their liking, too...

...although one of our party found the whole affair rather exhausting...

Continuing on though the iconic Covent Garden, we happened upon a top-notch string quartet taking advantage of the main court's acoustics, and had to stop for a listen:

Then on to the main attraction of the day:

The grandchildren who've been studying up on their English history were particularly interested in seeing where all those people got beheaded. But the whole grounds are pretty entertaining, as well as some of the exhibits...

note the West Ham gear

And of course the grounds and buildings offer so many photo opps! Thanks to Henry for these well-composed shots:

White Tower through an arch

Crown Jewels tower from inside the White

However, partly since I'd seen it all before, partly because the Beefeaters are just a little too cheesy, partly because it was really hot (probably not more than 80° but it felt hotter), and partly because I was just about running on tourist fumes by this point in the vacation—well, I think I've seen enough of the Tower. But the kids enjoyed it.

Part-rest-day coming up next! And it was much needed. But I'll still have some stuff to show you.

London: day 3

Our third day was much anticipated by all of us football fans. We were going to an English Premier League game! Our final destination is shown above, West Ham's London Stadium (more about the odd structure on the right later).

But in our typical fashion, we were able to combine some fun transportation options to get all the way across town to the game. First up, we caught the first Thames "Uber" boat leaving from Putney Pier, conveniently just upstream from our good ol' Putney Bridge:

We took this relaxing mode of transport all the way to Greenwich, seeing plenty of great sights along the way...

Victoria Tower and Houses of Parliament

RAF memorial: Per ardua ad astra

The "Shard"

Tower Bridge (much more about this icon in a later post)

Plus, it was just fun to ride the comfy boat (complete with loo and refreshment stand) and not have to make bus-tube connections...

Unfortunately we didn't have time to do any sightseeing in Greenwich, but we did get to take the under-Thames tunnel from the south to the north bank...

...where we caught a couple of Ubers (cars this time) to the Stadium—or at least to the vicinity of the stadium: on game days streets for blocks around are closed to vehicles, because people take mass transit and walk the last bit! What a concept!

An English friend meeting us for the game told us about a great lunch dining option right next to the stadium: the View Tube. Good food and great pre-game atmosphere—we saw no fights between West Ham and Nottingham Forest supporters, just a good time being had by all.

And a happy surprise for our Maine contingent: they featured beer from Portland!

Heading to the stadium, we even braved the crowds in the team store, and several of the grandkids came away with West Ham swag—they might have become Hammers fans for life now!

this was taken before the shop stop

This being West Ham's last home game of the season, there was a healthy crowd and it was so fun to be in a space with so many kindred-spirit-football-fans...

For those of my readers familiar with Premier League teams, you might ask if we saw the bubbles—yes, we did! There are bubble machines all around the pitch and they put them out in strength before the game and before the second half while they sing the "Forever blowing bubbles" song. Here's the official scoop on why this distinctly un-football-related song is sung, complete with bubble accompaniment at all West Ham home games. A wonderful example of the weirdness of sports  .

bubbles before the second half

More history: they're called the "Hammers" because their club was initially a company club of the Thames Ironworks, back in the late 19th century.

And as, almost everywhere you go in the U.K., there is a WWI memorial; a supporters' club must have enlisted en masse...

Now, about that intriguing structure outside the stadium that was in my first pic. It turned out to be much too intriguing for some of our party, as they opted to ride the slide that comes down it. You can see how crazy this notion is when you look at where the red lines are pointing in the picture here. That silver twisting tube is the slide!

All three of these brave and crazy folks (two dads and a just-barely-tall-enough granddaughter!) said it was terrifying. No duh! But they're glad they did it.

The whole structure was designed, they learned, by the same genius who gave us the "Bean" in Chicago. And it is very impressive as a sculpture. It wasn't built for the Hammers, but rather for the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, when London hosted the Olympics in 2012. This park abuts the stadium, where some Olympic events took place. The slide's official name is the Arcelormittal Orbit and it's touted as the longest and tallest tunnel slide—in. the. world. What a feather in the cap of those kids crazy enough to ride it!

After this breathtaking adventure, the tube ride home was pretty tame, especially since by the time we boarded the crowds from the game had thinned out considerably. Whew! What a whirlwind day! 

London: day 2

The last time we were in London, there were some sights we missed. So some of these made our must-see list this time, and one of the top items was the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.

Getting there involved a bus, then a rather long tube ride, but it was well worth it. Although I was a little disappointed in the few flower gardens we were able to explore (kids considered them boring) the stupendous trees more than made up for it.

They were all so tall! Amazing what ample rainfall will do for flora. One of the main attractions is a canopy walk that puts you up near the tops of some of these beauties...

But even just the surface walkways gave us fantastic views. And just being able to stroll around such astounding greenery was so very calming, even relaxing, in spite of the fact that a lot of walking was involved—it's an enormous garden! I'm sure there were acres and acres we didn't even get to.

A favorite tree was the Monkey Puzzle; it's dark-needled conifer in this picture:

But one prize specimen got special treatment; this very interesting video, called "Of the Oak," celebrates "the oak tree as a network of relationships." (You can learn more about the video here.) Both kids and adults enjoyed the video...

...as well as appreciating the specific ancient tree the art installation refers to. It's the Lucombe Oak, #1 in the list of "standout trees at Kew" on the webpage I've linked to here. It has a rather interesting history, probably being planted in the late 1700's!

We did walk through the famous Palm House that you can see in the pic at the top of the post. Here's another shot of this most photogenic structure from another angle:

But we couldn't spend much time in there—my word! It's supposed to duplicate a rainforest environment, and it certainly does. The heat and humidity almost did us in!

Another feature of the place was more welcoming: their Family Kitchen and Shop, which presented us with our preferred dining option for lunch—the food court. It provided welcome sustenance and a chance to rest tired legs for a while, although our time there wasn't without incident: ask any of our grandchildren about Grampa and the exploding tomato!

We had a time constraint in the afternoon, needing to get back to a neighborhood pub where we'd made a reservation to have dinner and watch a very exciting FA Cup final. A satisfying result, a satisfying meal, and entertainment for the kiddos at the Temperance Pub Fulham. 

Another beautiful day in greater London! Could this amazing weather possibly hold? Stay tuned!

London: Day 1

Our first full day in London was indeed a full one. Museums, ferris-wheel-to-end-all-ferris-wheels, parks, a food court—what a day!

We started off with a bus ride to the Natural History Museum. The bus rides themselves were treats for kids and adults alike, especially when you could snag the upper deck first row...

The NHM is one of the most gorgeous buildings in London, in addition to holding some amazing scientific collections. (You can see photos from my 2008 visits here.)

Here's our full group in the lobby, figuring out where to go to see the Mary Anning fossils, a top item on some of our lists...

(note the shark stroller: a constant, and very useful
companion for the next 3 weeks!)

Next up, and right next door, the Victoria and Albert Museum, possibly my favorite museum in all the world. We didn't spend as much time in it as I did in 2008 (over four visits!) but it was still a hit. Here is the Best Quality Daughter (local joke) and master potter, in her element at the museum's porcelain exhibit:

At this point, it was lunch time, and of course the museum has food options. We chose the take-away cafe out in the main court for a picnic of sorts. There's even a wading pool for the kiddos, which was a welcome diversion, as it had gotten quite warm. (We were incredibly lucky with weather for virtually our entire trip...thank you, travel gods!)

After sufficient refueling, it was on to the tube, another transportation option that is a London attraction in itself. We took our usual, the District Line, to Westminster, walked across the bridge of the same name, and found a lovely park to relax and play in as we waited for our timed-tickets to come due for the next attraction.

When we were here in 2008, we opted not to ride the London Eye; it's quite expensive, and we had no kids with us. But this time we decided it was an experience we just had to give them—and ourselves. And it turned out to be great fun, and worth the price. The views are stupendous, as the ride gives you a smooth, ever-changing vista of this fabulous city. We're so glad we did it!

starting off

view of a neighboring car (ours wasn't nearly as full;
they're very well organized in keeping groups together)

looking downstream

this impressive building used to be the County Hall

We think it's something the kids, and their parents and grandparents, will never forget!

We weren't finished with fun after our Eye car landed, either. There is a nearby park with a carousel that spins a lot faster than the Eye, and faster than any carousel I could ever ride. Then a convenient food court called "Between the Bridges"—finding dining options for such a diverse group of folks was always a challenge—made dinner a breeze. Then back to the tube, the bus, and our Airbnb, for a much-needed night's sleep. On to the next adventure!