London Weekend

At the last minute, we managed to get tickets to go and see Billy Elliot.  It's not recommended for children (lovely authentic North of England colloquialisms = lots of swearing) so Auntie Julie took the kids to spend the day doing "fun stuff". 

Mum and I jumped off the tube at Knightsbridge, walked into Harrods (I find the food court fascinating and mildly repulsive at the same time; so many people starving in the world, and others who can pay £5 for a coffee), then walked down toward Belgravia, Eton Square, and ended up at Victoria.  (We had our lunch in Pret A Manger, where a cup of coffee is 99p, haha). 

The details of what Auntie Julie did with the kids are a little sketchier, but there are rumours that they went to Wagamama's for lunch, did a little clothes shopping, visited the Princess Diana playground and went to Hamley's.  Cole came home with a Magic Set from Hamely's and we have been watching money appear and disappear ever since; Chloe got a set of nail polish pens and has painted more nails with more designs; Carys got magic pens and her face painted. 

We met back at the apartment on Saturday night and had dinner.  On Sunday morning, we got packed up to go and then took a quick trip to Highbury to the Breakfast Club.  We had to leave to go to Heathrow around 1pm ~ it takes a good hour on the tube. 

Back on a plane and Carys sat in the row ahead with Granny ~ right as we got to the end of the runway, I could hear her say "Granny, have you ever crashed a plane?". 

I love flying into Belfast.  One of the reasons I hate going into Dublin airport is that I don't recognise anywhere.  But flying into the harbour?  Amazing.  I love the first glimpse of land out the plane window.  Right away we try to figure out where we are.  (Narnia!  We're in the land that inspired CS Lewis's descriptions of Narnia). 

An hour later and here we are!  Lindy came and picked us up and we headed to her house for dinner.  Before too long, Carys had wellies on and was in the river.  Everyone had fun playing with the new guinea pigs, Elvis and Sammy.  Chloe and David were happy to see each other.  And before we left to head to the Spa, both Catrina and Kirstin had their nails painted. 

It was pretty late when we got to the Spa, but nothing would stop Cole and Carys from going to see Alex and Dawson.  Claire came out to visit us and we had a good time catching up.  After a crazy week, we were all ready to have a little down time. 

Stonehenge, Bath

We had Cathryn's car for Thursday and I had a death wish to go to Stonehenge, so we jumped out of bed early and hit the road.  Thanks to googlemaps it was pretty easy to navigate our way out of London, even though my navigator had neglected to bring her glasses, with the result that the driver ended up doing a lot of the navigating. 

Stonehenge is a bizarre place; one minute you are driving along a main road, and the next minute there is this ancient and wonderful sight right ahead of you.  We stayed for a lot longer than I thought we would ~ I imagined that at least two thirds of the population of the back seat of the car would have started to plead boredom after 10 minutes, but that was far from the way things turned out. 

Each of us had our own audio guide, and they were brilliant.  The kids listened intently to all of the information, and then Cole repeated a lot of it for the rest of the day. 

I had no idea that the stones for Stonehenge came from so far away ~ 350 miles in South Wales.  How on earth did they transport those stones? 

We walked around for a good while, and sometimes we stood in the same spot for 10 minutes or so and started. And wondered. 

How did they do this?  Why? 

Here's Cole giving a demonstration on how to use the audio guide. 

And still fascinated with the audio guide. 

Then we came back to modern day times with a quick ice-cream for the 3 kids.  It was back in the car and on to Bath.  The drive takes you up through an area marked on the map as the Danger Zone, so that  was  ... interesting.  We did watch out for danger, and I think Carys in particular was disappointed that we didn't see any. 

When we arrived back in NI, my dad told us that we had been to Stonehenge years ago, but we'd never been to Bath before and it was worth every minute on the motorway to get there. 

We didn't ever taste the water ~ other than tap water.  But, I guess you can push the little button on the bottom right and water comes out of the jug.  We saw a woman filling up her water bottle that way.

You had to have good eyesight to find out where to fill your bottle though ~ that wee man is now almost hidden in behind Carys and Cole. 

The cathedral is gorgeous. 

We walked over toward the baths, but by this stage it was so late in the day that we didn't really have time to go in and see them.  I compensated by telling the kids they could google information when they got home. 

So far, no-one has bothered.

Cole with Charles Dickens's head.  Kind of. 

After all that education, we really needed a cup of coffee.  We searched for Sally Lunn's house (and then ended up going somewhere else). 

Some of us had a latte.

After all that sightseeing, we got back in the car and drove up to The Circus and The Royal Crescent before heading back to London and a Chinese carryout for tea. 

Wednesday, Greenwich ~ Prime Meridian Part Uno

Granny came up with the bright idea of a boat trip down the Thames to Greenwich, then walking under the Thames to the Isle of Dogs, and a ride on the overground through Canary Wharf as our day out on Wednesday. 

We went into London (#43 bus from Julie's, off at London Bridge) and bought our tickets for the boat.  Then, since a boat had just left and we had 30 or so  minutes to kill, we decided to walk up the river until we met the next boat. 

There are some pretty cool things to see on the way up alongside the river.  Cole inserted himself into this statute, so of course Carys had to do the same. 

We posed at the replica of Sir Francis Drake's The Golden Hind.   

We also walked past the Millennium Bridge that my very cultured children recognised from Harry Potter HBP.  No-one (apart from me) cared that the very lovely St. Paul's cathedral was also visible.  We jumped onto the boat and sailed down the river, passing a gun salute at the Tower of London.  we had a really good view of Traitor's Gate.  Shudder.  View of the Millennium Dome.  Looking towards the Isle of Dogs (the entrance to the under the Thames passage is in the dome shaped building to the left middle) and Canary Wharf. 

 First stop in Greenwich was at the park for a picnic.  These elephants are all over in the place in London. You can just make out Canary Wharf in the background.   

 On to the Royal Naval Academy.  We'd been told to go and check out the chapel and the painted ceiling.  

The painted ceiling was really impressive.  Chloe took a few of these photographs. 

After the painted ceiling, we walked over to the Chapel.  Also impressive. 

And here are some just for fun pics.  Can you find the Portrait of a Tweenager?

And one of the very best things about the UK?? Dyson hand dryers!

We left the Naval College and started to walk up to the Royal Observatory.  First, we passed the Maritime Museum.  These are the only photos I have uploaded to this post, I'll add the rest in a bit to the next post.   (Look! It's the perfect clock!)