London, Part one

Last week the kids were in Iowa and Jason and I went to London. Jason got an invitation to attend a conference in London and my parents generously offered to watch the kids if I wanted to go with, so we booked a six day trip . Jason attended the conference for two days and had a morning meeting another day, so I was on my own sightseeing for part of the time. I'm just going to write a synopsis of what I/we did more for my own memory than anything else.

On Saturday, June 1, we drove to Iowa, got the kids' rooms arranged, had lunch, said goodbye to the folks and kids, wished them well and drove back to MN. The goodbye was not too teary, Sam was a little sad, but quickly moved on to playing when we were driving out. Abby and Matthew were both napping so there were no outbursts from them (not that Matthew would have made a scene, but Abby surely would have). Our flight wasn't until 9:30PM, so when we got home Jason mowed the lawn and I cleaned, then we finished packing. After an uneventful, 8 hour, overnight (in which I slept maybe 2 hours max, and Jason slept maybe 4 hours) flight, we arrived in London at 11:15AM local time. We managed to get out of Heathrow which involved two train rides, then got to Paddington Station and got on the underground to the station near our hotel.

We stayed at the Melia White House in the Bloomsbury area of London, which is on the north central edge of the main center of London. After freshening up, we took a 20 minute walk north to the Camden area to explore the Camden markets. The markets were crazy. Stall after stall after stall on street after street in building after building. People everywhere. Welcome to London. Busy, bustling. After talking to a vendor we learned that this wasn't even a very busy market day. I sure wouldn't want to be there then as it was plenty busy for me.

We walked back toward our hotel after about an hour or so of madness and went to a local pub for dinner. Jason had bangers and mash (sausages and mashed potatoes) and I had a potpie. Both were  "traditional British fare" and very good as were the local beers and ciders which we tried. At around 7PM we went back to our room and feel asleep pretty much right away. We both slept for a few hours, then woke up at 11PM and were up for a couple of hours watching tv and movies before falling asleep again, then getting up at 7AM. Our sleep was all out of whack from the lack of sleep on the flight, then the 6-hour time change.

Breakfast on Monday of our trip, as most days, consisted for Jason heading out to Pret a Manger (translated "ready to eat" in French ) and picking up yogurt parfaits, fruit and a pastry to share. The food at Pret was very good and it was conveniently located just across the street from our hotel (but there are Pret's everywhere, so it's not unusual that we were just minutes from one). Jason headed off to his conference a little before 9 and I ventured out for the morning around 10.

After about 20 minutes on the tube (the London Underground or subway), I made it to the Museum of Natural History. It wasn't too busy that day (meaning I didn't have to wait or "queue" at all to get in) and I perused the dinosaur exhibit and mammals exhibit before heading out. The dinosaur exhibit included an animated T-rex which was pretty scary looking and there was a little girl screaming as she didn't want to walk by it (it was on a one-way walkway) and I knew my little kids would be doing the same thing if they were there. Although I wanted to see more of the museum, I was rather hungry by that time (11ish) and wanted to head to my next destination before eating as it was reported to be a good place to get coffee and good food. So then I moved on to the Victoria and Albert Museum of Decorative Arts which was right next door. I spent a few hours there, wandering through the exhibits displaying jewelry, fashion, pottery, furniture, table ware, portraits, sculpture and so on from ancient times to today. I really enjoyed the museum and enjoyed getting a latte and lunch and eating it in the garden space in the middle of the museum.


I then ventured away from the museums and walked half a mile to a fabric shop which I read about online. Navigating London isn't always too easy as the streets aren't always easily marked (meaning there weren't always street signs) and often the streets names change every few blocks. In main touristy/historical areas there are signs with maps of the area on them located on nearly every block, but this was not the case where I was at. However, I found my shop with little problem, purchased enough Liberty of London fabric to make something for myself and Abby and made my way back to the nearby underground station for the return trip to our hotel.

I returned around 3:30, then Jason returned from his conference around 4. We decided to go to Trafalger Square (which is often the location of large demonstrations and there was a demonstration there that night in support of the uprising in Turkey) and the National Portrait Gallery. After another short trip on the tube we arrived at the gallery, spent some time looking at the lovely art and sitting by the fountains in Trafalger. We then wandered around the area and found a Mexican restaurant off of Oxford Street (which is known for high-end fashion stores) and had an excellent fajita dinner. After a short stint on the tube which ended with our train being held at a station due to a medical emergency of a passenger, we exited and walked about 20 minutes back to our hotel.  We again fell asleep rather early, only to wake in the middle of the night, and be up for a few hours before getting back to sleep.

St Paul's front entrance

On Tuesday Jason again attended the conference while I started my day at St. Paul's Cathedral, which was about a 10 minute tube ride and a 10 minute walk away.  The 300 year old cathedral is quite spectacular and pictures of it simply don't convey its immensity and splendor. While it's not a skyscraper, it is 75 feet taller than the US capitol building. I arrived just after opening (around 9AM) and wandered around it for about 45 minutes. Before leaving, I climbed 257 steps up a wide spiral staircase to the balcony of the interior dome of the cathedral (called the "Whispering Gallery"). The balcony was probably around 3 feet wide and encircled the interior dome. Although I'm not afraid of heights, it was a bit unsettling to be so high, plus the balcony slanted slightly down and I didn't spend too much time there. Instead, I went about 1/3 of the way around the balcony to a small doorway which led to a very narrow and steep spiral staircase which after another 100 or so steps, led to the "stone gallery" which encircles the outside dome of the cathedral. The gallery provides excellent views of London and was quite breathtaking.

View of London from the Stone Gallery. The "Shard" is on the left, Tate Modern is the column on the far right, the Thames in the middle

St Paul's dome from across the Thames. 

After leaving the cathedral, I crossed the Thames on the Millennium foot bridge which can be seen in the right side of the picture to the right and made my way to the Tate Modern. Once there I enjoyed an excellent latte on their patio on the river and then looked at some modern art which wasn't quite to my liking.

Tower Bridge

I then walked along the south side of the Thames for just about a mile until I reached the Tower Bridge which leads to the Tower of London. By this time it was about noon, and although I was hungry, I didn't want to stop for lunch as the area was rather crowded and I wanted to find a quieter place for a break. So I decided to go to the Tower of London first, then find somewhere for lunch.

I'll write more about the Tower of London and our other travels in future posts.