Day 7 - British Museum, Russell Park, and a movie

On our last day, we had scheduled a COVID test at a testing center near the British Museum so we could have results the next day for departure and then go on to the Museum.  It was a little frustrating to have to pay a clinic $30/person for an essentially over the counter antigen test just so we could have the official documentation for the US officials.   But it was better than having to pay $75 for the rapid PCR test that we did in September.  I thought I had allowed enough time for the test and to get to the museum by our scheduled entry time, but we were running later than expected.  I was uptight because on our first day when we tried to go to the Natural History Museum they were real sticklers about the entry time.  I hustled everyone to the museum only to find a very long line and museum employees who didn't take a look at our entry time at all.  We got in with very little wait however.  The line was moving fast - so fast that our group that tried to get coffee at a starbucks across the street had to hurry to catch us as we went in the gate.

Our first stop was the Egyptian collection - and this is probably everyone's first stop.  It was pretty crowded.  We downloaded the audio guide on our phones, but Carson couldn't get his to download.  He was trying to get permission from his parents, but it was 4 am at home.  We just shared.

I love the documentation of the artifacts at the British museum.  This was a fascinating little bit.

We had packed a picnic lunch at ate it outside in the museum court yard.  We topped it off with ice cream!

We stopped for a bit in Russell Park before heading home.  Parks are always my favorite spaces in Europe.  They are so public with lots of good people watching.  We missed the beautiful daffodils in full bloom, but it was definitely spring time and quite relaxing. 

Water features are my favorite!  This fountain was timed and the high spray in the center went down from time to time. At one point a dad and his son (maybe 7 yo) came over the and kid waded in, shoes and all.  He was quite drenched in a short time.

We finished the day seeing the Secrets of Dumbledore at a theater near our lodging.  Seemed appropriate while in the UK :). The theater was very nice, but quite empty. It seems the British have not returned to movie watching in theaters either.  

Day 6 - Windsor Castle

The garden grounds are absolutely beautiful at Windsor.  I look at them longingly from the open roadways through the complex, imaging strolling through them or bringing a book and just relaxing on a bench on the grounds. 

St George's Chapel. First built by Edward III in the 1300's.  It is maintained by the Order of the Garter and all of those members have their seats and plaques in the choir area.  This includes Prince Harry and Prince William. The building faced significant degradation in the early 1900s with bowing walls and stripped lead from the windows.  It underwent restoration. Along with Westminster it serves as a burial site for the royal family. 

We finally got a picture of Carson with one of the beefeater guards.  When we watched the changing of the guards at Buckingham, we couldn't get anywhere close.  

 
 

Day 5 - The Alchemist and Come From Away

 We relaxed for the afternoon and then made our way over to a cool restaurant that Delaney had identified called The Alchemist.  It had an incredible menu of different drinks all served in cool glassware - erlenmeyer flasks, etc. 

Bubbly gum came with dry ice in it.

After dinner, we went to see the show Come From Away about the role Gander Newfoundland played on 9/11 when all the Transatlantic flights were forced to land as quickly as possible.  Our whole group enjoyed it very much.  

Day 5 - Tower of London

We started our day at the Tower of London.  I knew that it was best to arrive early in the day to beat the crowds and that was definitely the case.    Delaney wanted to spend as much time as possible with every exhibit so she and David split off and Carson and I started the audio tour together.  

This was the kings bedroom.  I wish I could tell you which king and what time frame, but my British history is pretty weak and I don't remember.   

The King's chapel for daily devotions

Tower Bridge

The White Tower.  204 steps to see all of the levels.

Lower left is what remains of some Roman era walls on the site.

Love this pano view!

Henry VIII armour.  Very detailed and quite large (he was a big man!)

Chapel in the White tower

This gigantic book was not actually a bible as one might expect, but an accounting ledger of all of the arms in the armory for a particular year.  I would have loved to see the writing in it.

Looking through a hole in the Roman wall. 

After exploring the castle, Adam, Kayla, Carson and I went geocaching and found 2 caches near the castle.  

Geocaching

 I had the fun of introducing Carson to geocaching.  I was worried I wouldn't be able to cache because I was having trouble getting data on my phone, but David finally got customer service to help him turn on the service so I could use my app.  The first one we visited was right at the metro stop where we were staying.  I read the clue to Carson and he found it quite quickly. 

Our first cache was a magnetic nano on the back of this sign.

We found another magnetic nano along the fence by the Tower of London.  Carson also got this one. I just let him look because more than one person searching in the midst of so much "muggle" foot traffic is suspicious.  He was very circumspect. 

Kayla found our third one in a brick wall near a closed up old subway entrance.  It was kind of cool to read the history of how the entrance and track had changed over the years.

Our final cache was on a traffic sign near the park by the British Museum.  Carson and I read and deciphered the clue together, then he went on his own to see if he could locate it.  5 minutes later he was back!

I had brought along a travel bug that also traveled to Bournemouth with us last fall, but we couldn't find a single cache large enough to hold the travel bug.  He had to come back home with us again. 

Day 4 - St Paul's and the London Eye

After spending the morning at the HMS Belfast, we walked along the river to the Millennium footbridge and visited St Paul's cathedral. 

This was an old church along the river front.  I liked the contrasting view of old and new architecture.

St Pauls in the distance.  

Millennium bridge.  Carson thought it was cool to see the bridge that was collapsed by the Deatheaters in Harry Potter. 

Its so easy to see from far way.  As you get closer, it just gets bigger and bigger!

The people on the steps give you an idea of the scale of the building. And so does Carson standing by a front pillar (below).

Looking up at the top of the inner dome from the floor of the sanctuary.  We didn't get to spend nearly as much time as I wanted because we had a timed entry for the Eye and needed to walk further down the river.  We did listen to our audioguides a bit to get an idea of some of the church's history. 

Climbing the 500+ stairs to the tippy top of the dome.

City view from the roof at the base of the dome.

Millennium bridge view

The last part of the climb is all metal stairs and takes you between the inner dome (that you can see from the sanctuary) and the outer roof dome. 

The entry to the church from the top of the dome. (Looking down at the same point I took the picture of the facade from)

You can see the Eye in the distance.  We decided it would be faster to walk than to try to catch the tube because neither stop was close to where we wanted to be.  I might have been wrong about this, but it was an energetic walk to make our entry time. 

David, Delaney and Antonio had skipped St Pauls and met us at the Eye.  Fortunately the line was huge and they were not paying any attention to when people's entry was, so our 15 min delay from jogging along the river was was not a problem. 

Having been on the Eye before, David and I just chilled and waited for the others to get back down.