We enjoyed taking the London Eye, although we were surprised by how slow it moved. It gave us fantastic views of Parliament, Big Ben, The London Tower and the skyline. It also provides a great views down the Thames allowing you to see the different bridges, including the Women’s bridge, built predominantly by women in World War II. We then walked through central London, getting closer views of Parliament, Big Ben, visiting the Jewelled Tower and Westminster Abbey. As we walked through London, we saw the outside of Buckingham Palace and then visited Canada house. Alastair was disappointed that they have closed the reading room, as he had fond memories from years ago when he had a chance meeting with an old high school friend in this room. We had a great chat with the guard at the Canada house door, he pointed out different Canadian sites in London.
We enjoyed seeing other iconic London sights including the London Tower (as you can see once the kids got bored, they found a place to read). The London Zoo made for a nice afternoon out, we particularly enjoyed seeing the lions with their cubs, the pink pelican (that was clearly sharing her diet with the local flamingos) and the gorilla family with its two toddlers. Our tour of the Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre was surprisingly entertaining, and the host completely engaged Aiden, just ask our kids about Shakespeare’s typical audience! This was the only time while in London we experienced a typical London rain fall, an immensely hard downpour followed quickly by blue skies. Kensington Palace was interesting to visit and did an excellent job of documenting Queen Victoria’s childhood and early reign. Fashion and games made this a more entertaining place to explore.
On another fantastic day we visited the British Museum, high on Alastair’s priority list. It is a huge and gorgeous museum, we focused on seeing the Egyptian collection as it was extensive and interesting. They had sarcophagus, sculptures, tombs, mummies, and many artifacts from the excavations work British Archeologist had done in Egypt. We also enjoyed seeing two Canadian totem poles from Northern BC. Sophie commented that the gift shop at the museum was one of the best gift shops she had ever been too. We made a few small souvenir purchases before the kids and I went to see the musical “Mrs. Doubtfire” in London West End (Alastair stayed on at the British Museum which was more his thing than a musical). The film adapted very well to a musical, the songs were fantastic, the dancing was amazing, and it was hilarious. Aiden had not been that interested in going to a musical, but agreed he would see Mrs. Doubtfire, in the end he absolutely loved the show! Another evening we all went to see Faulty Towers, live theatre, not a musical. It brought back great childhood memories for me and everyone thought it was hilarious!
