London Day 2

 

Sunday started out with a very terrific breakfast at a restaurant next door to our hotel.

This is when I tried porridge for the first time, I had some eggs benedict on a potato/spinach cake, and Brian got a traditional English Breakfast, which included beans! Fun!

He also had this little brownish thing on his plate that he tried and said, “Huh.  I wonder what this is?  It’s good!  It tastes like stuffing.”

When the waited came he asked the waiter what is was.  He said, “Well sir, that is black pudding.”

We smiled and nodded and said, “Huh!” like of course we knew what black pudding was! 

Then the waiter said, “It’s blood, sir.  Cooked blood.”

Haha!  I nearly DIED!  BLOOD!  I was sooooo happy that I hadn’t tried it!  And Brian, who was all, ‘yum! tastes like stuffing!’ didn’t have another bite!  In fact, I made him cover it with a napkin for the remainder of the meal!

I also ordered some croissants (which I pronounced like an American “cru-sants”) and I had to repeat it about 3 times before the waiter was like “OOOH!  You mean CROISSANTS!” said the proper way.

I also asked if he could bring them right out and he said, “Well, mum, we have to COOK them first.”

Ah, fresh croissants, you see.  With jam.  Much better than black pudding.

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Anywhoo, after the breakfast we let the boys run around outside of our hotel for a while before nap time.

(I told you this was his new pose)

Once they were settled in for rest, I beat feet out of there to go on my own adventure!

I decided to go to the Dennis Severs house, which is this old house that they have preserved and that is really authentic with fires in the fireplaces, a live cat running around, candles lit, tea out, etc.

It really smelled like it used to smell, and when you walked around (silently) you felt like you were just spying on someone’s life!  Sooo cool!

I was especially surprised by how dark it was!  Fires and candles do little to beat out the gloom!  And the ceilings were so low!

I did get lost several times trying to get there, but if there is one thing that I have learned in NYC, it is staying calm during lost times.  I asked some people for help and generally wandered until I found my way again.

This museum was very out of the way, and there is no sign or anything (just a ‘please knock and wait for admittance’ sign on the door). 

I actually thought that maybe Google Maps was trying to have me murdered, until I saw a few people emerge from the house alive.

I made it back to the hotel (a miracle!) just as the boys were waking up, and we high tailed it to the dock to catch a ferry to Greenwich.

(these ferries- called Thames clippers- are fantastic, fast, and stroller friendly.  Love!)

(A typical scene: Joseph asking a question, and me trying my best to answer.  He comes up with some toughies! A few recent ones: “How do gills work” and “what is a turkey’s favorite food?”)

This Royal Naval college is actually at the site of an old palace, where Henry VII, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth were born, and where Queen Elizabeth grew up.  Fun!

 

Here is the observatory,

which, for those of you who don’t know (like I didn’t) is where the Prime Meridian is located, dividing the earth into Eastern and Western hemispheres.  It is also the location of Greenwich Mean time, which is the time by which all other time zones are calculated.  I’m having trouble explaining it, but oh well.

I didn’t actually get to go up to the observatory because the park was closing and I was worried that we would get locked in, but Brian ran to the top and took some pictures

(Laser!!  It marks the prime meridian)

(official measurements)

I stood in the path of the laser down below though, and officially straddled the hemispheres!

There was also a cool park there that we are going to have to go back to- and a pond where Isaac threw rocks of course.

(He threw rocks on the prime meridian!)

(see the dome thing they are working on for the Olympics on the far right?)

Anyway, a guard ended up escorting the boys and me out of the park, and locking up behind us.  Locking Brian inside the park (ahem, as I predicted, ahem) and the boys and I OUTSIDE the park, without my money, our passports, anything.  At night.

Brian eventually came down, saw that the gate was locked, and was able to run to another entrance before they locked THAT one.

I made like a lost child and stayed exactly where he left me.

Alls well that ends well, but it made for a rather quiet Thames Clipper ride back.  (Mom: notice that I did not mention this to you when we talked)

We returned to the hotel, munched on some DELICIOUS English apples, and called it a day!