London. Has changed. The sketchy neighborhood where I spent a summer fourteen years ago is now trendy. A hotel that we stayed at eleven years ago that was then, recently repurposed and lovely (it had been beautiful government offices on the south bank) sits under the monstrous all-seeing eye with that blue light doing what it was illuminated to do -- luring eclipse after eclipse of moths -- consequently the hotel has guested so many thousands of those moths it sends off subtle waves of weariness. In fact, much of London seems so. The throngs of people no longer seem exciting and purposeful, but rather antsy. Perhaps it's just that my city-threshold has already been met by daily living, and so the unique loveliness of the Lake District, and village-y Wales, and the Cotswolds steeped us so deeply in charm, that London seems... less-charming.
Friday morning The Dad took The Sister, The Boy, and The Girl to the Tower of London. Having been two or three times before I begged off to do my duties as family historian. What the group reported:
The Sister -- The White Tower was home to the queens and kings for 500 years before it was converted (few buildings have been both royal home and prison -- a blurred line that happened again as kings and queens became prisoners); the king of Norway gifted to Henry III both a polar bear and it's keeper (which is quirky); ten legal executions occurred, but the rest were considered "murders."
The Girl -- The ravens were shiny; not just heads were cut off, but people were also stretched (which was scary).
The Boy -- The orb is beautiful -- small with colorful details; the scavenger's daughter was a machine that made blood come out of your ears.
Ah. So a nice balance of the beautiful and the horrible. I would say that they got the full Tower of London experience.
Once we were reunited we set off for Oxford Circus. There are a lot of banners and extra flags out for the coronation anniversary. Ha, and I see now that there's a mormon "advert" on the side of that bus. I really wish the PR department would knock it off with the cheesy Everyman pictures.
The Dad took the kids to Hamley's while I took The Sister to see the beauty of Liberty for a bit. It's so civilized -- the beautiful wood carving, fresh flowers greeting you in the entrance, a sweet memorial for the Liberty staff who died during the war (war: not civilized, obviously).
When we went to the toy store, Hamley's, to meet up with the fam it was crazy -- not at all civilized. It's loud, and not just packed to the gills with toys, but also candy, and demonstrations of flying things that whirl past your head... And for all that, the kids seemed calm and happy in the fray. When we travel we buy the children one item, anything else they buy with their own money that they've saved from birthdays or chores. It was from within this froth of madness that the children picked out their items -- The Girl, a stuffed horse she has named Amber, and The Boy a plastic Loch Ness Monster thing he has named Chesapeake. We did meet the queen and her corgi -- made out of Legos (note: I just told the kids to turn profile, I'm not sure why they thought it funny to feign surprise).
From there we walked to Covent Garden for an outside dinner. Sometimes the street performers are a hit, and other times a miss. I'm finding that the best ones are usually the guys with their guitars singing cover songs -- but they usually don't come out until after dark.
Being as we had ourselves some golden tickets, we then headed over to the West End to see the new musical, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". It was cute, with a few clever tricks, but I don't think it will go down as a favorite for anybody.
By the time we got to our seats my quads were screaming. It is the most enormous theatre, so our tickets were even worse than we thought. When there are binoculars in front of every seat you know it's time to bust out the inhaler. I'm just surprised that they think people in the cheap tix will be willing to put forth the one-pound required to release them from the pincers. We splurged.
Walking home was fun. Inasmuch as I hate how the London Eye distracts from parliament, it is impressive in its own right. And inasmuch as our hotel has that whiff of tiredness, it's still pretty. I guess that while we might let a ring or two go by, when London calls, we are a family that always answers.
