Portobello Road

Quinn on a side street off Portobello Road. Does anyone remember the movie "Bedknobs & Broomsticks"? That is one of my favorite kids movies and there is a scene in it on Portobello Road. I was thrilled to be there! We left our hotel early and took the tube down to Notting Hill then we walked the rest of the way to the road. It is a HUGE open market. We waited to go until today so all the vendors would be there. We spent a couple hours there and we only bought a pair of sunglasses for Quinn and food for our picnic lunch! We were so glad we went early, by the time we left you literally could hardly move downt he street, and there were hoards of people getting off the tube and heading in that direction. We were like fish swimming against the current to get out of there!

This paella pan was enormous! It was about 4 feet across and it smelled heavenly! We didn't buy this for lunch though. We bought bread, cheese, fruit smoothies, and apple turnovers. We walked to Kensington Park to have our lunch. It was Travis' birthday lunch, as today he turns 14!

Here's the birthday boy! He wasn't very thrilled about spending the morning of his birthday shopping, but when we sat down to lunch he perked up :) Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes. I've passed them along to Travis. He had a great day!

In front of the famous Portobello Market, well obviously! Another reason we were glad to get an early start was that by 11:00 the temp was soaring toward 90! But we were on our way to the park to sit under a nice shade tree. It has been an unusually hot June for the city.

Quinn plays piano in the streets of London!

Along the streets of London pianos sit, along with a sign, "Play me, I'm yours!" She sat down and played a couple songs. She actually had people tapping their feet! I videoed it on my phone but for some reason I can't get it posted here. It was so cool to watch her play, we were behind St. Paul's Cathedral.

The British Museum

Travis with his favorite philosopher, Socrates. Travis LOVES the fact that we took this picture of them "together"
"DumDum bring me some GumGum" That's how Quinn knows of this statue, from the movie "Night at the Museum". Not the fact that it is one of hundreds of similar statues on Easter Island, mysteriously placed there by unknown persons (or aliens, depending on who you ask!) Rolf finds it mortifying that this wonderful piece of stone will be remembered as a silly talking head! Ah well, modern movie making at its best!

The kids with the Rosetta Stone. Well, not really. A copy of the stone, one that you can touch. We did see the real thing but it is encased in glass and has about 100 people around it trying to get a photo!

The British Museum

We had a wonderful afternoon at the museum. It really is amazing to see the antiquities and treasures that England has amassed over the years. Rolf had to point out to the kids that most of the items in the museum were stolen when countries were plundered by the English over hundreds of years. Quinn thought that was terrible! She chose to believe these items were gifts from all the countries!

St. Paul's Cathedral

Rolf, Travis & Quinn climbed 257 stairs to the Whispering Gallery inside St. Paul's, then they continued another 271 stairs to the Golden Gallery at the very top of the dome. It is the highest level you can walk to in the church. At some points Rolf had to crawl up the stairs because it was such a small area. The view from the top was spectacular. They took 360* views of the city of London. On a clear day it is said that you can see 30 miles from the top, and it was pretty close to that today! I, on the other hand, decided to stay below. I spent my time outside the cathedral in the gardens and also spent a little time in the gift shop - well, of course!
Inside the main hall of St. Paul's

The main dome of St. Paul's

The kids by a telephone box by the cathedral. What a Kodak moment!

General comments from the kids

I've been keeping track of all of the funny things the kids have said since we've been here. My favorite from Travis, upon coming out of the bathroom, "Man, even the toilet handles are on the wrong side!"

From Quinn: "I had to put ear plugs in last night because you three were making a symphony out of snoring!" Oh, did I laugh at that!

Missionaries!

We were heading into the Tube station and saw 2 missionaries going in too. We finally caught up to them and found out we were taking the same train. They are from the Netherlands and New Zealand. It was so much fun to talk to them, but I think they were afraid of us when we came up to them so boldly! I had to snap a picture and they joked that that doesn't happen very often!

Tower of London

Getting ready to tour the Tower of London. All Travis was interested in was seeing the dungeons where prisoners were tortured and seeing the Bloody Tower. Quinn loved seeing the Crown Jewels, surprise, surprise!

The kids with a Beefeater. Travis says that sounds like a good job to him, I told him the job title does not accurately portray the job description!
We ran into the Butler's while we were at the Tower! They are the family that we are going on the cruise with. Ellie & Anna and the kids were so happy to see each other again! Quinn couldn't wait to see Anna, they are two peas in a pod! They are going to be double trouble on the cruise!

The most famous bridge in London: Tower Bridge