London Day 3

Monday April 8, 2019

We woke up after sleeping not terribly for being jetlagged. Our original plan was to go to the Roald Dahl museum and have a low-key day, but the museum was closed on Mondays. We decided instead to have our London day with the Wheelers today. After a porridge breakfast, we left with Melissa and her kids to catch a train to London. The train ride was smooth and fast. Our destination was the Natural History Museum, so after adding money to our Oyster cards, we took the Tube to South Kensington and entered the museum.

First time on the Tube for all 3 of them!

It was very crowded due to lots of kids being on Easter holiday. We first admired the fossils in the main entryway, then made our way into the dinosaur exhibit. It was packed, but the fossil collection was really impressive. Claire was slightly scared of the animatronic dinosaurs, but still enjoyed herself. It took some effort to find the rocks and gems (the entryway was not clearly marked) but she loved looking at all the shiny jewels and rocks. The lights were at one point not working, so I had to use my phone flashlight to illuminate the display cases.

Gorgeous building housing the Natural History Museum

Woolly mammoth

Triceratops plus some other dinosaur skull

Animatronic t-rex

Ferocious animatronic furry dinosaurs

Claire was still a bit jet-lagged

Very excited for the dodo!

Mesmerized by tubes of bubbles

JEWELS!

The kids were getting worn out by the time we were done, so Melissa decided to take them all (including Claire) back to Harpenden and let Liz and I enjoy London by ourselves. After a quick bite at St. Pancras Station (which we were overcharged for), we decided to check out Westminster and Big Ben, and hopefully get a look at what's happening in Parliament. Westminster Palace is quite impressive, but there were a few disappointments: Big Ben was covered in scaffolding, and we were told there was an hour-long wait to get into the halls of parliament. Still, there were some protests outside, some of which were related to Bangladesh (very energetic), and another pro-EU demonstration (less so).

View of lots of scaffolding from Westminster Bridge, overlooking Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey

BREXIT protest

We took a double-decker bus to Trafalgar Square and enjoyed some of the buskers and chalk artists outside before walking into the National Gallery. We saw a lot of paintings that Liz had to memorize for her humanities, but the guide book was hard to follow because almost half of the paintings were not in the places the book said they were in. Still, we enjoyed perusing the many masterpieces here until our feet and backs got tired. We enjoyed the ambiance of Trafalgar Square a bit longer before continuing on our way.

Fun sidewalk art

Arnolfini wedding

The foot from Monte Python's Flying Circus

One of Monet's water lily paintings!

We decided to pick up our tickets for Wicked at this point, and while we were in the neighborhood, picked up a few snacks at a grocery store. These were intended for Claire, who complained she was hungry often (side note: she didn't eat very much of her breakfast). We ended up eating some of them ourselves, though.

We returned to Trafalgar Square to have a meal at the Cafe in the Crypt, which is located underneath the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. We both got a traditional fish and chips. Liz's was on top of mine in the case they were served from, so hers was crispy while mine wasn't as much. Still, they were tasty, and served with chips and mushy peas.

Double decker bus selfie

We returned to Victoria station, right by our theater, and had enough time to walk around the Buckingham Palace area. We walked around the perimeter until we got to the front gates. We saw some of the palace guards on duty, and a lot of tourists looking in. After taking a good look of that, the Victoria memorial, and the surrounding greenery, we headed back to the theater, got inside, and took our seats.

Buckingham Palace selfie

Our seats were pretty high, so we rented some really cheap binoculars for 1 pound from the seatback in front of us

By this point we were both very tired and weren't sure how we were going to make it through the show. I rested my eyes beforehand and did mostly okay. Liz had a hard time keeping her eyes open at first but eventually managed to stay awake for the last 65% or so of the show. The jellies we bought at the grocery store helped a lot. We both were familiar with a few of the songs and the basic idea of Wicked, but otherwise didn't know much about it. We had a good time at the show and during intermission chatted with an English lady next to us who used to do theater herself (she was in Chicago once). She was attending with her 4-year-old daughter.

By this point we were incredibly tired but managed to take the tube back to St. Pancras, caught the next Thameslink train to Harpenden, and made it back to the Wheelers' house. Our heads hit our pillows just after midnight and we were out for the day.

Observations:

A lot of people appeared to be jogging home from work. As we were walking toward Buckingham palace, we noticed a number of people jogging in workout clothes towards the train stations wearing backpacks. I guess this is how some manage to get their exercise in.

We were surprised at how many people would get up and use the bathroom during the show. A lot of people brought food in, including the popcorn they sold in the lobby. We're not much to talk given how many snacks we ate during the show, but we were still surprised.