Tower of London: This time for the jewels.

Now that we unlocked the secret of route 188, we were eager to get back to the Tower of London again.

"It's nice, like our own double decker tour bus." Joey remarked.

We got on and were, in fact, the only ones aside from the driver.

This allowed us to get in the very front rows on the top and the views were excellent!

Here is the scene at the bus stop as we are looking out near Russell Square and the picturesque Russell Hotel.  That window cleaner is working hard!

We all enjoyed the sensation of being chauffeured on a double decker.

The bus ride took a bit of time, but the day was clear and seeing the sights from the second floor was enjoyed by all.

Since we enjoyed the top floor of the bus, that meant we left without the stroller.  Sammy was the most affected by this since Lanna would still get a ride in the baby bjorn.  Sammy would have to walk.  He would often proclaim, "I'm not even tired of walking!" although he was still on the bus at that point.

About 45 minutes later, we got off the bus and began the walk over Tower Bridge.

Walking across the Tower Bridge is like driving across the 520 floating bridge in Seattle:  it never gets old.  Despite the whipping wind, the kids and I marveled at the grandeur while gazing out on the Thames.

Outside one of the towers, we learned you could actually go up to the top of the Tower Bridge.  Joey and Sammy's eyes lit up when they learned of it.  I told them we would come back and go to the top.

They very excitedly made their way to the Tower of London with this news.

Now that we had one visit under our belt we felt good about moving around through the Tower of London.

Immediately after the entry point you could go to the left down the street to the Royal Mint.  They spied open treasure boxes with what looked like gold coins and wanted to check it out!  The boxes were recreations but it had sucked us in!

We learned more about the minting process and also found out Isaac Newton was in charge of the mint for a while!  You can learn more about his role here:

http://www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/history/people/mint-officials/isaac-newton/

After the mint, we wanted to check in on the ravens which have been living at the Tower since the 1600's.  Seven in total are there and, as the story goes, if the ravens ever leave the Tower, the English kingdom will collapse!

Here you can see one of the ravens with the White Tower behind it.  You can't see the chicken legs that were lying on the ground in its cage!

For more on the ravens, you can check it here:

http://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/visit-us/top-things-to-see-and-do/the-ravens/

From the ravens we went up and behind the White Tower.  Joey casually reported, "I would like to see some jewels."

So we went inside and checked out the Crown Jewels!  Since no pictures are allowed, you can use your imagination with the splendor, opulence, and sheer sparkly nature of the crowns, scepters, and various items.  Alisa was rather sad we didn't wait for her to see them together.

Outside the Crown Jewels exhibit is the Fusilier's Museum. This museum focuses on the military, with a specific examination of the infantry.

Joey and Sammy were more excited to play with the guns outside the museum than actually go in.

I thought the Yeoman Warders or other authority figures would not like Sammy lying on the cannon, but nobody hauled him off into the Tower.

Lanna, watching her brothers clamber across the firearms, was highly entertained.

With the brilliant sunshine and clement weather, we relaxed and strolled through the upper area of the Tower which has not only the Fusilier's Museum and Crown Jewels exhibit but also the area where the chopping block rested and the Royal Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula where many of the poor souls at the chopping block were buried.

From there we went into the Beauchamp Tower that housed many of the prisoners.  In the upper stories the stonework contained amazing legacies of those prisoners who had plenty of time to carve their thoughts into the rock.

Lanna did not appreciate the carvings and enjoyed walking up and down the stairs more.  

After returning to the upper courtyard, we saw a Yeoman Warder standing nearly alone (a rarity in the Tower as the Beefeaters almost always are guiding tours or having their pictures taken).

We approached him and the boys slowly moved from my sides to behind me as we got closer.  The Warder smiled and began to talk to Joey and Sammy.  He was amazing, charming them with stories and talking about his 3 year old son.  He told them about Roary the Race car (an apparent Thomas the Train spin-off and only known in England).

By the end of it, the boys had stopped clinging to my legs and were hugging the Warder.  I asked to take a picture and he graciously agreed.  Given the picture turned out so well and captured the day, I'll save it for the very end.

After meeting the Warder the boys were elated and ready for their next adventure!

I took a picture with all of them before heading back to Tower Bridge.

On the way out, we eyed the Tower Bridge, knowing we'd be going to the top of it soon!

Lanna charmed the staff there and we took the elevator to the top.

It was an impressive view from those upper levels.

Even more impressive were the large glass floors which allowed you to look down 100 feet to the bridge below.

We trusted the engineers implicitly, both walking on the glass without concern and letting my children lie down on it.

They had a great time looking down at the tiny double deckers while still trying to spot some fancy cars.

They also learned a bit about bridge types and other world famous bridges.

A video also showed the construction of the Tower Bridge when in was built in the 1880's.  Joey and Sammy watched it three times.

On the ascent down, we looked out the windows and remained in awe.

We also explored the pump room at the end.

The day was an epic success!  We took the 188 all the way back home watching the sky darken as we rode on the top.

By the time the bus reached its last stop, we again were the only ones aside from the driver.

Looking back on that day, I'll always remember the kindness and skill the Yeoman Warder used to make Joey and Sammy so happy and to cement their love of the Tower of London.

Cambridge (the other one)

Jay and I met in 2004 in Boston and spent many of our "salad days" in the American version of Cambridge. Over Thanksgiving weekend, we decided to travel to see how the UK version stacked up. Naturally, we got stuck in an incredibly frustrating traffic jam as we tried to drive into Cambridge (this is the story of our time in London - so many traffic jams!). But we finally made it and even found some miraculous street parking (and having been to Windsor, we now keep a bunch of coins in the car to make paying for parking possible). The only disadvantage of our parking spot was that we could see a carnival in the distance - the Cambridge version of Winter Wonderland. The boys could not understand why anyone would want to walk around a university when there was a carnival right there. But we convinced them it was not open yet and we promised to return at the end of the day. 

We started walking around on our own - most guide books recommend taking a tour, but this is not really possible with three young children. Our goal was mostly to get a feel for Cambridge and see some of the colleges that make up the larger university. One thing that surprised us was the amount of shopping available there, completely packed with Black Friday-esque sales (although there is no real Black Friday here, given the lack of Thanksgiving).

We didn't buy anything, although we might have considered this crazy insect clock. I don't think it was actually for sale.

Once exiting the shopping area, we first came upon King's College. We had wanted to see this one and its chapel, but as was the case with most of the colleges, it was closed to visitors. Here we are, wistfully looking at it from the outside.

We saw a few other colleges from the outside, or were allowed to take a few steps in:

The family just inside Corpus Christi College:

We then did make it inside St. John's College, which was quite inspiring to all of us in different ways. The boys had an amazing time pretending to hide in doorways and jump out and scare us. Jay loved the dining hall that looked like Hogwarts. I loved the rich academic feel of the architecture. 

The grandeur of one of the halls:

It was windy (and in case any of you are wondering, as Joey did to me the other day, if I am having another baby, the answer is no. The belly in this picture is from too much Italian gelato, Belgian chocolate, French pastries, and English crisps and cider). :(

This is the Bridge of Sighs, designed to look like the one in Venice.

This is a (slightly distorted) panorama of the chapel and dining hall, just inside the entrance.

While we made the mistake of driving into Cambridge, we discovered that most intelligent people in Cambridge prefer other modes of transportation:

Walking

Biking

Punting!

We then did visit the Cambridge winter carnival. It was actually quite nice compared to Winter Wonderland, since it was both smaller and cheaper. The weather wasn't awesome, but it maintained just a light mist and didn't start to rain until we made it back to the car.

Sammy went down a giant slide on what looked like a front door mat and enjoyed racing around in Lightning McQueen while Joey opted for the bumper cars with me. Sammy then observed Joey jumping on the trampoline from the bouncy house. 

Then both boys went on a roller coaster, with very different opinions in the end.

The exit interview:

It was a great day. If there's any lesson we've learned from traveling through Europe with 3 kids, it's that you need a good balance of kids time and adult time. In Cambridge, we all got to see and do what we wanted. We were quite impressed and hope to return some day when one of our kids is a Rhodes Scholar. No pressure.

WINTER WONDERLAND!

Only a few days after we first arrived in London, Alisa reported seeing a flurry of activity at Hyde Park.  A flurry of lorries loaded to bear with all the disassembled pieces of a carnival flooded the northern part of the park.

This annual event in London has been well publicized, so we knew what Alisa saw marked the beginning of WINTER WONDERLAND!

http://www.hydeparkwinterwonderland.com

Ever since we relayed this information to the kids they have been very eager to experience this epic annual event.

Several nights we had taken the bus back from downtown and passed by Hyde Park.  A giant extent of the park is all flashing lights, canopied big tops, and always dominated by the brilliant Big Wheel (it seems every ferris wheel in London needs a moniker). Each night the boys see the night sky lit up and ask to go.

Well, their time finally came!  We planned to meet Alisa at the Winter Wonderland in the afternoon and stay for a few hours into the night.

To make this venture a success, I had to ensure Sammy napped and Joey rested.  This sounds straightforward but isn't.  Fortunately it did work out that both Sammy and Lanna napped after an especially rigorous time at Coram's fields, but it was a struggle.

After everyone awoke, we had a hearty snack and went to the bus.  We took Joey's favorite bus, the 390.  (It's his favorite because he can say "390" with a spot-on British accent).

The bus dropped us off outside Hyde Park as the evening dusk deepened to dark.  We made our way towards Winter Wonderland with the boys barely able to contain themselves.

And there it was.

We made our way inside.  It was big.  It was bright.  It was loud.

It was fantastic.

We hung out and ran around near the Big Wheel before Alisa arrived and enjoyed the carnival like atmosphere.

When Alisa showed up, we were off!  Joey immediately got hooked up in a 5 point harness on a trampoline and Sammy went down a tower with a slide encircling it.  Once her older brothers were done, Lanna enjoyed a spin on a carousel.

From there we walked this huge park and saw the different sights and sounds.

Given we were there on a weekday, it was not crowded at all.  In fact, when the boys went on a ride, the ride ran just for them!

Sammy was the sole passenger in this train ride.  He still chose a middle cabin.

Here he is within the backdrop of this epic carnival.

Joey rode on a roller coaster.  He had been on one already and was now becoming quite the aficionado.

Despite being an aficionado, he still was too short to ride alone so I went with him.

These rides certainly built up an appetite, so we wandered through the park looking for a suitable dinner.

As we walked, we spotted what looked to be a mechanical man in the distance.  The closer we got, the more we realized it was a mechanical man.  We soon realized this was the largest mechanical man we had ever seen.

Roughly 60 feet tall with an appropriately sized bird sitting on his picnic table sized hand, his hair blew in the breeze as he and the bird sang "That's Amore."

Naturally this freaked Sammy out.

He could not be anywhere in sight of the giant man which housed most of the "good" eating establishments in the Wonderland.

Joey was able to stick around to have that video taken before we moved away from the mesmerizing, bizarre and creepy carnival-bot.

We had a quick dinner out of sight and sound of the giant man and then explored the park some more.

As I looked around, I saw quite a few things that would only result in a lawsuit in America.  Most of them were the style of rides were you walked through an obstacle course that could spray you with water, cause you to fall, or move abruptly enough to give you whiplash.  (I was looking for any internet documented cases of absurd carnival lawsuits and didn't find any specifics, but it's a nice waste of time if you have it to spare).

Then I saw a game to pop balloons for a prize which would never, EVER be available in the good old USA:

That's right!  Real arrows shot from a real bow!  

We strolled through a while longer and the boys rode a few more rides before we felt it was time to head out.

The boys went on a magic sleigh ride (again, they were the only ones on it) which they both liked.

While they were up in the air, I took a selfie with Lanna.

After that we treated the boys to some cotton candy (which they call candy floss here).

On the way home, we walked through Marble Arch (also known as the BEST PIGEON CHASING PLACE EVER).  The pigeons were at home roosting, so a bubble guy took over the square.

We popped a few bubbles and walked to the bus as the lights and sounds of the Winter Wonderland faded behind us.