Eli and I decided to mix in with the locals for breakfast. He went with a classic beans on toast. 2 out of 5 stars. “Not completely unpleasant.”
Of course I had to try the best selling breakfast cereal here: Weetabix. Ummmmm….imagine you scooped a handful of plain wheat flakes, crushed them to a fine crumble and then squished them as hard as you could into a patty. Now imagine you have 12 seconds to eat them after they hit the milk or they will have turned into an unpalatable mush. Imagine paying for this product! “Completely unpleasant.”
Off to Buckingham Palace for a guided walking tour of the neighborhood. We learned that the British flag flies over Buckingham Palace when the King is away. St. James’ used to be a hospital and they would bury lepers in The Green Park adjacent to it, which is why there are no flowers in the park, just grass. The St. James’s Palace balcony, seen below, is where they recently announced King Charles III had become king.
Just around the corner from St. James’ was this hat shop that makes all the fancy hats for the royals. Our guide told us that they invented the bowler hat (because top hats were blowing off during hunts), and more recently made each of Indiana Jones’ hats in the movies.
Many of the buildings in the area have windows that have been bricked up. Property taxes in the area used to be calculated by how many windows you had. So they would seal them up to save money.
In St James park we encountered lots of exotic birds. It used to be a menagerie where royals could show off animals they had been gifted from far off lands. All the big game were long ago moved to the London Zoo, but flamingos gifted from Russia remain among the ducks and swans. Someone handed Addie a peanut and an African ring-necked parakeet quickly swooped in.
We enjoyed watching oblivious tourists on their phones tempt fate by stumbling across the white stripe surrounding the mounted guards. They would shout “out of the box!” and the person would snap back to reality haha.
After the tour finished, Dami, Eli and myself headed to The National Gallery art museum (Addie wandered off to go shopping). I saw a handful of paintings I remember from Art History class (da Vinci, Van Goph, Monet, Rembrandt etc)
After the museum we all met up again, and went to the Sondheim Theatre to watch a live performance of Les Mis. I thought it was great. I think the kids may still be adjusting to the jet lag because I saw Eli’s head start to bob as he fought sleep during the slow songs late in the show.
We walked through Hyde Park on the way home. An enormous park with a lake in the middle. We watched many tourists feed all the birds…
Dami had been saying she really wanted to visit a classic English pub. We passed by one and had to check it out.
In our time in London I learned that you have to aggressively press the toilet flush handle if you want more than a trickle of water for the flush. Eli learned that he’s frequently misquoted in this blog, and that he can run anywhere in the city faster than we can get there via Uber. Addie learned that the drivers are fearless and aggressive, lane splitting and honking at everyone. Damiana was surprised that gas station convenience stores offer a great selection of fresh foods haha.
Phew! We’re all exhausted. Sleeping in tomorrow, then off to Paris in the afternoon.