London (abridged)

We spent a busy few days in London.  The first day, we flew in from Shannon airport to Heathrow.  It was a pretty short flight, but I managed to get a few good shots of Ireland from the air.

                                                               A green quilt

The first thing we did in London was settle into our rented flat.  We were on the top floor, with the precariously balanced window boxes.

                                                                    Our flat

Then we went to explore Kensington Gardens.  No view of the royal baby, unfortunately, just a ton of cable vans parked outside the palace.  After sitting by the Round Pond for awhile, feeling like Londoners, we headed off to find Peter Pan.  He stands next to the Long Water (another unimaginative name).   

               The boy who wouldn't grow up.

That was about it for Wednesday.  Thursday morning brought a whirlwind tour of the British museum.  If you're unfamiliar with the British museum, it's full of stuff borrowed, or, in some cases, stolen from other cultures.  All we really saw was the Mexican exhibit (those Mayans were weird), the Egyptian exhibit, and the Greek exhibit.  Oh, and the gift shop.  They have everything Rosetta Stone there.  Then it was a rush to the theatre.  The Globe Theatre, where we saw A Midsummer Night's Dream.  It was hilarious.  I can't even begin to describe it.  The theatre itself is pretty amazing.  The sun was in a bad place when we were allowed to take pictures, so the photos aren't that great.

One of the coolest parts of the show, I think, was that the people who play Theseus and Hippolyta also play Oberon and Titainia.

       Our evening tourist attraction was Trafalgar Square.  I climbed the lions, like so many before me.  We watched a few street performers, too.

    On Friday, we went to St. Paul's Cathedral.  You're not allowed to take any pictures inside, as it is still a working church.  But when you climb the 571 stairs to the very top of the dome, you're technically not inside anymore.

                                                          What, me scared?

It's very high up, I want to point out.  And there's only a thin metal rail.  But it was worth it.  Then Dad and I went to the Churchill War Rooms.  That is a museum in the basement bunker from which Churchill led England through WW2.  Meanwhile, Mom watched the horse guards.

       Saturday was our last day in London.  Mom and I went to the Tower of London.  There were a lot of people there.  I'm running out of time, so I'll talk about Saturday on another time.