Goodbye, London

This was our last weekend in London, so we decided to make one more trip into the city to see some of the sights we hadn't gotten to yet. Malcolm asked to see the Tower of London, and both kids wanted to take a boat ride.  We also wanted to see the Tower Bridge decked out with the Olympic rings. We took our usual trip from Sunningdale to Waterloo, and from there we hopped on a Thames River cruise.

Waiting for the train

Walking down the pier

Cruising the Thames

I've taken tons of photos of Big Ben this summer, but this one, taken from the river, is my favorite.

The royal family on the side of a building along the river

It was a beautiful day, and this was a perfect way to see the city.

We disembarked at the Tower of London, braced for long lines. But where was everybody? Maybe they were all at the Olympic village. We had the least crowded visit to a tourist attraction of our whole summer. We toured the Tower at a leisurely pace, glossing over the history of torture and execution and focusing on the bright side, like the crown jewels. I did not expect to be impressed by the crown jewels, but they really were amazing-- beautiful, ornate, encrusted with massive jewels. In addition to the crowns, scepters, maces, and orbs, we saw some of the gold tableware used at the post-coronation feasts. There was a solid gold punch bowl, decorated with unicorns and lions, that was large enough to hold both of our children or a couple hundred bottles of wine.  

The Tower of London, as seen from the water. Note the "Entry to the Traitors Gate", where traitors to the state were brought for beheading.

A Yeoman Warder at the entry gate

The moat is now a grassy lawn where they hold plays and concerts.

On the other side of the Traitors Gate. The audio guides may have been a bad idea. "What's 'drawn and quartered', Mommy?"

The Bloody Tower, where Sir Walter Raleigh was imprisoned for marrying one of Queen Elizabeth's ladies-in-waiting without the queen's permission.

Guard outside the building where the Crown Jewels are kept

This building displayed arms and armor, including Henry VIII's suit of armor.

When we left the Tower, we had a great view of the Tower Bridge and the Olympic rings. We walked across the bridge to get the view from below, as well.

The rings are folded up under that top piece of the bridge when a ship needs to pass underneath.

Another view from the other side of the river

There are different versions of Wenlock, the Olympic cyclops mascot, all around the city. This is the sprinter version, which is also made to look like the HMS Belfast, which is docked nearby.

We stopped briefly at the Tate Modern on our way back to the train station. It was packed, and we were tired, so we didn't stay long. We did get a lovely view of the city, including St. Paul's Cathedral (the domed building) from the Tate, though. We also liked the sculpture in the courtyard below, which is intact on one side and shows muscles and bones on the other.

The weather was still lovely when we got back to Sunninghill, so we hit the Rose and Crown, a nice little pub with picnic tables and a playground out back. Parents can enjoy a meal and a beer while the kids run wild. Why does this not exist in Indiana?

Soren playing chase with an adorable English boy

Aaah, beer.

I have mixed feelings leaving the U.K. We've had some amazing adventures this summer, and seen more than we could ever hope to take in on a vacation. We have a summer's worth of stories to remember over the years, and that's got to be better than day camp, weekends at the swimming pool, and another summer wishing we weren't stuck in the office all day. But we have missed our people and our home. We are tired of temporary living and having to think through every interaction and outing. It will be nice to get home to the familiar and see all of you.

And now I must get back to putting things in suitcases. This will be my last post from this side of the pond. We hope to see you soon!

The National Trust

When we first arrived in England, someone recommended that we join the National Trust, a non-profit organization that owns, maintains, and manages many historic properties across Great Britain. The story usually goes that a particular property was privately owned for centuries until the family could no longer pay for the upkeep. Some houses were sold to (gasp!) wealthy Americans like the Astors, but at some point there were few people remaining who could afford to purchase and maintain these massive houses. The National Trust has acquired many of these homes, or sometimes just the surrounding gardens, and they make them available for visits from the general public, often adding cafes and shops to make them more tourist-friendly and lucrative. With our National Trust membership, we get free entry into a huge number of enormous, grand, beautiful, old houses that seem to be around just about every corner in England. If we have a free day over the weekend, we often look through our National Trust guidebook and pick a property to visit. We have yet to be disappointed.

Here are some of the places we have visited over the summer but haven't managed to write about until now.

This is Cliveden. Yes, this was once a private family home for some duke or other. The building is now a hotel, and you can pay to tour it. The grounds are owned by the National Trust, so our membership got us in for free.

Water garden

Traditional hedge maze

It took us nearly half an hour, but we managed to find our way to the middle.

The National Trust has made an effort to make these properties very family-friendly. Cliveden has a beautiful playground with hand-carved wood sculptures based on storybook characters. This is the crocodile from Peter Pan (Captain Hook and Peter were close by).

Every kid wants to sit in a throne.

Wind in the Willows boat. There were also characters from Alice in Wonderland, The Jungle Book, and King Arthur.

Formal gardens behind the house

Close-up of formal gardens

I repeat: someone used to live here. It's pretty staggering to imagine this being a private home.

Next is Polesden Lacey, located near the route for the Olympic bike road race. Polesden Lacey was most recently owned by Mrs. Greville, a wealthy socialite who prided herself on throwing extravagant parties for Britain's A-list in the early 1900's. The Queen Mum was, apparently, a friend and frequent visitor back in the day. Though the house was built in the 1600's, it was remodeled just after the turn of the 20th century, and the decor is very early 1900s. As with Cliveden, the grounds are the real draw. Polseden Lacey seems to function sort of like a local park for nearby residents, who brought picnics, took walks, played games, and generally enjoyed the day without visiting the house.

Polesden Lacey near Dorking, one of my favorite town names.

We strolled through the rose garden.

We played croquet on the lawn.

We climbed through the rock garden.

One of us was game enough to dress up in period costume.

We ran through the meadow.

Here are some of the many picnickers enjoying the grounds at Polesden Lacey.

As an aside, these historic homes often have delicious, homemade ice cream for sale, which is irresistible. My favorites have been comb honey (honey ice cream with little bits of honeycomb) and stem ginger. I may take up ice cream-making when I get home in the hope of being able to eat these flavors again.

Last, but not least, is Blenheim Palace. Blenheim (pronounced "blen-em") Palace is not owned by the National Trust, but is still owned and lived in by the Duke of Marlborough. The palace is open to visitors most days and has cafes and shops, which, in addition to entrance fees, help support the upkeep of the palace. Winston Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace, and there are several rooms devoted to Churchill history and memorabilia. We did a quick walk through the palace and ended up on the grounds, watching a falconry display and a jousting tournament.

Grandma Ruth, Erik, Malcolm, and Soren at the entry gate into the palace grounds. The gate is the size of a mansion.  But wait...

...here's the palace. Unbelievable. Can you imagine being invited to a playdate here? "Oh yeah, this is my house."

View from the back garden

Blenheim has a huge maze. The wooden platform in back helps you plot your route through the hedges. Without that we would have been in the maze forever.

Success!

There were several gnarled, hollowed out, old oak trees on the grounds.

You could visit a different castle, palace, or historic home every weekend in Great Britain and never get bored. The National Trust owns 350 properties, and there are many more castles, palaces, and mansions that are still privately owned. There is really nothing on this scale in the U.S. These places are jaw-droppingly beautiful, ostentatious, and overwhelming. 

Summer Olympics 2012

We are deep in the midst of Olympic fever here in the UK.  For the past month, there has been nearly constant discussion about the games here-- will the traffic be horrible? will security be sufficient? will anyone be able to get tickets for the events? Now that the Olympics have actually begun, the discussion has changed from whinging about the hardship to reveling in the honor of having world-class athletes visiting and the whole world watching what happens here in Great Britain.

When I watch the Olympics at home in the US, I am usually frustrated by two things: 1) the cheesy, overly dramatic human interest stories about how each athlete has overcome hardship and difficulty to rise above and succeed against all odds; and 2) the jingoistic pro-American focus of the broadcasts, with only passing attention to events in which the US has no chance of a medal (e.g table tennis). I am happy to report that the UK is equally jingoistic, spending most of their time on events where British athletes are expected to shine.  This was especially painful for the first few days of the Olympics, when the Brits had far fewer medals than usual and the discussion focused on the disappointment and shame of lackluster performance-- "When will Britain get a gold? Why are we in 24th place in the medal count when we were 5th in Beijing?", etc. Now that Team GB has turned things around, at least there is more to watch and enjoy. On the positive side, there are no over-produced segments on the athletes in their hometowns dealing with trials and tribulations. And even better, the BBC shows Olympic coverage on 3 channels all day with NO (I repeat, NO) commercials! Not one! It's just sports, and isn't that supposed to be the point of the Olympics? And all you poor saps at home are watching Ryan Seacrest every night.

We have been lucky enough to attend a couple of Olympic events in the past couple of weeks. While I was in California, Erik, his mom, his sister Anna, and the boys went to Eton Dorney to watch rowing trials. Eton is about 15-20 minutes from where we live, so it was a quick trip to the event site. Getting there was a challenge, though. They had to drive to a car park in Windsor, board a shuttle bus for Eton, and then walk a mile from the shuttle drop-off point to the event site.

The stands

The crew (Malcolm, Anna, Soren, Ruth) eating donuts that Erik had to wait in a line for about an hour to procure. They don't quite do concessions here like we do in the U.S. There were only a handful of food stands, all with long lines, at a four-hour event.

More stands on the other side

Men's eight, qualifying round

Last night, we went to Wembley Stadium to see one of the women's semi-final football matches, France versus Japan. We hadn't watched any of the preceding matches, so we didn't really have much preference for one team over another. The boys were pulling for France, probably just because they have been to France. We drove to an outlying Underground station, took the train to Wembley Park and walked to the stadium from the tube. As soon as we got off the train, the crowds were thick.  

London Underground, Ickenham Station, which Malcolm enjoyed calling, "ICK, HAM!"

"Please mind the gap."

Approaching Wembley Stadium

We saw a man carrying this sign on the way in: "Tonight's menu: sushi".

When I told Soren that we were going to see an Olympic soccer match, he said, "Can't we do something more funner today, like go to the park or a bouncy house or something?" Nevertheless, he seemed to enjoy himself for at least the first half hour. We had pretty nice box seats with a good view of the action. There were almost no announcements or commentary, and there were just two small screens in the stadium. While it was nice not to have the constant music and noise that we are accustomed to at sporting events in the US, we had no information about the players or the penalty calls on the field. It was a great game, with Japan eventually coming out ahead, 2-1. France played a good game with lots of shots on goal, but they just couldn't seem to put the balls in the net, including a penalty kick that should have been an easy goal.  

Malcolm was too busy watching the game to smile for the camera.  Soren was busy sucking his fingers, as usual.

Wembley Stadium.  There were a ton of empty seats, but there were still 60,000+ people in attendance.

Game on.

Half-time photo op

We saw lots of Japanese fans but very few French fans, which was a surprise, given the relative proximity of France. The Japanese fans cheered in unison for "Nihon" (Japan), hung flags, and wore creative outfits. I saw one father and son with white rectangular pieces of paper attached to their faces, with circles cut out in the middle, framing their faces painted red.  

Japanese fans

After the game, people filed out of the stadium toward the two nearby tube stations. It took us an hour and a half to walk from the stadium to the train, but the queue was pretty orderly. Security was tight in and around the stadium, probably due at least in part to the history of trouble at British soccer matches. No alcohol was allowed inside the stands (only in designated areas before entering the arena), and we weren't even allowed to have bottle caps on our water bottles. Maybe they could be used as projectiles to protest a bad call?

We feel lucky to have had the Olympic experience in person, but we will be watching the rest on the telly. We had tickets to a gymnastics trampoline event, but we screwed up, got the date wrong, and missed it. That was a very expensive mistake, but what's done is done. Soon after the Olympics end, we will be leaving the country with so many other foreigners and making our way back home to Indiana.