Tucker and Ellie sketching while the others were on the Eye.
The London Eye. It makes me dizzy just to look at this picture. Yuck. But it was a clear day and they could see for miles.
Beautiful day to photograph the Benster.
Beautiful day to photograph the Benster.
With one of the lions at Trafalgar.
We walked our socks off today. First we took our last ride on a double decker bus ,before our 24 hour ticket expired ,to Trafalgar Square. We went to the National Gallery where Drew Preston was on a mission to find the paintings in our scavenger hunt (I made a scavenger hunt notebook with pictures of what we may see on our trip-they get points for things they check off). We saw Van Gogh's Sunflowers- wow. So much prettier than a print. Also a painting he did only a month before he died- it is unfinished. We saw Monet's Water Lillies, too. stunning. I'm glad I pre-warned the kids about naked art because every corner we went around there was someone in their birthday suit. They did so good about just looking the other way and Ellie never yelled, "Rated R!". We saw an amazing portrait of a horse and The Hay Wain by (I can't remember right now). My favorite is a Renoir called At the Theater. The young girl in it is so sweet. After art time (counts as school!) we walked over to where Big Ben is. We passed Number 10 Downing St. on the way but didn't see the PM. Craig, Sullivan and Drew Preston rode the London Eye (gracious, it's high) a humongo ferris wheel while Ellie, Tucker and I sat at a little table and sketched Big Ben. Afterwards we walked to Shakespeare's Globe but had to skip the tour because we were running out of time. We walked across the Thames on a pedestrian crosswalk right up to the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral! It is breathtaking. Inside and out it is covered with detail and grandeur. I would love to do church in there. On the outside, you can see huge pock marks from WWII bombing.
We took a taxi from there to the British Museum where we saw the Rosetta Stone- the archaeological find that allowed Egyptian hieroglyphics to be deciphered. We also saw loads of stone carvings from the Parthenon in Greece.
Then we went to Starbucks! Hee Hee! Ellie got a hot chocolate fix (although I think she may choose tea every once in a while now- the sugar cubes are irresistible). By the way, every meal we've had here she asks, "Do they have sweet tea?". The answer is no and if you can't live without good Southern sweet tea, don't come here. Also by the way, I realised that for 25 days I don't have to think of what to cook for supper!!!!!! Wahoo! Tomorrow we chunnel to Paris. (That means ride the train which goes under the English Channel to France). We're hoping the volcanic ash cloud will be gone by the time we need to fly to Rome! No sign of it here, it was a gorgeous day. Love you all! We need some comments! Come on, Sylvia, you can do it!
Praying for Beverly!
Praying for Ivy and Co. !
OK, I'm commenting! Praying for Beverly too! Been fun seeing your pictures and hearing the stories. We appreciate your humor! So fun! Is that Ferris wheel relatively new (like in the last year?), because I think Rob and I met the man (and his wife) who was building it last summer while on a bike tour in Berlin. He was a real-life "roller coaster tychoon" at about 65 years of age but a kid at heart. He said he designed many of the rides at Six Flags and Disney's around the globe and was currently working on a project with huge gondolas on a ferris wheel. They were temporarily living in Italy while managing the steel manufacturing because it was so big. Curious.... hmmm... wouldn't that be funny. How tall was it?? Keep having fun. My girls are enjoying "stowaway barbie" reports and crazy brother photos like they'd take themselves. Have a blast! Trisha
ReplyDeleteWowza Boppee! Y'all had a full day! Loved E and the gorilla....she may be the next Jane Goodall. :) Can't wait to see Tucker's sketchbook from the trip! Just to let you know as I was reading about the art you experienced, I didn't read fast and skip over it. I was trying to picture each work (except the rated "R" ones) so maybe I'm growing up? But if I was with you, Starbucks woulda been an inspiration to get through with the art museum to get my sugar-free caramel latte with soy. You didn't say anything about the mummies at the British Museum. Did you have time to see those too? What about the nativity scene in the gift shop? Was is still there? Praying for Beverly with you! And Sylvia you really do need to comment! :) I'm wondering what kind of cool people Boppee and the bunch are gonna meet when they chunnel to Paris! Remember that neat young man on the train we met?
ReplyDeleteOh how wonderful that you get to do all this!
Love you, love you! Jan Marie