On the fifth day of our European adventure, we made our way to the Millennium Bridge. The footbridge is an easy way to cross the Thames from the St. Paul's Cathedral side of the river to the Tate Modern in the Southwark area of London. My kids loved the Tate Modern, especially because we picked up copies of the kids' gallery guide which took us on a treasure hunt through the collection. It was well done and kept the kids interested.
We had a tasty lunch at the museum café, even though our niece had a difficult time recognizing most of the items on the menu... (For the record, I had the English pea and ham soup.)
There's a ferry available that will take you back and forth to the Tate Britain, if you choose. Instead, we headed next door to the Globe Theatre replica. We were planning a visit to Strattford-upon-Avon later in the trip, so visiting the Globe and getting a taste of Shakespeare was perfect. If you're lucky (or plan ahead), you can catch a play while you're there.
We had grand plans to visit St. Paul's before heading back to the hotel. Unfortunately, Mother Nature conspired against us. Fortunately, we had seen rain ponchos in the Globe's gift shop. Ask me how mortified the teen aged niece was on the Tube ride home.
The following day, we visited Westminster Abbey before heading to the London Science Museum in South Kensington. Ask the geek husband what his favorite thing was in the London Science Museum and he'll tell you, "the Babbage machine." If you're like me, read here to find out what that is.
Following our visit to the science museum, we headed to Harrod's, the most unbelievable department store you'll ever see! Be sure to check out the kiddie Hummer in the toy department. The china, jewelry and spectacle of the whole store is amazing, too. We picked up dinner for the kids in the most incredible food court I have ever visited and went back to the
hotel. The niece and kids stayed in that night to watch World Cup soccer while the husband and I had dinner out and saw Billy Elliot at the Victoria Palace Theatre, just a short distance from our hotel.
On our last full day in London, we took a boat from Westminster Pier to Greenwich to visit the Cutty Sark, the National Maritime Museum, the Royal Observatory and Greenwich Park. The highlight of our Greenwich visit was straddling the hemispheres. The kids still talk about that!
Travel books I used for this portion of the trip:
No comments:
Post a Comment