London: Day Three

** Yes, the formatting is off but I’m too tired to fix it tonight. Live with it. And this is Mike, not Sammy (unlike what the post says)

Ok, day three. We’re still resisting the urge to hail a taxi while here, but it’s tiring. We’re making good use of the Underground tube system here, but most of the time we’re going up and down steps with the stroller (lots of steps), including during the business rush hour. With the stroller on the tube, the humidity, the steps, and keeping Elliott from disappearing into the crowd, it gets pretty exhausting. But, we’re going to continue to avoid the taxis.

But let’s start at the beginning of the day. Woke up at 5:15am to a guy and girl arguing on the street. We’re 3 stories up, but there’s no air conditioning so the windows are wide open all the time. This was a loud argument, and the only thing that kept me from yelling out the window what the fact that our kids remained asleep. So, we quickly go over this and I was treated to eggs and bacon by my lovely wife (who made a gourmet selection of cereal and fruit for the kids … and by ‘gourmet’, I mean Cocoa-Munchers).

We’d pre-booked at the London Aquarium the night before, so we wanted to be there at 10am sharp. Sabine was apparently expecting a sunny day, as she wanted to wear her sunglasses. We then made our way to the tube, where Elliott encountered the pictured advertisement below (for the 18th time … he comments each time though).

He's more interested in the advertisements then seeing the show.

Anticipating a sunny day. She was wrong.

You’ll notice that the Aquarium is in the same building we stayed at in May 2009 with my parents and grandparents … which is right next to the London Eye and Big Ben.

London Eye (near the London Aquarium)

The Aquarium was pretty good, but it was no Shedd Aquarium. It wasn’t too big, but the displays were well presented. Elliott and Sabine were hit or miss. He was scared of things that she wasn’t, and she was scared of things he loved. The sharks displays were pretty cool, and he didn’t warm up to them until the end (there was a long section that you walk directly over the shark tank on a glass floor … he made me go through it twice).

A little freaked out by the bigger fish.

Sabine was totally into this.

Over all, it was pretty good. Besides trying to keep them from freaking out at the bigger fish, our other goal was to keep them from wanting the overpriced souvenirs in each of the strategically-located shops throughout the exhibits. I told Elliott he could get a souvenir while here, and he found something the first day at this sci-fi/comic book shop. They have a Ben 10: Alien Force action figure that he really wants. So each time he sees some overpriced plastic ‘thingy’, I let him choose between getting that and getting the Ben 10 figure at the end of the week. So far this strategy has worked, and he’s resisted the urges (though I did get a few small things at the Museum of London … we’ll get to that).

For lunch, I’d really wanted to go to a specific pub that we attempted to eat at in 2009: Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. Besides the fact that I heard it was ‘child friendly’, I was interested in it due to its history. Though the pub was originally there since the 1500′s, it burned down in the great fire of London. It was quickly rebuilt in 1666 (I think) and has been there since. The interior has also kept the majority of the charm and character from this time period, and it was just a neat experience (though the food wasn’t all that special). So after a quick meal and a pint (for two of us anyways), we were off once again.

In the shark tunnel

Didn't want to leave

We’d walked quite a way (only one stroller …. carrying one kid on the back) to get the The Cheese since it wasn’t too close to an Underground station. After we ate, we realized this would also be the case for getting to our next stop on the itinerary: The Museum of London. So after more walking, we arrived and decided to sit in the lobby to cool down for a little while. After a cold water and some juice, we went into the first exhibit with Elliott asleep in the stroller.

This museum was actually pretty good, and best of all (like many of the London museums), free of charge. There was almost too much to see, so we moved quickly through some sections to get to what we really wanted to see.

Posing for the camera

After the main part of the museum, we spent some time in the gift shop looking around, since they had some stuff we were all interested in.

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

Sammy got a couple of cook books from the war era and Victorian period … the type of stuff she always likes to get, but I don’t see her making Blood Pudding or Ox Cheek Stew anytime soon.

Elliott wanted just about everything in the store, but I convinced him to get some old favorites: a flip book (the kind where the picture animates as you flip through it) and one of those magnetic gyroscope things. Do these have anything to do with London? No. But it’s better than the $10 plastic fishing reel he wanted at the Aquarium. He also had quite a bit of fun trying different things on, as you can see in one of the pictures.

At the end of the museum, we were pretty exhausted and decided to head back to the hotel. Sammy walked around Covent Garden a bit while I watched Ice Age with the kids (for the 42nd time).

After a long walk.

Elliott the bobby

We’ve been good about only really eating out at lunch, and cooking for breakfast and dinner (though we’ll eat out for dinner a couple of times). We made peanut butter sandwiches for the kids (I know, but that’s what they wanted) and we made some Indian food from Marks & Spencers.

After dinner, it was time for Elliott to chase Sabine around, with both of them laughing way too loud. This resulted, in multiple occasions, with Sabine running into the table and crying. And then it all started again. This, for some reason, resulted in the crazy clothing party, where they had to keep putting clothes on their heads and running around laughing. After this little party, we ended up skyping with Uncle Matt, which only lasted so long due to attention span (the kids, that is).

So with that, I leave you until tomorrow. The plan so far is the Science Museum and Natural History Museum. We’ll have to see how they hold up to those in Chicago. — Mike

Silly party time.