Last Day for my First Visitors

I stand corrected: It's Thin Lizzy with a y, like the band.

My visitors have (presumably) left by this point. It was great to have them here and sad to see them go. I'm sure Flat Stanley will miss having Thin Lizzy around too. Here they are with Matt in front of the Tower Bridge.

We had several aborted sightseeing attempts yesterday. We went down to the Tower Bridge and Tower of London, but decided not to go into either. Then we thought we'd see if we could go up in the 30 St. Mary Axe building, but they wouldn't let us. From there we headed to St. Paul's, but decided the admission price was too high (unless you're there for a service, you can't even go in and walk around without paying first) for that late in the day.

So we ended up at the British Museum. I love just walking into the British Museum. It's so beautiful. Here, Flat Stanley and Thin Lizzy (with some support from Matt) check out the Rosetta Stone. I learned that the Egyptian hieroglyphs consist of some phonetic components, followed by a picture. They had an example -- the word for cat is three phonetic symbols (which, together, make a sound like meow) followed by a picture of a cat.

After browsing through the Parthenon galleries, (this horse's head reminds me of The Godfather) we went to Chinatown for dinner before our second attempt to see some theatre in London. We were not plagued by power failure this time and had no trouble with our visit to the Criterion Theatre to see "The 39 Steps". Everyone enjoyed it, so I think it was a good choice after all.

After a week of beautiful weather in England (Briana was disappointed that she didn't get a chance to wear her new rain coat), the New Yorkers are heading home to a mid-April winter storm.

Introducing... Thin Lizzie!

Flat Stanley has a visitor too, and her name is Thin Lizzie. (Grandma keeps calling them Fat Stanley and Tin Lizzie.) Here they are, showing off their tickets to "Guys and Dolls". Unfortunately, we saw neither guys nor dolls.

The gang had spent the afternoon exploring the Tower of London. They had rushed out ("we didn't even get to see the Bloody Tower!") to grab some dinner before the show started at 7:30. I met up with them at a little Italian restaurant next door to the theatre.

We were hurriedly eating our dinner when the lights in our restaurant flickered and the power went out. It came right back on, but then we heard the faint ringing of an alarm, coming from the direction of the theatre. We laughed a bit nervously and hoped it wasn't a problem at the theatre.

Grandma started warning us that it was bad form on Broadway to show up late, so Barbara gulped down the tea she had just ordered and we got the check. A crowd was starting to gather outside, though it didn't look like an organized queue for the theatre. We went out and waited with everyone else to be let in. Standing in front of an Indian restaurant, we chatted unconcernedly. There was no way we would have known this milling crowd was unusual until the proprietor of the restaurant came to the door and asked if someone famous was nearby. When he heard that we were just waiting to get into the theatre, he said he had never seen this before. That's when we got worried.

Not long afterward, someone from the theatre came out and called for everyone's attention. It was hard to hear him in the open street, especially when he turned to face the other parts of the crowd. We heard him say something about a power loss. He was apparently pretty funny, as everyone kept laughing. They were going to try to put the show on, but it would be delayed; everyone should stay nearby and he'd come back and update us. Naturally a rush for the pub across the street ensued. We opted instead to return to our little Italian restaurant for dessert.

So we relaxed and enjoyed our dessert and waited for the inevitable. A little while later the same guy came out and apologized: They had to cancel the show.

Disappointed, we headed to Trafalgar Square. Here's a picture of Kate with Flat and Thin at this cool statue along the way. We decided it was reminiscent of the scene in the Lord of the Rings when Arwen gets the river to flood like a stampede of horses, trampling the Ring Wraiths. (This statue is actually a fountain, and is even more suggestive of this scene when the fountain is running.)

After hanging out in Trafalgar Square for a bit, we did as any good English person would. We went to a pub.

Slides!

Today we finally got to go down the slides at the Tate Modern. I've been wanting to do this since I came to London and they're only up for another week. It was awesome. There's talk of a return trip tomorrow. Barbara was the first from our group to go down the 5th floor slide (the highest one). She screamed (in a happy, enjoying herself way) the whole way down. The slides are bumpy which gives a staccato effect to your screams. I tried to scream the whole way down too, but it kept making me laugh.

The slides were quite fast. When we started down the 3rd floor slide (which we did before the 5th floor slide), you push yourself off but then you really take off at the first turn and it's absolutely delightful.

The crew is off to the Cabinet War Rooms this afternoon, which I think is one of the coolest things to see in London. Hopefully they'll agree. Tonight, Blue Man Group is a possibility, or perhaps Indian food in Brick Lane.

Yesterday, after a late start, they visited Westminster Abbey and then we had fish & chips for dinner (except Bri, who doesn't eat fish).

New Yorkers Visit London

Barbara, Matt, Briana, Kate and Grandma arrived yesterday! After getting settled in at their hotel, we had a late lunch in Chinatown and then walked around a bit. We walked through Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square and then over one of the pedestrian bridges across the Thames. We took a ride on a carousel by the river, underneath the London Eye and with views of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Many pictures of Flat Stanley were taken, but apparently not on my camera, so you'll have to wait for those.

The New Yorkers were out of their element, and had to translate everything back into a language they understood. We decided to take the tube from the airport. ("They don't call it the subway?") I tried to explain that they should buy Oyster cards for the tube, because they can reuse them and it's much cheaper than buying tickets every time. (They all looked completely baffled until someone said, "Oh! Like the Metrocard!") On the tube, we discussed which trains to take. (Grandma: "It's like taking the A train to 42nd St." Everyone nods sagely.) They're staying in a hotel by Hyde Park. ("Like Central Park!")