Have you ever seen this clip from the good old days of Sesame Street?
Ok, now that you've watched that, you'll know why I've been dying to title a post "The London Blog." Ha! Ha! Ha! This is the London blog, sir! The queen said you could read it if you wanted to, sir! Ha! Ha! Ha!
Ok. Moving on.
We interrupt life in India to bring you a temporary duty assignment in London. We are so lucky.
The kids and I had to be at the Chennai airport at 2:30 a.m. Saturday to get on a 10-hour flight to London. It was about as dreadful as that sounds. I can't begin to explain the insanity that is the Chennai international terminal at 2:30 a.m. on a Saturday, so we'll just skip over that part, shall we?
Once we were on the plane, Johnny and Evie transformed into the angels that they usually are on flights. Samuel had a harder time dealing with the exhaustion, but we made it here without too many mishaps. We were all extremely glad to meet John at the apartment.
We're staying in a flat on Baker Street (THE Baker Street!), overlooking the Baker Street underground station. The location is fantastic.
Our first exploration was to the incredible British Museum, home of the Rosetta Stone and all manner of antiquities ... er, "collected" ... from around what was once the British Empire. We hopped on the tube at the Baker Street stop and managed to navigate to the museum despite the line we wanted being out of service. Underground stations seem to be full of people more than willing to guide confused American families to their destinations.
Our first stop at the museum was the Rosetta Stone ... awesome!
I love this picture of Johnny trying to decipher some of the Greek on the bottom portion of the stone. He knows some of the Greek alphabet, so he told me he'd translate for me :)
And here's Johnny with something large, ancient and Assyrian. It's incredible how much I don't know about Assyria.
Johnny and I are both big fans of Rick Riordan's books, especially the Percy Jackson series, but also the Kane Chronicles, so we spent a lot of time looking at the displays on ancient Egypt and ancient Greece. In the first book of the Kane Chronicles, they accidentally blow up the Rosetta Stone and most of the Egypt gallery at the British Museum ... don't worry, it all gets fixed. Anyway, we had a lot of fun thinking about that.
Here are Evie and Johnny in front of something large, ancient and Egyptian.
Evie thought this hawk was "cute."
All this culture is pretty exhausting, you know.
We spent a lot of time with the mummies, partly because they were fascinating but mostly because we got separated from John and it took me far too long to realize I could borrow a cell phone from a passerby and call him. (Duh)
Johnny was excited to find the Lewis Chessmen, a set dating to medieval Scotland. He's been playing in the after school chess club this year and really enjoying it.
The kids also got a kick out of this clock that keeps time with a rolling ball.
Johnny's been reading a book about Alexander the Great, and he wouldn't rest until we found this bust of the man himself.
Evie is so fun to watch in places like this. She bounces around the rooms, but when something catches her eye she stands in front of it and stares for a while in fascination.
A row of Greek philosophers, with Socrates in front
From the Athens room
These last two were taken in the Parthenon Gallery. It would have been incredible to see all of this in any case, but the fact that Johnny's been studying ancient Greece in school made it even more fun.
More to come!
Ok, now that you've watched that, you'll know why I've been dying to title a post "The London Blog." Ha! Ha! Ha! This is the London blog, sir! The queen said you could read it if you wanted to, sir! Ha! Ha! Ha!
Ok. Moving on.
We interrupt life in India to bring you a temporary duty assignment in London. We are so lucky.
The kids and I had to be at the Chennai airport at 2:30 a.m. Saturday to get on a 10-hour flight to London. It was about as dreadful as that sounds. I can't begin to explain the insanity that is the Chennai international terminal at 2:30 a.m. on a Saturday, so we'll just skip over that part, shall we?
Once we were on the plane, Johnny and Evie transformed into the angels that they usually are on flights. Samuel had a harder time dealing with the exhaustion, but we made it here without too many mishaps. We were all extremely glad to meet John at the apartment.
We're staying in a flat on Baker Street (THE Baker Street!), overlooking the Baker Street underground station. The location is fantastic.
Our first exploration was to the incredible British Museum, home of the Rosetta Stone and all manner of antiquities ... er, "collected" ... from around what was once the British Empire. We hopped on the tube at the Baker Street stop and managed to navigate to the museum despite the line we wanted being out of service. Underground stations seem to be full of people more than willing to guide confused American families to their destinations.
 |
| at the Baker Street station |
I love this picture of Johnny trying to decipher some of the Greek on the bottom portion of the stone. He knows some of the Greek alphabet, so he told me he'd translate for me :)
And here's Johnny with something large, ancient and Assyrian. It's incredible how much I don't know about Assyria.
Johnny and I are both big fans of Rick Riordan's books, especially the Percy Jackson series, but also the Kane Chronicles, so we spent a lot of time looking at the displays on ancient Egypt and ancient Greece. In the first book of the Kane Chronicles, they accidentally blow up the Rosetta Stone and most of the Egypt gallery at the British Museum ... don't worry, it all gets fixed. Anyway, we had a lot of fun thinking about that.
Here are Evie and Johnny in front of something large, ancient and Egyptian.
Evie thought this hawk was "cute."
All this culture is pretty exhausting, you know.
We spent a lot of time with the mummies, partly because they were fascinating but mostly because we got separated from John and it took me far too long to realize I could borrow a cell phone from a passerby and call him. (Duh)
Johnny was excited to find the Lewis Chessmen, a set dating to medieval Scotland. He's been playing in the after school chess club this year and really enjoying it.
The kids also got a kick out of this clock that keeps time with a rolling ball.
Johnny's been reading a book about Alexander the Great, and he wouldn't rest until we found this bust of the man himself.
Evie is so fun to watch in places like this. She bounces around the rooms, but when something catches her eye she stands in front of it and stares for a while in fascination.
A row of Greek philosophers, with Socrates in front
From the Athens room
These last two were taken in the Parthenon Gallery. It would have been incredible to see all of this in any case, but the fact that Johnny's been studying ancient Greece in school made it even more fun.
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| Mr. D |
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| Johnny contemplating a centaur in battle |
So so fantastic!!!
ReplyDeleteWe've been there, too.
Pinch yourself; it's real!
Happy, happy adventures!