The Boatwrights Abroad: British Museum and Cousin Time

The British Museum!

                                            

On March 13, we went to the British Museum mid-morning. The British Museum is free admittance, but you have to reserve a time to get in. 

We took the Whitechapel Tube stop, and passed through the Whitechapel market. The market was primarily populated by Muslim folks—or Londoners in hijab, etc. The food and wares were fresh produce, spices, clothing like headscarves and Southeast Asian dresses, and more. We didn’t have time to stop, but it was fun to look at on our walk! 

Whitechapel Market - not a great photo because we were power walking, but it was a cool market!

SUPER STEEP escalators to get on the Tube

The British Museum is huge. It was crowded and overwhelming and hard to get oriented to because we entered from a side door where the coat check was. :-) Zach and I each downloaded Rick Steves’ app and free audioguide for the museum and shared AirPods, each of us with one of our kids. Paired with my Rick Steves guidebook, we figured it out! 

British Museum

We saw the Egyptian exhibits, skipped the Assyrian ones in favor of lunch at the cafe --we got sandwiches, then visited the Greek section. 

THE Rosetta Stone

The cats in the Egyptian section were a highlight

Wilder has long been interested in mummies and has read all of the Percy Jackson books, so those two areas held his interest. Felicity took out a drawing pad and drew some of the greek sculptures (The Elgin Marbles!).  

Ol' Rick guiding us through the museum!

Rick Steves suggested for kids to bring sketch pads to museums, and Felicity really enjoyed doing this.

She loved drawing these sculptures and put them in her journal.

One thing you need to know about me, is if there's a horse in a museum, I'm going to take a picture of it. Even when he looks crazy, LOL

From the museum, we took the Tube to the Harston’s neighborhood. We helped pick up cousins Hayden and Bobbi from school, then walked to a local chocolatier - Le Mahzen Chocolatier. 

Cousin time!

What a cute shop with delicious treats! I had an iced latte and a white chocolate pistachio cookie, Zach had a coffee and shared a brownie with Wilder, and Felicity had Dubai chocolate, freshly prepared.  

Dubai chocolate, of course

Marvelous iced latte.

Wilder loved his brownie

Lots of laughs

It began to hail and rain while we were in the shop, the only time it rained on us the entire trip, but we had umbrellas and coats and made it fine. 

Highly recommend packing an umbrella everywhere. This was the only time we needed them the whole trip though.

Back at Zach’s sister’s house, the kids played, we had takeaway Indian food and visited with Simon’s parents.  

Wilder is always up for some Magna Tiles

With Simon and Autumn

We Ubered home, and prepared to leave the city the next day for our next adventure in PARIS!!!

The Boatwrights Abroad: Tower of London and Churchill War Rooms

Family pic at in the Tower of London with the Tower Bridge behind us!

On March 12, we walked down the hill from our hotel to the Tower of London. We pre-purchased tickets online, which bypassed the lines, and arrived just in time for a yeoman’s tour of the grounds at 10 a.m.

The yeoman's tours were free, about 50 minutes long, and start on the hour. 

The White Tower

After the entertaining and informative tour, we visited the famous Crown Jewels. On my first trip to London, 20 years ago, the only thing I had time to see at the Tower of London was the Crown Jewels, but it was the highlight of my visit to London. It was so cool to see them again! Felicity and Wilder really enjoyed them - Felicity said they were her favorite thing about London (Outside of Harry Potter) and Wilder agreed. He says a huge punch bowl the size of a bathtub as his favorite site from the city.

 

*Note - unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos in the room with these treasures!* Here are some photos and info!

We also visited all the floors of the White Tower, that had lots of info and armor. 

The Line of Kings has held various armor for centuries.

A 12-year-old prince-size suit of armor

This saddle was a gift. I can't see how riding in it would be comfortable, but it was cool-looking!

Art made with replicas of armory items

Interactive games in the museum

So many cannons!

The exterior of the Tower of London site

We went back to our hotel for lunch, picking up Pret a Manger sandwiches on the way. 

Rick Steves guidebook, Cadbury egg and a coffee in our hotel room. <3

Then we went to the Aldgate East stop to go to Westminster, to go to the Churchill War Rooms and Churchill Museum. We booked the tickets online for a set time. This was the site where Churchill and a team of people took in information and made decisions that ultimately helped win World War II, all while being bombed by the Germans for 9 months. In the Churchill Museum, we learned a lot about him as a man, military officer and politician. It was a really cool visit, and it included a free audio tour. We chose the family version  of the audioguide with interactive elements for the kids. 

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from Churchill featured in the museum.

I especially love this one about books!

Afterward, Wilder wanted to go to the London Lego store, so we trekked over to the West End / Covent Garden area. It was a cool store with lots of London themed Lego stuff (like Big Ben!), but they didn’t have what he wanted. We enjoyed walking around the West End, but it was a long journey back to the East End and our hotel, via the Tube. 

We picked up some food from a small Tesco Express for dinner - beef ravioli, caesar salad and a montepulciano red wine. It was 9 pounds, would have been $40 at home. Conversely, Apothic Wine - my favorite $8 wine at home, was 13 pounds! 

It ended up being a later night than we wanted, but it was still a good meal and a good day. 

The next day was our last full day in London - we went to the British Museum and visited our family!