{"id":4716,"date":"2016-06-18T14:16:20","date_gmt":"2016-06-18T20:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=4716"},"modified":"2016-06-18T14:49:56","modified_gmt":"2016-06-18T20:49:56","slug":"london-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/06\/london-part-1.html","title":{"rendered":"London, Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

We\u2019re there! \u00a0And here\u2019s a bit of a travel journal for both family\/friends and blog readers. \u00a0(Family: \u00a0when I say \u201cmy husband\u201d and \u201cthe kids\u201d instead of naming them, that\u2019s just due to the nature of the blog. \u00a0And yes, I have pictures with the family in them, too.)<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0422\"<\/p>\n

We arrived at Heathrow on Sunday. \u00a0Flight was delayed, and passport control lines were long, so we finally made it into the city in the early afternoon, got to the rental apartment, unpacked a bit, had some lunch, walked around a bit, and that was about it.<\/p>\n

The apartment, by the way, which we booked through Air B&B and is being expensed due to my husband\u2019s spending this days working, is pretty central, and right next to a tube line, making it very convenient. \u00a0Unfortunately, though it was reasonably quiet until now, it seems that it\u2019s going to be a bit rowdy the next couple nights as we move into the weekend; today especially, pubgoers are celebrating the soccer win today and waving English flags.<\/p>\n

Monday: \u00a0the British Museum, of course.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0431\"<\/p>\n

The Rosetta Stone!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0451\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"IMG_0461<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0463\"<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0468\"<\/p>\n

The Assyrians!<\/p>\n

Plus, well, other cool stuff, but I\u2019m not much of a photographer.<\/p>\n

Tuesday<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Started off scoping out Toffee Park<\/a>, which bills itself as an \u201cadventure playground.\u201d \u00a0 It\u2019s not actually open except the after-school hours, but it was forecast to rain later, so I\u00a0wanted to find it before then.<\/p>\n

Then walked towards the city center \u2014 well, I guess I\u2019m not sure what the official \u201ccity center\u201d is, but towards the financial district\/St. Paul\u2019s area. \u00a0Passed by a line-up of food carts,<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0508\"<\/p>\n

With all kinds of food, but it was raining by that point and was still a bit early for lunch. \u00a0Continued to walk past the hideous \u201cBarbican\u201d and into an area in which all manner of men and women were getting their lunch at various prepackaged sandwich shops, but it was hard going to find one with tables for us to sit at. \u00a0(And so far I haven\u2019t seen a single McDonalds.)<\/p>\n

Passed a church-turned-coffeeshop:<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0532\"<\/p>\n

But it still was a ministry of sorts, with a bookshelf of Christian literature, and discussion groups and talks of various sorts.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0534\"<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0531\"<\/p>\n

And note that the main area has a newly-tiled floor, but this older area, at the entrance to the toilets, is \u201ctiled\u201d by means of old tombstones.<\/p>\n

After a bit more walking, we made our way to the Museum of London, and got drenched in the process. \u00a0Ugh. \u00a0Dried off while looking at exhibits on prehistoric, Roman, and Medieval London, but then had to rush through modern times in order to make it back to Toffee Park for the kids to take a look at the inside.<\/p>\n

Wednesday<\/strong><\/p>\n

The weather here is really difficult to judge but the forecast was for afternoon rain only, so we hopped on the tube. \u00a0Started off at Leicester Square, to take a look at the half-price ticket booth (where the half-price tickets on offer for the Lion King turned out to be\u00a0standing room tickets only). \u00a0Then went to Trafalger Square, which wasn\u2019t really much, and under construction besides, then Picadilly Circus, which was likewise, well, once big Times Square-like screen and that\u2019s about it; maybe it\u2019s got more Times Square-like excitement later in the day (it was 11:00).<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0623\"<\/p>\n

From there we walked to St. James\u2019s Park, where the Changing of the Guard was occuring but we knew there were enough people gathered there we wouldn\u2019t be able to watch. \u00a0The kids played at a playground briefly and we continued on, passing multiple hot dog stands figuring that when we got to the Houses of Parliament area we\u2019d get more choice.<\/p>\n

And, by the way, it is very amusing to see tons of schoolgroups, each in their own uniform, girls in cotton dresses, boys in jackets and ties, sometimes with reflective vests as well, at all the tourist sites\/museums.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0654\"<\/p>\n

Anyway, we made it from there we went to Big Ben, where the expected profusion of food carts did not materialize, and I ultimately gave up, and we hopped on the Tube for our next stop, Covent Garden and the London Transport Museum, where we planned to spend the early afternoon when it was forecast to rain anyway.<\/p>\n

Covent Garden, it turns out, is an upscale shopping area, but the ubiquitous sandwich shops, on every streetcorner everywhere else, were nowhere to be found. \u00a0We circled around fruitlessly, got a cookie \u201cappetizer\u201d instead, and eventually had a couple sandwiches at the in-museum cafe. \u00a0Then we toured the museum (unlike most others, it charged an admission fee, but only for adults, so still not too bad), and took the tube again to Toffee Park, where I dropped the kids off in order to go back to the apartment to work, and from where my husband picked them up a couple hours later.<\/p>\n

Thursday<\/strong><\/p>\n

So the forecast was again rain, so the kids and I headed to the Science Museum (yes, it\u2019s really called that). \u00a0Turns out, this is a part of a cluster of museums which are accessible via a Tube passageway, so they\u2019re perfect for rainy days if you\u2019re already close to a Tube or bus stop.<\/p>\n

The museum itself? \u00a0Well, it\u2019s your generic science museum. \u00a0We spent most of our time in the space and the Making the Modern World exhibits, as well as seeing an IMAX film.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a V2 rocket:<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0696\"<\/p>\n

and here\u2019s, as the sign says, The World\u2019s Oldest Steam Locomotive.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0699\"<\/p>\n

Friday<\/strong><\/p>\n

We went to Greenwich, to the Royal Observatory, the National Maritime Museum (not that impressive) and the Cutty Sark (19th century clipper ship). \u00a0It was OK, but I don\u2019t have any good pictures.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019ll leave off there, if for no other reason than that my pictures from today are stubbornly refusing to load. \u00a0We did finally make it to the big name sights on Saturday \u2014 the Tower of London and Tower Bridge \u2014 since we had waited \u2019til my husband could join us.<\/p>\n

More to come. . .<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Images: \u00a0all own photographs<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re there! \u00a0And here\u2019s a bit of a travel journal for both family\/friends and blog readers. \u00a0(Family: \u00a0when I say \u201cmy husband\u201d and \u201cthe kids\u201d instead of naming them, that\u2019s just due to the nature of the blog. \u00a0And yes, I have pictures with the family in them, too.) We arrived at Heathrow on Sunday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":4723,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[414,415],"class_list":["post-4716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-london","tag-vacation-2016"],"yoast_head":"\nLondon, Part 1<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We're there! \u00a0And here's a bit of a travel journal for both family\/friends and blog readers. \u00a0(Family: \u00a0when I say "my husband" and "the kids" instead of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/06\/london-part-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"London, Part 1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We're there! \u00a0And here's a bit of a travel journal for both family\/friends and blog readers. \u00a0(Family: \u00a0when I say "my husband" and "the kids" instead of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/06\/london-part-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-18T20:16:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-06-18T20:49:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2016\/06\/IMG_0422.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/06\/london-part-1.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/06\/london-part-1.html\",\"name\":\"London, Part 1\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-18T20:16:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-06-18T20:49:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\"},\"description\":\"We're there! \u00a0And here's a bit of a travel journal for both family\/friends and blog readers. \u00a0(Family: \u00a0when I say \\\"my husband\\\" and \\\"the kids\\\" instead of\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/06\/london-part-1.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/06\/london-part-1.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/06\/london-part-1.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"London, Part 1\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jane the Actuary\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"London, Part 1","description":"We're there! \u00a0And here's a bit of a travel journal for both family\/friends and blog readers. \u00a0(Family: \u00a0when I say \"my husband\" and \"the kids\" instead of","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/06\/london-part-1.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"London, Part 1","og_description":"We're there! \u00a0And here's a bit of a travel journal for both family\/friends and blog readers. \u00a0(Family: \u00a0when I say \"my husband\" and \"the kids\" instead of","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/06\/london-part-1.html","og_site_name":"Jane the Actuary","article_published_time":"2016-06-18T20:16:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-06-18T20:49:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":576,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2016\/06\/IMG_0422.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jane the Actuary","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jane the Actuary","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/06\/london-part-1.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/06\/london-part-1.html","name":"London, Part 1","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-06-18T20:16:20+00:00","dateModified":"2016-06-18T20:49:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a"},"description":"We're there! \u00a0And here's a bit of a travel journal for both family\/friends and blog readers. \u00a0(Family: \u00a0when I say \"my husband\" and \"the kids\" instead of","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/06\/london-part-1.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/06\/london-part-1.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/06\/london-part-1.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"London, Part 1"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/","name":"Jane the Actuary","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a","name":"Jane the Actuary","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jane the Actuary"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}