Our Tales From Tanzania: London

ISM (kids’ school) has a long spring break. 3 weeks. Well, 24 days, but who’s counting? We already knew that Matt had to be in the US for the last week, but then he said that he wanted to also be in London for a TNC event on the Thursday of the middle week. So, we decided to just tag along to London and extend it to a full week family vacation. As soon as we booked our tickets, we called Grammy Webb and asked her if she wanted to join us (Grammy Webb loves London and grandkids, so we figured this was a brilliant combination), and she readily agreed.

We all arrived on red-eyes early on Monday morning. We met up in Heathrow and took the tube in to check out the flat that we had rented for the week. It worked out perfectly for the six of us.

Since we were all a bit tired we didn’t have much planned for the day. We did a little grocery shopping at the neighborhood co-op and then ventured to the Science Museum which wasn’t too far from where we were staying. It was very cool, but a bit overwhelming since this was also a school holiday in the UK. We even got to go on the 4D flight simulator (the seats moved as we flew).

On Tuesday Matt totally saved me. Part of our week plan was to go on the Harry Potter Studio Tour, but I didn’t realize how popular this was (again it was also a break for the kids there) and it turns out the tours were sold out for the next three weeks! What??!! I didn’t even know that was possible, but Matt did some research and found a tour company that sold excursions that still had spots available. Phew! Since our tour bus didn’t leave until after lunch we spent the morning exploring Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. We went to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard (or as Ashy said “Is today the day that we go to the bucking of the guard?”), but it turns out that there was some state function with foreign dignitaries, so it didn’t happen.

The Harry Potter Studio Tour at the Warner Brothers studios where the films were shot was a highlight of the week. Anderson was underimpressed until we got to the Quidditch section. Walking into the Great Hall was really cool and we got to meet one of the real owls that played Hedwig. We went ‘flying’, shopping on Diagon Alley, rode the Night Bus, and tried Butter Beer. We think architect Grandpa Jeff would have loved seeing all the drawings and models before they built the sets.

The kids decided that they wanted to buy “Every Flavour Beans” from the gift shop – think weird Jelly Bellies. They have some good flavors (kids declared tutti-fruitti a favorite), but others are disgusting. Ash somehow talked me into trying soap. I thought it would taste “floraly”, but it was so gross. I thought my mouth was going to start foaming.

Tierney was brave (?) enough to try vomit and Anderson tried earthworm (both spit it in the garbage) . I think they’ll have to find some unsuspecting victims to try some of the other gross ones, so watch out.

Wednesday was Matilda day. We had matinee tickets, so that left a morning free. Anderson, Matt, and Webb braved the crowds at the Natural History Museum to see dinosaurs, and the girls and I went to H&M and Marks&Spencer for some shopping.

The Matilda play had been recommended to us by a few different people. I was worried about the kids sitting through a 2 1/2 hour play, but I needn’t have. It was amazing! Anderson declared that this was “the best play I’ve seen in my whole entire life!”. I think we all decided that this was the #1 highlight of the week.

After the play we walked around the corner to a pub and had our fish and chips.

Thursday was Matt’s full work day, so Webb and I had the kids to ourselves to explore some of the great things in London. This was definitely our big tourist day: Tower of London where we learned of beheadings and saw the crown jewels, Millennium Bridge, St. Paul’s Cathedral (didn’t go in), Tate Modern, and the London Eye with views of Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey.

The vegetarian Beefeater that we met

Friday was a kid favorite: Legoland in Windsor (where we briefly saw Windsor castle). Rides, shows, Legos, and more Legos.

No tracks for these big kids

Miniland was really cool. Whole cities out of Legos: the Eiffel tower was 3 meters tall and they said it took 2,500 hours to build; London had a working Eye and elevators not to mention the moving changing of the guard.

And when Matt euphemistically tries to tell you that Legoland wasn’t one of his favorite parts of the week, just remind him of this picture.

That night Matt and I were able to sneak out for a sushi dinner date and a nice walk through our neighborhood.

Saturday afternoon Webb had to leave us, but we had a lovely breakfast at a colleague of Matt’s house (I love pastries, cheese, bread, and coffee for breakfast!) and then we headed over to Portobello Market. We bought a few presents and quickly tired of the throngs of people.

Matt had to head to the US on Sunday morning, so the kids and I were on our own until we needed to head to the airport later that afternoon, so we headed out the the British Museum to see the Rosetta Stone. Since we were there, we also found some real mummies. This was pretty fun for the kids.

We had an amazing week and the kids are already talking about what we’ll do the next time we go. By the end of the week they could pretty easily read the tube maps and figure out where we need to go. It was fun to watch.

It was an uneventful trip back to Tanzania and the kids slept until 8:30 the next morning. When Ash woke up she told me I needed to ‘fix’ her watch since it was the wrong time. Even she didn’t believe that she could sleep that late.

We had a nice welcome home from Mt. Meru and the two peaks of Kilimanjaro as we were landing.