London, day 1

Today, London.  In fact we only spent one day in London despite saying that is where we were going.

On the agenda?  For Youngest...fish and chips.

For the Man and me, the Manet exhibit at the Royal Academy.

For all of us, the British Museum.

So....we took the train into London, then the tube and then, in a city the size of London, we managed to walk right past the apartment that my parents used to have in London.  No planning on it, but we went right past it. As we got closer Youngest, who has spent a week with them every year for five years there, recognized more and more landmarks.....and we went right by.  A little weird feeling.

Then off to the British Museum.

Crowded, amazing.  The Man wanted to see the Lion of Kneid (?) that is in the atrium, we visited Kneid many years ago on a boat with Eldest when she was 6 months old and that was something he wanted to see.  Fortunately there was a little food kiosk right next to it so we sat down to eat a little something.  Then Youngest wanted to see items from North America and Canada.  Fine.  In some ways it seemed a little odd to go to the British Museum to see artifacts from N America, but she goes to school in Spain and there is little to nothing about it here and she wanted to know.  The collection was, to say the least, limited.  One room.  That's it. One.

In the entire British Museum.  However, we looked at it all closely. Weirdly some of it was not marked correctly on the signs, who'da thought the BM would screw up like that, but...whatever.

Then, as we had timed tickets to the Manet exhibit and we weren't sure how long the walk would take us, we headed out, walking down through Soho towards the exhibit.  We found a nice looking pub, the Three Greyhounds, and got us a fish and chip lunch.  With lemonade.  And fine it was too.  Youngest ticked that off her agenda.

On we went, got to Piccadilly Circus, got some souvenirs for some of Youngest's friends and then to Waterstones (no apostrphe) to get some reading!  The man and Youngest found stuff they wanted, so all is good.

Then to the Manet.  It was fine, better than fine, but hear this oh Royal Academy, if you're reading this....for timed tickets that was WAY too crowded.  You could barely see the pictures, and I would think more than twice about going to another exhibition there.  Horridly overcrowded.

From here we walked along the embankment to the Tate Modern to see what was on in the Turbine Hall (disappointingly, nothing) but we got something to drink at the cafe and made our way over the Millenium bridge, which the death eaters explode at the beginning of the 6th HP movie.

The tide was way out so we went down into the river bed, found some bones and a bit of pottery and went home.  Ahhhh, a lovely day indeed.