London, England, Stop 15

July 27

We love Cambridge but it’s time to move on to London. We wake up, have breakfast and head to our train. The train ride is uneventful and we make it to London. We are staying a short walk from Paddington Station. Our little flat is quirky and cute and our home for the next 5 nights.

***Dmitri: It’s one of those AirBnB places that look pretty great with their photos and then you get there and something is...not exactly what you expect. In this case, the master bed is up against a side wall, meaning I have to crawl in from the side or bottom. But, I can’t complain because the kids’ bed literally takes up the width of their small room. You open the door, and there’s the edge of the bed. Well, the conservatory thing it has is pretty fun. It’s an open-air stone floor space with chairs and bookcases, and a retractable roof. We’re in the basement flat, so this makes a little Hobbit-esque space a bit more fun.

We’re staying in Bayswater, which turns out to be a fun little neighborhood bound by no fewer than 3 Underground stops and Hyde Park. London is so well connected via tube and bus that it’s hard to find an inconvenient place to be.***

July 28

We wake to rain pattering on the roof of our little conservatory. It’s really the little things. We Southern Californians still find rain a novelty and sometimes there just isn’t anything better than lying in bed and listening to the rain. After a good lie-in, we get ready to explore London. Dmitri and I have been a few times, but it’s the first time for the kids and there is much to do. Do we go touristy, do we just wander, what to do? Well, drats. We get a call and it seems the NHS will be foiling our London plans. Very non specifically they tell us we *might* have come in contact with someone who has tested positive and we have to self isolate. :( It's pretty ridiculous since in a couple of weeks the official procedure will be for people who have had 2 vaccinations to not have to self isolate. Grrr. We all have 2 vaccinations and have tested negative TWICE since we arrived in the UK and once before we left Croatia. Grrr.

On a positive note, it's raining and it's lovely in our little conservatory. We hem and haw for a bit and try to read up on what happens if we leave and get caught and how much potential fines could be. Like, what if we just don’t answer our phones? Will they call every day? Are we really a risk to other people? This lasts most of the day and then Dmitri and I decide to find a middle ground. We are to meet up with his cousin, Natasha, that night for dinner. Instead, we invite her over to the flat. With total disclosure of our situation, of course. Dmitri and I head out for groceries and walk through Hyde park which is gorgeous. Then the rain starts coming down. And I mean, really really pouring. It’s coming sideways and the bottoms of my pants are soaked and clinging to my legs. Ah, England.

We persevere and stock up for the next few days. We arrive home and Chef Mia prepares fish tacos, some fajita veggies, and a homemade guacamole sauce. Natasha arrives with bubbly and we have a wonderful evening catching up and telling stories.

***Dmitri: It’s so good to see family, and this is my second cousin within the month! Just one left in London.***

July 29

We wake to an incredibly sunny and warm--but not too warm--day. The day before we arrived in London, the temperature was 90 F!! We feel lucky that we missed a big heat wave there. We decide that it’s perfect for a hop on/hop off bus tour. Terribly touristy but who cares. We are, after all, tourists. We sit on the top of a double decker bus and take in London in all her glory.

We visit the Tower of London and walk right in. Unlike other years, there is no long ticket line. We are led on a tour by a boisterous yeoman who says it’s the first day of tours since covid.

After the tour, Mia and Dmitri head to the Tower Bridge to walk across it and Jack and I go to St. Dunstan. St. Dunstan-in-the-East is a former church that was bombed during the Blitz of London in WWII and it was never rebuilt. It’s a garden now and quite beautiful and peaceful. After we meet up with Mia and Dmitri, we all hop back on the bus and enjoy our tour.

***Mia- Dad and I walked up to the top of the Tower Bridge. After climbing the stairs, we were rewarded with a spectacular view of the Thames. It’s a short walk across the top of the bridge, and there is a portion of see-through glass floor. We timidly walked across, trying to avoid looking down at the plummeting drop. I know the glass is thick, but it’s impossible to ignore the queasy gut feeling. Your instincts are telling you “do not walk there, you will fall!!”***

Later that night, we meet complete the cousin trio and see Christian and his daughter, Perdy, at Grander and Co in Chelsea. Natasha joins as us well and Mia is happy to have someone her own age to talk to, as Perdy is 17.

July 30

Off we head to Selfridges’s, which is an enormous department store that takes up an entire city block. It is amazing and we wander through, enjoying the tech section and the chocolate hall. We continue to walk around Oxford and Regents streets and head to Hamley’s, the oldest toy store in the world.

It’s 7 stories and wow, there are A LOT of toys. It’s a bit overwhelming, but we are on a mission. We look for the perfect gifts for nephew and niece/cousins Hendrix and Halen. After succeeding brilliantly, we head to Chipotle for a taste of home. Jack is blissed out at the taste of long-missed bean and cheese burrito.

Happily full, we get absolutely poured on trying to get to Churchill’s War Cabinets. We are informed when we arrive that we don’t have enough time to see the exhibit properly so we decide to come back another day. On we walk to see Buckingham Palace and magically it’s sunny and bright again. Mia is amused, having been binging episodes of The Crown recently. This is a marathon day, so we trudge on to Harrod’s and, of course, have to compare their chocolate hall to the one at Selfridge’s. Tired and full of chocolate, we head back and eat dinner at our little flat.

***Mia- I watched all 4 seasons of The Crown in probably like 3 or 4 weeks. Buckingham Palace was probably one of the most touristy stops, but I just had to go.***

We are having such a good time in London that we decide to add on a night before starting our UK road trip. Luckily our Airbnb hosts are able to accommodate.

***Dmitri: Despite being actually from the U.K. (and having a UK passport, no kidding), and visiting many times, I’ve never been to Selfridge’s because, well, who visits a department store? But no, this is a thing, and it’s legit. I’ve never seen a store like this, and the downstairs candy/chocolate/delicacies area is a sight to behold. Table after table of fancy high-end chocolates, bordered by cases of sweets and treats from all over. It dazzles.

Also, the last time I did a hop-on/hop-off bus I was 21 and fell asleep from jet lag. This time the weather was perfect, the stories interesting, and it really was a great way to get around. I usually hate mainstream tourist traps, but this was one I was happy to be in.***

July 31

Feeling less stressed about packing in the rest of what we want to do into one day, we head in the direction of Portobello Road and Notting Hill. But first, we stop at the Museum of Brands. We like to visit quirky, off the beaten path places and this is right up our alley. Wow, it’s so interesting.

***Dmitri: It’s essentially a time line of packaging that serves as a really fun history of the culture. It is of course British, so harder to relate to than in the US, but it shows the stereotypes, hopes and dreams of a group over time.

What a great way to see history, and for a cultural theory person it’s a treasure trove of material. It ended up spurring a lot of conversations with our kids as the artifacts approached the 70s and 80s. Like, you actually used that product? Wow!***

Portobello Road is also fun for us and we browse and wander along and have lunch at the food stalls before continuing to stroll Notting Hill.

***Dmitri: Cindy and I both like the movie Notting Hill, and it was fun to just be a part of that very real, very vibrant neighborhood. I particularly like the montage in the movie where the main character passes the seasons as he walks down the Portobello open air market, and there we were traversing the same place. Fun!***

We have a time limit today, though, as we are meeting Natasha and Perdy for a matinee of Heathers. Musical theatre after so long feels decadent.

***Mia- The last time I saw a show was early March 2020 in New York and I really missed live theatre. I had already listened to some of the music in Heathers and almost happy cried when the actors first came onstage. It was really exciting to be sitting in an audience, watching real people on a stage instead of recordings of shows. We did have to wear masks, but the performers themselves didn’t, which made the experience feel just the same as it was before the pandemic.***

Aug. 1

Our last full (bonus) day starts at the Churchill Museum and War Cabinet. I recently finished reading The Splendid and the Vile and have a keen interest in learning about what life was like during the Blitz. I find the whole exhibit amazingly well done and terribly interesting. I’ll let the others tell you their thoughts and impressions:

***Mia- We could’ve spent 5 hours in there and still not have seen everything. I wasn’t really interested in Churchill before coming here, but the exhibit was captivating and had fun interactives. Being in the same hallways that they lived in during the Blitz was eerie, but informative all the same.***

***Jack: It was very interesting to see the war cabinet that Churchill used in World War Two. It was entirely underground and fortified and it was interesting to see the living conditions they were in.***

***Dmitri: Honestly, I wasn’t super-excited to go the see the Churchill anything. And I don’t really like most museums because they’re so dull. Ug, I’m going to hear stories about an old guy chewing on a cigar and how they used tea to cope. Well, wow, how about this being probably the best museum I’ve ever been to? The story of WWII is of course deep, traumatic, hopeful and full of heroes and villains, and this was just a great entry vector into it. After touring the place where Churchill conducted the war--interesting but honestly pretty drab--the museum enters a space with a ton of interactive exhibits. They had something for every attention span, and every modality. Lots of tech making the ideas and stories very accessible, interesting and just so easy. How often does a museum do that? It’s a 5/5 Dmitri-star outing. This may not be the rare 5/5 Golden Jack award, but it’s pretty good.***

After the museum we are hungry so it’s back to Chipotle for Jack and a wander through Soho. Originally, Dmitri, Mia, and I had planned to do a pub walking tour but it’s been canceled because of stupid covid. The guide reaches out to let us know he got a notice from the NHS that he *might* have been exposed to someone who tested positive. Instead, we find a tapas place and later go to this amazing mash restaurant. I mean, OMG, good. Wow. We are well fed and happy. https://www.mothermash.co.uk/

***Jack: I was very happy to get chipotle. It’s my favorite restaurant from back home and it was great to eat it again.***

***Dmitri: We wandered through Soho, which is very fun, and in parts very gay. When I was younger, I’d have been put off and uncomfortable with that kind of zone. Maybe I’ve aged or maybe things have changed because now I recognize that gay-centric zones in cities tend to be the most vibrant, most interesting, artsy and non-corporate chain-store. Unique galleries, shops and eateries. I love it.

In contrast, we walk down Carnaby Street, the old home of British rock and rebellion and it’s like some corporate hellscape of chain stores, monotony and sell-outs. It’s tragic and we move on immediately to focus on more interesting sights, which abound.***

Back to the flat for a little down time before Mia and I have tickets to see the interactive Van Gogh exhibit in Hyde Park.

***Mia- I’d seen the Van Gogh experience all over the internet so I was curious to see what it was about. We sat in a dimly lit room on the floor for an hour surrounded by giant screens. Projected on them was a slideshow of most of not all of Van Gogh’s paintings, interspersed with snippets of info about his life and which period the paintings were from. I’m not a huge art buff, but I found it calming to be surrounded by the colors and the music and check out for a bit.***

After Van Gogh’ing it up, we walk through Kensington Gardens and Mia spots Kensington Palace and is not impressed.

Mia—is that Kensington Palace? It looks like a prison. Or El Segundo High School.

Ha! Too funny. We enjoy the weather and the park and just being in London as we make our way back to our little flat on Gloucester Terrace for the last time.