While the kids were at school, Mark, Grandma, and Grandpa, ventured out in the country to Kent, near Downe, to Down House, home of Charles Darwin (I call him "Chuck"). It was something I've been wanting to do for years, and it was worth the wait.
We got to ride the Tube, then the train, and then a bus to get there. The bus ride was the most interesting, as a group of schoolkids rode with us a good bit of the way. They were not the most cooperative class, but we all survived. Oddly enough, they were on the return trip with us. The roads near Down House are so narrow that the bus brushed the hedgerows along the way. Very interesting and exciting...
It's hard to tell from the picture, but this is the inside of a toilet on the train. Kind of fancy, with framed pictures on the walls. Those buttons were locks, and I'm not sure about some of the features on them...a great bonus on the way out there.
These pictures are from the back of the house. Without going into detail, Charles Darwin, who was from a somewhat wealthy family, married into the Wedgewood family, so he wasn't hurting. They lived here a long time, a very idyllic abode...
The gardens there are immaculate, and preserved similarly to the house. His gardens and small greenhouse housed some of his research.
Chuck was fascinated with carnivorous plants. Pictured here are some venus fly traps. He also studied other carnivorous plants.
Pictures were not allowed in most of the house. There were some actual notebooks of his, as well as other objects he used in research and writing. However, their bedroom had been re-created as it was when they lived there, as pictured below.
I couldn't resist trying on one of his hats....
A few shots from the train ride home, or at least to the Tube.
The next day Grandma and I ventured out on our own, and took a boat ride from Little Venice to Camden Locks on the Regents Canal. Regents Canal served London in older times to transport goods around town. It's not something most do on their first trip to London, but very worthwhile. Goes by the London Zoo, and Camden Lock is a tourist haven.
Now the canal has lots of houseboats on it. Very interesting lifestyle.
Birdhouse at the London Zoo. By the way, this is the zoo where Harry Potter first spoke Parsel Tongue, as noted by a sign in the herpetarium.
Yes, Regents Canal does have pirates, so I felt right at home.
Camden Locks
That afternoon, Grandpa was fortunate enough to be a guest reader for Henry's class. Grandma helped too. The book was about pirates, oddly enough.....
If all that wasn't enough excitement for one day, we encountered a fire truck with hoses hooked up and putting out a fire, the block over from home. Had to stop and gawk a bit...
This is Henry's after school routine: a bowl of Rice Krispies, and glued to ipad. I do believe this day he had destroyed his headphones (the blue ones), and was using Maddie's, as she hadn't gotten home from school yet.
Grandpa had a good German bier while Henry ate his Rice Krispies.
Maddie was one of her class to present a project that they had been working on for a long time. This presentation was the culmination of many hours of work and research on her subject of sustainability. Her partner (in black shirt) is in her class. She did a wonderful job of presenting her work, and answered everyone's questions very well. There was a large crowd of people there. We were so happy we could be part of this. One more milestone passed in Maddie's education.
Everyone in Maddie's class had a presentation.
Grandma had her phone in her hand, and apparently kept taking pictures of her feet, as there are about ten of these in the file....lol Yes, it was raining that evening and we got wet...
This is the book Maddie wrote about her project; I know it's upside down, but I can't figure out how to upright it.
On the corner is Sara's Hookah Lounge, next to a dry cleaners, and another restaurant. It is spelled differently than our Sarah, so no connection. I looked it up on TripAdvisor...read it for yourself. We haven't been there.
While Grandma and Mark visited the Wallace Art Collection, I went to the Imperial War Museum. This is an outstanding museum. There is no mistaking that it is a war museum from the exhibit out front.
Although all the exhibits are outstanding, the WWI exhibit has just been redone, and it super. Also, their Holocaust exhibit is very sobering, but very worthwhile.
One of many V-2 rockets fired at London from Germany.
After another exhausting day, we tried a Pig Smasher beer, as well as a Mariana Trench beer.
Our last full day in London was spent at Kew Botanical Gardens, the premier botanical garden in the world, no kidding. It was founded in the mid-1700s, and has trees planted in that timeframe. The purpose was to develop and research plants to make the British colonies more economically productive. It's huge, and these are just a few of the pictures we took. It's out a bit, in Richmond, but worth the trip (sounds like something I'd say on TripAdvisor).
This is Kew Mansion, or Palace. My mind gets boggled at all the palaces and monarchs who lived in all these places. It's impressive though....
So, there's this walkway in the treetops, allowing one to see and experience what it's like at the top of trees. It's like 100 feet up. What they don't tell you is that the walkway is a grate, that you can kind of see through. OK, not so bad, but it also sways in the wind. Grandma put one foot out of the elevator, and turned around and went back down. Trust me, I had one hand on that railing the whole time.
This tree has been here since 1760. It has a brick wall holding it up, but it's still alive.
This structure is called the Beehive. Although I don't pretend to fully understand it, there are lights on the inside hooked up to all the beehives in Kew Gardens. As bees are active, there are sensors that light up the lights in this structure.
On the way home from Kew, we came across this chapel. We were parched, and so we attended services there. Great bangers and mash. Another keeper...
That evening we went to a Greek restaurant. Maddie and Henry liked their smoothies. I like my beer.
The next day we flew home uneventfully, and made it through the maze of O'Hare. We stayed at the same hotel, and drove home the next day. We brought home a wonderful respiratory virus that we still have vestiges of. We can't thank the London Millers enough for making this trip possible. Getting us there, and putting up with us, again, was way over the top. We look forward to having you here in a couple weeks for a visit.
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