The original plan was to explore the manuscripts and historical papers in the British Library, return to the Natural History Museum to get the kids off my back about the parts we missed and finish with Trappist Monk style dinner at Belgo Centraal . Not one of those events happened. Our late start and slow breakfast put us out the door at 11:00 without my usual double check of the train route, weather, traffic and news. Overconfidence played a part as well, since we were retracing familiar steps. Or at least we planned to, until we stepped outside to the most perfect bright blue sky and realized that indoor activities were OUT. And with the day half missed already we certainly must not go back inside to adjust the plans, oh no, we would.....wing it!
The first bus we saw was heading to London Bridge, perfect! The nearby London Eye attraction had been bumped off the schedule last week due to gloomy skies and a chance for an extra (indoor) swim day. So on we jumped and after a quick sideline to buy a replacement charger for the Nintendos so they will work from tomorrow when we switch to EU power for the next 7 weeks, we were at the Thames. And so was everyone else. The line for the Eye was 90 minutes at least, with grumpy crowds and crying babies. The heck with that and the huge ticket cost too! While we walked along the Thames I remembered that the transport system included clipper boats that extended the public transit onto the river. Finding a boarding point, we discovered that our prepaid Oyster travel cards would work and we could ride as far as Greenwich!
The lovely boat ride led to a big beautiful park, fantastic little museums and a cute town all on the Greenwich Mean Time Meridian. Thank goodness for the trusty backpack with its sunscreen, camera, transport passes, GPS, snacks and room to put the unneeded jackets.
It wasn't until 3-ish that we started looking around for a meal. That is when the kids noticed the little theatre and reminded me that we still hadn't seen the promised live play. Everything available on the West End had turned out to run at least $150 for 3 tickets, so I had tried and been defeated in finding a good alternative until now. They not only had an appropriate play (Volpone) on tonight, but it was being broadcast so they were charging only 10 pounds each! This was too perfect to worry about little things like the late start (7:30) or the length of the play (turns out 3 hours) or distance from our flat or the time of the last direct buses home (still don't know, but we missed it).
With hours to wait and tickets in hand, we ate pub grub, paddled boats, combed the Thames banks and wandered the astonishingly pretty campus of the Royal Naval Academy. Curtain time found us still excited and not too tired. Halfway through the play, however, I wished for an eject button. The kids were troopers though, following the performance really well and whispering questions. I think they understood the writer's intent and enjoyed the performance but what followed has ruined live theater for them for years, I am afraid. I know I won't want to do it again anytime soon!
We came out; I was shocked to see it was nearly 11pm and what I expected to be a quick trip home wasn't going to appear. We headed back to the boat docks, which oddly run really late. But the quiet and dark creaky pier was too much for the kids, so we headed back up the main street into town hoping for more information...and light. Not much luck, there would be a bus soon but it went the wrong direction and there wouldn't be a guarantee of good connections from there. So, back down to the pier just on time to grab a public transit boat.
The staff on this Thames Clipper were amazing. They sympathized and helped. The stop I would need was determined by the nearest, soonest overground train going directly to the part of London our flat is in. They called to check that we could make it from the dock to the departure platform on time and made me a map from point to point. And we would have made it, too, except that the entrance point machine was faulty and at that time of night the staff was few, far between and not useful. By the time I got the machine to read each of our passes to let us through and we ran for the platform...our train had gone. And we couldn't find anyone to give our ticket money back to us.
It was the last train going our way until morning. And the night bus map confuses better navigators than I. But the kids trooped on and we found a bus from which we could transfer to another and reach our stop out in the suburbs. That last one was surprisingly full and most of the people seemed perfectly sober, normal and nice. They shielded us from the rude party kids in the back.
Well after midnight we came in and fell deep asleep with this morning bringing another slow start. I am trying to convince the tweens that this last afternoon in London is perfect for the Library and an Evensong service....
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