More on the Food :)

We really have been good about cooking most meals at "home" for the trip and enjoy it a lot. Yesterday I decided to go hog wild by not even packing snacks to carry in to the city with us, just eating an English breakfast before we set out.  In order to cook it, I had my own adventure finding the fuse box for some pre-dawn electrical repairs.  Raawrh!

Part of the point of eating-in so much is to save up the budget and health costs for really special experiences.  This was a day full of memorable ones.   After much great site seeing, we refueled with a late lunch/early tea time in the Crypt Cafe of St. Martin-in-the-Field Church.  The tweens went for soup-and-sandwich 'real' meals followed by samples of tea cakes.  I had the full plate of scones, treats and tea.   The headstones nearest us were from the mid 1700's.

Later, following lion climbing and street performers in Trafalgar Square, we popped into a French bakery for croissants, Apple Snapple and espresso.  Then a cool 3D movie (How to Tame a Dragon) with no junk food had to be rewarded with delicious Italian Gelato eaten in chaotic Covent Gardens.  More people watching and a little shopping prepared us for the LONG walk to a special dinner.

I had planned and pre-purchased a voucher for this event long before the trip.  Some resources I used for reviews, cost-savings, ideas and research: Tripadvisor, My City Deal, Money Saving Expert.  These were the  most useful coupon and idea sources for museums, transportation, free coffee, free grocery delivery and movie discounts too.

But for this once in a lifetime experience at Archipelago, I found the idea and reviews on tripadvisor and a 20 GBP (about $30) coupon on mycitydeal.  The restaurant is hidden far out of the way, is very tiny and very beautifully decorated and serves VERY ODD food.  We were semi-cautious and went with Kangaroo for me, Ostrich for both tweens and shared exotic cheeses and chutneys for dessert.  Take a look at the other options: http://www.archipelago-restaurant.co.uk/

Lions, paintings, dragons and swords

Hokey tourist stuff can be SO cool.  The kids loved the lion statues in Trafalgar Square and were right up there climbing them with the other visitors for a long while.

The National Gallery was less of a hit, for us it may have been one museum too much?  The paintings are world class and I am glad we walked through.  The building itself is amazing.  Next door and equally beautiful is St. Martins-in-the-Field where we were lucky to catch the end of a concert and then take tea in the Crypt!

Most of the day was spent roaming and people-watch, mainly in and around Covent Gardens with its street performers.  Everyone should have a day of this at least once!

             

Breaking up all the fun chaos, we took in a 3D movie: How to Train Your Dragon.  It was actually really cute and we had the theater nearly to ourselves.  The only thing left after that was an exotic dinner at Archipelago and the long ride back out to the 'burbs.

Easter at the zoo

I hope Kraft, the evil corporate giant of crap food, leaves their newly purchased subsidiary Cadbury unchanged. We had a fun day at the zoo in Battersea Park following the trail of clues and winning the Cadbury egg prizes.

It is a cute little zoo, fun and not overwhelming.  We could get up close to everything and could even feed and pet many of the animals which I don't think I have ever seen at a zoo before.  The Meercat exhibit even had tunnels under it where the kids could pop right up in the midst of the critters.  There were also little playground areas scattered around just for fun.  If it had been warmer the day would have been perfect and lasted much longer.

Chris:  At the zoo we had a great time.  Not only were there prizes at end but there were loads of great animals to see and play with.  It is pretty small but big enough for me.  It was fun to use clues to find the eggs hidden in the exhibits.  My favorite part was the meercats, they are cute standing up and playing.  My favorite monkeys were the yellow ones.

Maddy:  We saw so many cool animals.  My favorite was also the adorable meercats, I loved them.  We enjoyed the egg hunt (painted stones in the cages) with the chocolates at the end.  The petting areas and feeding the animals was really awesome.

Town Weekend Market and small local Pub

It is hard to pick a favorite part of today.  This is our first Saturday here, so we stayed local and did the town's Weekend Market.  The kids had luck, finding a vintage Lego set and a cute ring for Maddy, both bargains.  I wanted everything and got nothing due to lack of luggage space.  I'll hit eBay when the trip is over.


We followed up the exploring and shopping with a simple lunch in the very cute local pub called Whitehart.  The old building is warmly decorated with fabrics and cushions and couches.  Their music selection kept me giggling, especially when they alternated Beach Boys with Akon.  And my attempt to request root beers for the kids resulted in an accidental attempt to serve them mildly alcoholic ginger beer. The Tweens made new friends when we got back to the flat, a family with boys was checking in upstairs.  Great stuff, all around.


Chris:

Earlier today we went to the weekend market and bought cool things then went to a pub and had really good hamburgurs for lunch then we went home and relaxed. We had a very good day.

Maddy:

Another really nice time today, we went to the weekend market to buy rings and antique legos. After that went to a pub to have fries and burgers. Yummy in my tummy!

Homeschool and Leisure Center Pool

We had fun today despite having to catch up on tons of homeschooling. We broke off for long enough to walk through town and find the community pool. The place is massive with 3 indoor pools but we only had an hour to swim so stuck to the little one.  Back home in the US there are no big community supported Leisure Centers but some areas have a semi-private similar system called YMCA. It was well worth the cold walk home and I am glad we visited this one.  The large wide-open changing room was a bit of an awkward surprise for these dull Americans though.  I didn't realize until it was too late that I had sent Chris in alone to what must be a male version of the same setup.  The smart boy turned right around and brought his clothes into the WC he had noticed in the hall where he dressed without embarrassment.  Now that we are prepared it won't be as uncomfortable if we go back.  Hopefully.

As for the school work, both Tweens kicked butt, getting several days' worth of assignments done.  Maddy even wrote a play about the Reformation featuring Henry VIII.  Poor Chris is having to slog through endless fractions.    

Foodie stuff, the good and the ugly

Thinking we were getting a bright, dry day in London I had the kids choose between Covent Garden and Borough Market for activities today.  Both were foodie destinations that appeal more to me but they DID get to tear up the Science Museum all day yesterday.  Their choice came down to the restaurant options for the dinner/bribe at the end of each.  I had gift certificates for sushi near the Borough Market so there we went.

Even though the day changed to cold rain interspersed with grey drizzle, the market was fantastic.  It has existed as a food-buying center since at least 1014.  The stalls were beautiful and varied from organic vegetables to exotic fruits to wines to whole animals and everything in between.  We sampled fresh soup, turkish delights and hot drinks.  I can't guess how many languages were spoken all around us.  When I tried to practice my French at one shop the gentleman laughed in a nice way and asked in English were I was from.

To make all of it up to the kids I had to tear myself away and head for the sushi.  Unfortunately they weren't serving dinner yet, so we popped over a few blocks to Tate Modern.  I hadn't planned to tour this one because it would bore the Tweens.  It exceeded that expectation.  I could barely stand to spend an hour there myself and enjoyed the view of the Thames from the 5th floor more than anything else.  A helpful guide did point us towards 2 exhibits that were interesting: a VW bus surrounded by WW2 era rescue sleds and a pair of "trees" carved from huge blocks of wood.  The vast majority seemed like pure nonsense to me.  Maddy liked a few of the sculptures but not nearly as much as she liked the classics in the other museums.

Finally, time to run through the rain back to the restaurant, Tsuru.  The waiter who earlier pointed us to the Tate had saved a nice table for us with a cool little place card.  The Tweens ordered edemame and a huge platter of various sushi and sashimi while I wimped out with katsu curry.  They finished the tray of RAW ugly fish, squid, lobster and god knows what else before I was done and were still hungry.  Since my certificates covered more than we had spent so far I let them reorder.  We are back in the flat, warming up and relaxing.  Their full bellies are putting them to sleep faster than I can write this.

Laundry Challenge

Our flight from Budapest to Venice will be on a small regional carrier that is very affordable but charges outrageous fees for luggage.  Their free allowance is for a smaller than normal (20x14x9) carry on with no added objects other than a coat.  So I decided to try to get through the whole trip with the children using that size bag and mine being not much larger so we only have to pay one penalty.  The clothing that fit in these small bags has lasted nicely for this first week but it was important to get some wash done today.

Waking up to a sunny sky was a great start.  Going down stairs to the washroom and looking at the tiny European sized unfamiliar washer was a bit daunting but with the kids help I figured it out.  Luckily I had packed little sheets of paper-soap made for washing machines.  Problem? Less than half of the laundry would fit in the little thing.  And with a nice sunny day ticking by I decided not to waste more than one load's worth of time.  So we triaged the dirty items, shoved in what needed it most and rushed on with getting ready for the day.

It finished spinning right as we finished eating breakfast, dressing and packing a cheese, cracker and fruit picnic.  The kids helped me drag the wet clothes out and drape all of it on ourselves to carry to the clothesline.  We improvised and struggled, learning how to hang everything to dry.  Not much was dropped.    After running back inside to hang the underthings more discretely indoors and double-check the bus transfer number we were off.  Just in time for the clouds to roll in and rain to come pouring down.