Saying goodbye to London

I can't say that I am sorry to be leaving London. We are at the end of our trip and we are all tired and ready to be headed home. The day started out in a hectic way as we started to pack . I headed out to find a bank machine so that we could pay for our cab ride. Our metro station did not not have a bank machine so I ended up running(literally) up to Highgate Village in search of a bank machine.


We got packed up and all of our stuff downstairs. Our cab showed up 1/2 hour late. We had a LONG wait for British Airways at check-in and then going through security they continually hassled us over the number of bags since we were carrying bags for our children. This was followed by a woman who was very upset with us for the large size of our carry-ons despite the fact that it was within British Airway's given dimensions. Her co-workers were forcing her to let us pass but she told us she was sure that security would not allow us to proceed because of the size of our carry-ons. Her co-workers seemed to be shaking their heads. This women must have a miserable life to wish others to be miserable also. We have had such good previous experiences with British Airways that I am still impressed by this poor state of service.


I came to London expecting to really enjoy the city. I was hoping to find something I would like about it that would justify the expense of visiting. Unfortunately I didn't discover anything for myself. The few people I stopped on the street to ask what they liked about London were all trying to move away. The one answer I got is that London used to be "Free and Easy". I don't know exactly what that means but it does not sound like our experience here. Before anyone from London or England is offended, let me offer the following: We have visited London for only 5 days, my opinion is formed based on only the smallest of samplings. We do not judge England by London anymore than we judge the United States by New York. London is a big city. We experienced only a little piece of it and had many positive experiences. But, it is not our city. It does not seem to be a family friendly city. If you live in London and feel otherwise please share what you like about it. I may just be tired at the end of a long trip.

Last full day in London

It is said that every tourist in London comes out for the changing of the guard. They were all there. I counted. The main reason to attend this function is because everyone does. It is much like attending a parade in Phoenix. There are so many people and it is so uncomfortable it really made me wish we had spent our short time exploring what else London had to offer. Our guide book was dead wrong on where you want to be located to view the ceremony. It said to get there early and get a position on the center monument (where these pictures were taken from). In reallity, you need to camp out (perhaps starting the night before) to get a spot along the palace fence. From what we could see there was nothing here that should attract such a huge crowd. As a species we thrive on the mundane.

The view from St. Pauls was actually better than that from the London Eye. Unfortunately the upper golden concorse was closed but the stone concorse offered a great panoramic view of the city. Our son claims that he counted more than 120 cranes and I believe him. London is a growing city.
I eat rubbish. Hey! English food isn't THAT bad.
We took the tour of Shakespears Old Globe Theater (rebuilt in 1999 in a relocated area). The tour was worth the time and money and the guide was intresting enough to hold the intrest of the children for the full 40 minutes.

Narnia of Hamley's

Besides all the toy demos going on inside Hamleys the stairway was all decorated with scenery from the Narnia movies.
Our son had the opportunity to call forth his army.
And our daughter gets the opportunity to be a Queen or a witch. I forget which one.
Along with the mural-ed walls, many of the original movie props were displayed.

British Museum

On the plus side London has one of the best metro systems in the world. Of course this is only true when it is not under construction and from what we understand it is always under construction. On the positive side we got to ride the double decker buses taking the place of the tube.
The London Museum is great. Free for a donation. A great visit for kids with more mummies per square foot than any other place we have ever been to.
We were likewise impressed by the reading room. The photo does not do any justice to the size of this library.
We also stopped at Hamleys. One of the top toy stores in the world.

London Eye and London Ire

I'll come right out and say it. London is not my place. Everything is twice as expensive as home. Now I don't really mind this if I am getting to experience something new but so much of what is available in London is produced by the same companies who produce it for the United States. Also, doubling prices for a family of four is no trivial thing. I wish I could justify it, but I can't. Especially when there are so many other interesting places to go in the world. Why someone would choose to live here other than "because they always have" is not understood my me. Perhaps if I was a young single professional living in the city center I would feel differently.

UTILITIES AND WATER: I have put together the following understanding of utilities and hot water based on my own experience and antidote. This may be specific to our current apartment but I somehow expect not. Utilities in London and all of Europe and England are extremely high priced. The residents of London then said "A ha! Then we won't use any!". To which the utility companies said "Then we will charge you for NOT using our utilities." Not to be outdone, apartment owners decided that if they were paying fees anyway that they might as well be comfortable so they devised the following system for obtaining hot water: Through an ingenious combination of turns both off and on of the hot and cold water dials a stimuli is given to the lines of pigeons on the roof. The stimuli scares the pigeons into pooping. The warm steamy poop lands on water pipes carefully laid below and heats the water to some random temperature just above freezing. Thus the answer to your request for hot water can be determined by many factors including how many pigeons are currently on the roof, how well they have been feed and when a request was last made. Did I say that London is not my place?


We rode on the London Eye today. The largest Ferris Wheel in the world. This picture does not do justice to how amazingly tall it is. It is really interesting to me that it is built like a bicycle wheel. It uses cables for spokes but the principle of the wheel being under compression is just the same as that used in a bicycle wheel but on a much larger scale.
As I said the pictures do not really do justice to the height.
The cars are really like large glass elevators and very stable. Not at all frightening to most people.
Like many of the things we have experienced here in London we found the Eye to be overpriced for a family considering what we got out of it. The Tower of London was a much better attraction for visiting with children. Between dirty windows and a foggy sky the pictures and view from the Eye was not spectacular. Whatever beauty London has must lie within. While many individual buildings stand out, the view of the city itself is drab.

The Crown Jewels & Polish Water-park

We were all impressed with this "Jewelled Sword of Offering." Not shown in this picture is the sheath, which is likewise encrusted with diamonds and emeralds. Our son thinks he needs one of these for his room!
This photo shows the huge diamond inset in the "Sovereign's Sceptre" from 1661. Of course it was even more impressive in real life than it appears in this photo--the photo isn't able to convey how large this diamond really is.
These crowns belonged to Queen Mary in 1685. The display at the Tower of London included numerous crowns--it was hard to pick a favorite! How does the Queen decide which one to wear?
This is the Russian water-park we visited in southern Poland. This is the best picture I was able to get from the brochure. There were many different slides, mineral spas, saunas, wave pools and play pools.

Tower of London

Our first day we spent at the tower of London. The thing that really impressed us was how the actors and guides brought history to life for even the younger kids.
The Beefeater guide was very dramatic in his overview of London Tower.
After seeing the crown jewels we were able to see a 100% accurate word for word historical re-enactment of Thomas Bloods theft of the crown jewels. And yes, a crown of 50 or so tourists really was part of the robbery attempt.


The re-enactment was very well done. Kids and adults alike were well entertained while watching and following the performance throughout the tower.

Arrival in London

We arrived in London fairly late at night. We were prepared for it but everything here is so expensive. I just don't understand why anyone would choose to live here. Hopefully I will find that out over the next few days. We picked up groceries for 1 diner (bread, a cheap bottle of wine and cheese) and breakfast (milk & cereal) for $55.

I was hoping to find really good beer in London. I was thinking that England was known for it's beer but when I thought more on the subject I realized that it is really more known for it's drinking. Most of the beer I can find is imported. These betting/drinking sites remind me that we in in the home country of Andy Cap.

The tube in London is well.. tube shaped. The trains we have seen have been clean and the system is extremely well run. It is most remarkable that none of the trains we see are covered with Graffiti.
This is the Witherspoons pub across from the London Tower. We discovered later that this is a chain. Nice pubs like this appear to be where people go to discuss business. It is only a semi-social event meant to establish and maintain business relationships.

Leaving Slovakia

We went shopping at the Tesco and our daughter purchased a stuffed animal that we decided to dub the “travel monkey”. We like it so much that we think that no family traveling should be without a travel monkey.
When we drove out and back to Kosice Monika Petranova from Petcar who speaks English meet us at the train station and helped us drive out of town and then meet us to drive through town and back to the airport. She was so helpful we can recommend her services without hesitation.
We found Kosice airport to be nice and clean.
This was our first experience on SkyEurope. We did not realize that our luggage would not follow us through on our trip. We needed to pick it up after every leg and recheck it in. Everyone else seemed to be familiar with this though it did not appear to be noted on their website.

Dinner with the Sabova's

Maria prepared a wonderful Slovakian meal complete with beer and the national drink of Slovakia. They also gave us some wonderful candies all the way from the Ukraine! 

Maria & Merak Sabova

This is our friend Maria from the hospitality club. Her and her family were very generous to us. They have two lovely daughters.











Her husband Marek is in software development somewhat similar to what I used to be in. Their children are at the ages where ours were at their most difficult. I am sure that things will get easier for them as well. Already they make regular trips into Ukraine.
Thier youngest took our daughter everywhere with her. They really were a very nice family.
Their oldest played everywhere.