We started our fourth day in London an hour or two earlier than normal but in the usual way (bacon sandwiches at EAT, walk to Southwark station) but then it took a different turn. Vivian's classmate's parents had recommended a bike tour from Fat Tire and so we took the tube to Queensway and waited at the corner of Bayswater Road and soon after 11am we were outfitted with bikes and helmets and we walked our bikes through the Black Gate into Kensington Gardens.
For the next four hours we biked and stopped and viewed and chatted through central London on our bikes. Vivian opted for control over speed. So she selected a smaller bike than she normally rides and she had to pedal hard on the single speed to keep up with us but she was great. Evan was in a "tag-along" (a trailer bike) attached to my seat post and we both felt that each of us did all the pedaling while the other got a free ride.
We rode through Kensington Gardens, stopped at Kensington Palace, past the Serpentine, crossed a couple of busy streets at Hyde Park Corner, through the Wellington Arch and along Green Park to Buckingham Palace. After a break we rode along the Mall under the Admiralty Arch and stopped for lunch at Trafalgar Square.
After lunch we biked along Horse Guards Road, past Downing Street (blocked off from traffic), the statue of Robert Clive (hero of the East India Company, colonial arsehole), the entrance to the Churchill War Rooms, down to Westminister Abbey. And then we rolled on down to Parliament Square where I took the photo of Vivian and Jo while Evan ran away screaming because he didn't want his photo taken. Vivian posed by the Gandhi statue. And next to the Churchill statue, our bike tour guide recounted a Churchill quote much to the delight of the non-Americans in the group "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else". We retraced our paths from here, stopping briefly at the Prince Albert Memorial behind the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington Gardens and back to where we started.
After quick showers back at the hotel we had a great dinner at a restaurant that Jo found, the Masala Zone in the West End declared "the best restaurant in London" by the extremely famous and picky food critic Evan. From there we walked to the Cambridge Theater at Seven Dials (Dickens, Agatha Christie) to see Royal Shakespeare's Matilda The Musical. Tired as the kids were, they both enjoyed the show. I think Vivian who is learning her lines for a distant Mary Poppins show was amazed by the virtuosity of the child actors, specially the little girl who did a superb job as Matilda (a few days later Xi Jinping and the first lady of China were given a performance of one of the songs by the Matilda cast during their visit to London).
The final event of a rather busy day was a late night pedicab trip for the family from the West End to South Bank. I never dreamed that I would cross the Thames in a rickshaw before the Musi!
For the next four hours we biked and stopped and viewed and chatted through central London on our bikes. Vivian opted for control over speed. So she selected a smaller bike than she normally rides and she had to pedal hard on the single speed to keep up with us but she was great. Evan was in a "tag-along" (a trailer bike) attached to my seat post and we both felt that each of us did all the pedaling while the other got a free ride.
We rode through Kensington Gardens, stopped at Kensington Palace, past the Serpentine, crossed a couple of busy streets at Hyde Park Corner, through the Wellington Arch and along Green Park to Buckingham Palace. After a break we rode along the Mall under the Admiralty Arch and stopped for lunch at Trafalgar Square.
After lunch we biked along Horse Guards Road, past Downing Street (blocked off from traffic), the statue of Robert Clive (hero of the East India Company, colonial arsehole), the entrance to the Churchill War Rooms, down to Westminister Abbey. And then we rolled on down to Parliament Square where I took the photo of Vivian and Jo while Evan ran away screaming because he didn't want his photo taken. Vivian posed by the Gandhi statue. And next to the Churchill statue, our bike tour guide recounted a Churchill quote much to the delight of the non-Americans in the group "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else". We retraced our paths from here, stopping briefly at the Prince Albert Memorial behind the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington Gardens and back to where we started.
After quick showers back at the hotel we had a great dinner at a restaurant that Jo found, the Masala Zone in the West End declared "the best restaurant in London" by the extremely famous and picky food critic Evan. From there we walked to the Cambridge Theater at Seven Dials (Dickens, Agatha Christie) to see Royal Shakespeare's Matilda The Musical. Tired as the kids were, they both enjoyed the show. I think Vivian who is learning her lines for a distant Mary Poppins show was amazed by the virtuosity of the child actors, specially the little girl who did a superb job as Matilda (a few days later Xi Jinping and the first lady of China were given a performance of one of the songs by the Matilda cast during their visit to London).
The final event of a rather busy day was a late night pedicab trip for the family from the West End to South Bank. I never dreamed that I would cross the Thames in a rickshaw before the Musi!
1 comment:
*How* is it even possible for your children to be this photogenic? Wow, amazing photos! You all look so relaxed and happy.
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