European Vacation - Day 3 (London 3)

Right. It's 1:50ish in the a.m. and I'm a tired boy, so this will be short and sweet.

We took double-decker buses to the British Museum (bad call when it is raining, with condensation inside and the rain outside we saw very little out the windows).

The British Museum was very impressive (much like the the historical Smithsonians all smooshed together). We have been practicing French and German phrases, and discussing the origins of language with the boys, so they actually seemed to comprehend the import of the Rosetta Stone. From there we wandered the various exhibitions, with Heather and me trying to keep up with the boys' curiosity and questions, until we got to the Easter Island head. Right near the head (an odd juxtaposition) was a major exhibit on native Americans. Very neat for me was to be able to show the boys the section on the mound builders of southern Ohio, near where I grew up.

From there, we had to stop in one of the London souvenir shops, then on to Hamley's, the World's Greatest Toy Store. Te walk to Hamley's was quite long, so we took a quick Belgian waffle break, and popped into Marks and Spencer to get Daddy a scarf (and apparently some Christmas presents from Heather and the boys).

Hamley's was packed, but was also all that I remembered. The boys were enthralled as they moved from amazing display to interactive demo, to hands-on gadget and gizmo testing. We're now nearly done with Christmas shopping for Team Norton, and we're only a few days into the trip.

From Hamley's we rode a couple of packed Tubes home to Notting Hill. Rather than pick up something fro me to cook, we decided we needed Team Norton comfort food - sushi! We dined at Ukai Sushi on Portobello Road and had some of the freshest sushi and best miso soup any of us have had in a long time. At the end of the meal, Erich asked me for a piece of paper and a pen. He then proceeded to write a note to the chef, telling him he has very good cooking and very tasty sushi, and thanking him. I gave him a few pounds to send back with the note to the chefs, and Erich marched up to the waitstaff and asked them to give the note and tip to the chef.

After a very satisfying meal, we walked home to learn that the boiler was irreparably broken, that other safety issues also existed, and that we would need to pack up and move everything down three flights of stairs to the basement flat.