Our last day in London was clear and sunny, but cold and blustery. We started off relatively early (for us)in order to be able to walk around Green Park a little before the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace.
Hyde Park, Green Park and Hyde Park Corner (where Hyde Park and Green Park touch corners) are all very beautiful oases of green grass and trees in the center of London. The boys burned off some of their seemingly limitless energy by running around Green Park terrorizing squirrels and pigeons.
We then headed over to Buckingham Palace about forty-five minutes early for the changing of the guards. Despite it being a bitter cold Monday in the off-season, the entire plaza in front of the Palace was packed when we arrived. Fortunately, a nice Bobby told us that after the first unit of guards marched in, everyone runs over to the gates facing the Palace, so we could get front row spots for the other guard unit and the Queen's Horse Guards. Her strategy worked like a charm, although some very bitter Italian tourists tried to shove their way back in front of us.
After we watched the guards march in to what sounded like traditional martial tunes, we put the boys on our shoulders so they could see the actual changing of the guard ceremony. The ceremony itself was pretty uneventful, so we headed off for the Science Museum. As we stopped for a final photo, we realized the guards' bands were playing "That's The Way (I Like It)" by KC and the Sunshine Band. Weird.
We walked back past Green Park and Hyde Park Corner to Hyde Park itself, so we could walk through the little Winter Wonderland carnival they have set up there for December (yet another faux Christmas Market . . . I can't wait to see the real thing, since these imitators are everywhere). Matthew either hates the paparazzi or loves them, and today he was running up to Santa statues and announcing that he was ready for his picture! Matthew cracked up seeing the children falling all over when we stopped to watch the ice skaters.
Hyde Park is huge, so we were all frozen and hungry by the time we got to the Science Museum. We started in one of the Museum's cafes, Deep Blue. The tables are lit up, and the walls are low with lots to see around you, so it was perfect for a family lunch. Thawed and fed, we then explored the Museum until closing time. There were a number of interactive sections, and the boys had to be dragged out of the Launchpad section as the staff herded us out.
As soon as we left, the boys who until five minutes before had been running, jumping, climbing, pouring, lifting, balancing, etc., were suddenly bereft of all energy. There were also severe delays on our Tube line due to an earlier signal failure, so the trip home was an exercise for Mommy and Daddy in motivation of two tired and hungry boys.
As we left our Tube station, we realized that we had no food, so after the success of last night's dinner, loaded up on frozen Indian entrees and headed home to the microwave. Fortunately, the boys were too hungry to decide that they no longer liked Indian food and everything was quickly scarfed down.
For dessert, we had some fruit and a broken up Milka bar. Each night, we have had some English or European dessert (treacle tart, pudding with fresh fruit) and most restaurant kids' meals include dessert, so Matthew now asks multiple times a day what we are having for dessert, ignoring entirely what other activities are going on or what might be for dinner.
A few other amusing Matthew-isms:
- Millwall FC's motto is "We fear no foe." Matthew has been repeating this phrase at various times since we watched the match, including while waving around his sword on the train. Very appropriate.
- The red phone booths are, unfortunately, often used as loos by the drunken youth on their way home from clubs. When the boys crowded into one for a photo-op, therefore, they crowded out just as fast yelling that it smelled like cow poop. Whenever Matthew now sees one of those phone booths he yells, loudly, that he wants to go into it so he can smell the cow poop.
- Another sword anecdote: As he was waving the sword around, Heather described the knighting ceremony, with the tapping of the tip of the blade on the knight's shoulders and head. Matthew proceeded to lean over to me, smack me on the forehead with the sword and announce "I pronounce you Sir Daddy!"
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