New Year's Eve day

(Photo 1)) thank goodness for Starbucks, even if it is decaf!


(Photo 2) Sara Beth and Gaiten on the move


(Photo 3) The girls and Sara Beth in front of St. Paul's


(Photo 4) Riding down the escalator in the tube station


(Photo 5) The Millenium Bridge to Tate Modern


(Photo 6) Sara Beth at the Tate Modern cafe




(Photo 9) No tears!


(Photo 10) The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben as the light fades





We checked the weather report and were expecting a clear and cold day today, but the weather changed quickly to cold and very overcast. We slept in some today and had a late breakfast. We went to St. Paul’s Cathedral to go inside since we had only seen the outside on our tour. It was very special for Amy to go inside because she was one of the millions of people who got up in the wee hours of the morning in 1981 to watch Lady Diana marry Prince Charles there. It was a fairy tale wedding and she was 17 years old, the same age as Gaiten and Hallie. We spent some time admiring the architecture and before we left, the female priest (imagine Sara Beth smiling) welcomed the crowd and led us in reflective thought and the Lord’s prayer. The acoustics were amazing! We then walked over the millineum bridge to the Tate Modern. This was something that Sara Beth had really been wanting to do. This is a modern art museum and some of the artists that we saw were Dali, a Monet, Matisse, Picasso, Miro, Manet, Chagal, Frances Bacon, Jackson Pollock, Magritte, Ernst and a variety of other artists. Sara Beth couldn’t stop grinning! We ate lunch at the café at the Tate Modern and had a marvelous meal. Collectively, we ate potato and garlic soup and roast chicken breast with roasted sweet and white potatoes. It was a nice sit down meal and allowed us to relax a little. We then rode the tube to Big Ben so that Hallie could look at it without tears in her eyes. Gaiten and Hallie took a picture in front of it and we did a little souvenir shopping. We then had quite an adventure trying to find our next tube station. We have learned that when an Englishman (or woman) gives you directions, “around the corner” could mean a mile away and “just over there” could be a twist and turn around 5 blocks. While trying to find our station, we happened across a passageway filled with graffiti. Hallie was in hog heaven. She couldn’t get a hold of Amy’s camera fast enough. Amy was very leary of the area, but Sara Beth was in “New York watchdog” mode and made sure we all were carefully monitored. We were also comforted that there was security everywhere due to setting up for the New Year’s Day parade. We finally found our station and made our way to a shopping area that the girls were interested in. We neglected to make reservations for dinner on New Year’s Eve and wound up back at the hotel eating from the last of our vouchers this evening. Sara Beth and I were very glad that we had eaten a great meal for lunch. The girls were tired and decided not to attend the New Year’s Eve party here at the hotel. Sara Beth reluctantly gave up on trying to find a party of her own to attend and we resigned ourselves to ringing in the New Year from the comfort of our beds. Tomorrow is the highlight of our trip as our girls will dance in the New Year’s Day parade. We have heard over and over how much the people here look forward to the parade since they don’t have marching bands and dancers of their own. We have tickets for grandstands which hopefully means we will be sitting down while we wait for the parade. Until tomorrow…

Posh or Poo?

(Photo 1) The city of Windsor


(Photo 2) The Royal Swans - if you touch one, it is an automatic 5 years in prison


(Photo 3) Eton College - the elite boys school where the Princes have attended


(Photo 4) The dog in front is on a leash and he is holding in his mouth the leash of the dog in back. It was the cutest thing!


(Photo 5) Windsor Castle - the Official Residence of the Queen




(Photo 8) flowers still blooming in December




(Photo 11) Amy and Sara Beth before we ate the yucky meal at the Beefeater. Actually it wasn't all yuck but we wouldn't want to ever go back!


(Photo 12) The girls ready for the theatre. Could they be more different?


(Photo 13) The Palladium Theatre



(Photo 15) Sara Beth was enthralled with these star-shaped light nets attached to buildings and strung across the large avenue.


(Photo 16) Improvised gas mask of the moment!

Today was a travel day to the city of Windsor. The day was bright, clear, and very cold. We were to be at breakfast at 7:30 a.m. but an unexpected call from Gaiten at 6:30 a.m. threw a wrench in the day’s plan. Gaiten was feeling very ill this morning and did not know what to do. By her symptoms, we thought she might have sinus trouble and luckily there was a doctor on the tour that was available to the dancers so Sara Beth took her to see him. He verified that it was sinus trouble and thankfully not anything more serious and Gaiten decided that she should stay at the hotel, take the medicine he gave her and not go out in the cold air until she felt better. So, Hallie and Amy went on the tour to Windsor and Windsor castle without Gaiten and Sara Beth. It was sad leaving them behind, but we knew it was for the best. It was a beautiful day to travel and our guide was the same one that we had on our city tour. He talked all the way to Windsor, pointing out significant things in the city and beyond. I found him very interesting, but Hallie closed her eyes and slept all the way there. Windsor castle was bigger than Amy anticipated and more grand than Hallie had ever seen. It wasn’t as grand as the Palace of Versailles in France, but after all it is a castle. Hallie really enjoyed seeing Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House on exhibit. It was quite large with everything in it made to scale and operational. It had a tiny derringer that shot real bullets, lights that worked and hot and cold running water. The house was as big as a small room. It was behind glass and we could walk all around it to see all of the sides. Hallie was also very impressed by the Limoge porcelain dolls commissioned for King George VI’s daughters, the princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret rose. They were presented by the French government in 1938. They came with a complete wardrobe made by the leading Parisian Houses of the day. The clothes were exquisite! Hallie admired each and every piece with awe. We also saw a photo exhibit in honor of Prince Charles 60th birthday. I’m not sure that Hallie had ever paid attention to anything royal so this was very interesting to her. She decided that she definitely did not care for Camilla after learning of her relationship with Prince Charles and she wishes Harry would be king because he is the cutest! There was an exhibit of Royal China that we whizzed through pretty quickly and then a self guided tour of the castle staterooms. We ate lunch at McDonalds with our tour vouchers and we are happy to report that the McDonalds here is very similar to the one back home. Hallie and I went to a grocery store on the way back to the coach for some English cookies to share with our bunkmates . We arrived back to the hotel around 3:30p.m.and found Gaiten feeling much better and ready for our next adventure. The adults had a scheduled dinner at the Beefeater Medieval Buffet. Sara Beth and I went and wished we had not. Mr. Brian, it was Yuck!! Earlier, we had walked the girls to a Subway sandwich shop to make sure they knew the way back and we wished we had stayed with them. We had to rush through dinner to make it back to the motor coach because our next event was a trip to the Theatre. We saw The Sound of Music at the Palladium Theatre! We arrived a little late which was awful, but made it to our seats pretty easily. It was WONDERFUL! Sara Beth and I both cried, surprise, surprise! The girls really enjoyed it. Gaiten had never seen it before and Hallie had seen it but was just excited to see it in the theatre. As we were walking back to the coach, we were led by our guide into a narrow passage between a park and a food cart. We followed our guide despite our better instincts and smelled a telltale odor as soon as we stepped onto the coach. Apparently, the entire bus stepped in something that smelled very rank and pooish. Sara Beth and I spent the entire way back on the bus with our noses in her leather gloves, trying not to smell the lovely fragrance permeating the bus. On the way back to the hotel we traveled along the Thames River and were able to see the buildings lit up and the holiday lights still in place. Very Festive! Seeing Big Ben all lit up was a favorite. Once we arrived in our hotel, we verified that yes indeed, we had stepped in poo. Who’s or what’s we don’t know but it was still poo! All in all, it ended up as a great day.

Covent Garden outing

(Photo 1) The view outside the window at breakfast


(Photo 2) The girls ready for their photo shoot


( Photo 3) a funny sign in the tube station


(Photo 4) When Amy took this picture a voice boomed over the loud speaker not to use flash for security purposes. Apparently we were standing under a security camera at the time!



(Photo 6) A crowd gathers in Covent Garden to watch a street perfomer.


(Photo 7) our favorite store of the day




( Photo 10) With Amy's initials being AMT, Hallie and Amy knew that they must try something here




(Photo 13) The view outside our window at night


(Photo 14) The Tower Bridge lit up at night

(Photo 15) Amy working away on the blog-so far so good in London. Danny, I want one of these computers next year for Christmas!!)


The day started out bright and beautiful with white puffy clouds and another blue sky. The girls were scheduled for a group picture this morning in uniform with the Tower Bridge in the background. This took place after breakfast so Sara Beth and I planned the day while we waited for them. We had a free day today and we knew we wanted to go back to Covent Garden for shopping. The high was predicted to be 39 degrees so we bundled up and headed out. When we arrived at the tube station, we discovered that the line we were to connect to was suffering a significant delay due to a person under a train. That required a quick consultation of our tube map to determine an alternate route. Riding the tube isn’t near as complicated as we thought it might be. We switched trains three times without difficulty, “minding the gap” as we were instructed when we got on and off the tube, and found our way back to Covent Garden. We had a lot of fun weaving between kiosks and exploring the different stores along the way. Hunger hit pretty quickly and we used the vouchers provided by the tour to eat pizza for lunch. While we shopped, we kept finding ourselves walking into people and realized that we were not walking on the “correct” side of the street. People walk on the street just like they drive their cars. However, they stay to the right on an escalator to enable people to pass on the left if they choose to walk up. If you pay attention, it is easy to adjust. Our hands down favorite shop of the day was a colorful boutique named Octopus with a collection of whimsical artistic items from jewelry to hairbrushes to serving pieces. Sara Beth resisted the urge to buy a beautiful tray for fear it would not fit in her suitcase. Hallie and Amy had hot chocolate at the AMT coffee shop. It was delicious and just perfect for warming up in the early afternoon. Gaiten cashed in on a sale at Guess finding a beautiful purse, which is one of her favorite accessories. The girls have found the British equivalent of Claire’s called Accessories and we seem to have visited every location we have passed. We have heard much from our guide about the economic downturn in London’s economy. However, we found the streets crowded with shoppers looking for bargains in the shops at Covent Garden. We also found a really cute sweet shop named Candy Cakes. They had muffins (which we thought were cupcakes) frosted with fondant. Gaiten got a “berry”one and when she asked what it tasted like, the lady at the counter told her it tasted like “berry”! Gaiten said it was very good. We shopped until the sun went down and headed back to the hotel to turn in for an early night. The girls were scheduled to attend a river boat disco cruise down the Thames River with the tour, but they opted out for their bed. Yesterday, Sara Beth read in the newspaper about the large air strike in the Gaza Strip. Tonight as we exited the subway we saw a poster and a TV news report about large protests in the Kensington area of London. Thankfully, it is contained to the area surrounding the Israeli embassy and gave us no trouble today. Tomorrow will be an early day with the tour as we go by bus to the county of Berkshire with a visit to the Royal City of Windsor.

Coach tour through London

(Photo 1) St. Paul's Cathedral




(Photo 4) The Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Bridge


(Photo 5) Big Ben


(Photo 6) Westminster Bridge


(Photo 7) The Changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace






(Photo 9) The girls at Buckingham Palace


(Photo 10) Charles and Camilla's residence is in the background




(Photo 13) British History Museum


(Photo 14) The Dome at the top of the Museum


Today, we woke up to a beautiful day with bluebird skies. It was a perfect day for a whirlwind coach tour of London where we hit all of the high spots. Our first stop was St. Paul’s Cathedral where Princess Diana married Prince Charles. We only saw the outside, and Amy wants to go back to see the inside on another day. Our next stop was Big Ben where Hallie tragically lost the use of her brand new camera. Canon will definitely be hearing from us when we get home! The demise of Hallie’s camera was followed by some kind consolation from her “half sister” Gaiten. Gaiten wiped Hallie’s tears and fought off our attempts to photograph them as we tried to preserve the Kodak moments at Big Ben. Buckingham Palace was an anticipated stop as we were going to arrive in time to see the “changing of the guard”. We also saw the residences of Charles and Camilla, and Princes William and Harry. We drank some fabulous hot chocolate in St. James Park next to Buckingham Palace where we also had a close brush with nature that involved pigeons, geese, swans, squirrels, and men peeing in bushes! It was getting close to lunch time and that meant a trip to Covent Garden for lunch and a little shopping. The group split up for lunch on our own. We chose a little Italian restaurant and had paninis and chicken club sandwiches. It was different from home but still very good. It was almost time to return to the coach, so we window shopped a little and made plans for a return trip on another day. Our last stop was the British Museum where we went reluctantly, wishing we were still shopping in Covent Garden. It turned out to be very interesting. Highlights included the infamous Rosetta Stone (Amy took a picture for Jase), Classic sculpture from Greece and Rome (a favorite of Hallie) AND the Elgin Marbles. These are not round, shiny, marbles like Sara Beth had us searching for. After standing in a room full of reliefs from the Parthenon, we asked where the Elgin Marbles were. We were told they were in the room where we were standing. Seeing nothing round and shiny, Sara Beth returned to the bookshop and found a book of Elgin Marbles that looked remarkably just like the relief tablets we had just been viewing. We got a big kick out of our naivety. Country had indeed come to London. We returned to the hotel where we had a wonderful meal provided by our hosts. The girls practiced in their one and only rehearsal and earned a spot on the third row of eight. They came back from practice very excited. Sara Beth and I stayed in and looked through our pictures to pick out some for the blog. All in all, it was a very fun day in London.