Our Travels: British Library, British Museum and London Eye

Today we only had a few major things to accomplish today, both of them in the morning. Karen and Jenn got up a little earlier than the boys and went to tour the British Library.

The British Library has one exhibition room, but it contains some of the most incredible books! Jenn had a Rick Steve's book that gave us the highlights of the room to look at. I think my favorites were the illuminated manuscripts. The artistry of these books has always fascinated me. The people how had them made must have had incredible wealth at their disposal as they are true works of art. The library is also famous for having one of the four original copies of the Magna Carta. They actually have two, but only one is on display. There were also various other books such as a Gutenberg Bible, One of Leonardo Da Vinci's notebooks as well as works of Chaucer and Shakespeare. Basically, if it is literary and important, they probably have it here! Even though it was a small exhibition area, we were there 50 minutes and could have spent much longer if not for the fact we were meeting up with the boys!

The boys got to sleep in an hour longer and met up with them at the British Museum. This is Karen's favorite museums in the world (and one of my favorite too!) but it is quite large so we can only do it piecemeal with kiddos. Our goal was to see as much as we could in 1.5-2 hours, which is what we thought was the limit for everyone. We toured mostly the Egyptian and Assyrian exhibits, along with the Parthenon/Greek section. Josh was quite fascinated with the Egyptian section, including the Rosetta Stone. Josh's favorite piece was the Assyrian Gate Guardians -- two massive stone structures. He was also a bit interested in how all of the pieces got to England -- and why they still have it and haven't given some of it back -- like the Parthenon pieces to Greece. :) Karen told Josh that she (and many others) jokingly call it the "Palace of Plunder". Once we crossed the 1-1.5 hour mark though, Josh was at his saturation point and there was nothing else we could do to keep him interested. So we flew through some of the early European stuff and headed out.

We headed back to the Halter's flat to have lunch but first we had to stop off at a mini market downtown to get some fixings. It was just after 1pm and it was absolutely mobbed. We've never seen anything like it before. They had a salad bar with at least 30 people waiting in it. (the line was not moving very fast) The aisles were jam packed and the checkout line was quite long as well -- but it was moving, very fast! That's because they had about 30 checkout people (very very small checkout lanes) and 20 self-checkout lines. In a very small space. It was a wonder to efficiency! (I loved it!)

We had lunch at their flat and let Steve (who's back needs some rest) and the boys hang out there for the rest of the afternoon. Karen, Jenn and I went out on the town to do some shopping and touring around in the Piccadilly part of town. It is high tourist season here and it showed. There were people everywhere. We stopped back into Fortnum & Mason and got some more macarons and they were some of the best tasting ones we've had yet. I tried on some shoes and shirts but didn't get anything. There were certainly a lot of nice cars in that area of town. :)

We headed to dinner to meet up with the boys -- eating at the Laughing Gravy, a restaurant we loved he last time we stayed here. It did not disappoint again. Everyone loved their food and desserts. The kids all had hamburgers and we had a wide variety of food. I had a chicken dish (it was good), and Karen had a brie and goat's milk and mature cheddar macaroni and cheese dish. There were many deserts and everyone inhaled them, including a cherry crumble.

The Halters headed back to their flat and we went to the London Eye. Karen and Josh went on it (I didn't want to do it) and loved it. I might try it next time. After that, we took the bus back to our hotel and called it a night. The bus system here is incredibly good and we are finding more direct bus service to our destinations than by subway. Plus, the buses go through some different and very pretty neighborhoods off the beaten track. (Karen is interjecting here: - the London Eye was incredible! You hardly feel like you are moving, or very high, for that matter! Josh enjoyed that interactive touch screens that were in the cabin. You can look at a day or night time view of your surroundings and click on various buildings. When you select a landmark, it gives you a short description of it. Josh liked the M16 building, which houses the British secret service. We went right at about sunset, so it was very pretty - however, it was difficult to take photos. So, we just have to have our memories!)