It's Saturday and so almost all of the major tourist attractions are extremely crowded. So we decided to make our weekends a bit lighter so we could relax and enjoy our time here. Today we had only one tourist site on our list -- the Churchill War Rooms. We got there right when it opened at 9:30am and it was empty. I (Jeff) was really looking forward to this because everyone has said how amazing this place is -- and I love World War II memorabilia and information. It did not disappoint. They have remade all the bunkers and rooms exactly like it would have been at the end of the war in 1945. In addition, they had a very well done museum section that talked all about Churchill's life from childhood through the end. We spent a couple of hours there and I could have spent a couple more. The kids found it pretty interesting. I find that Josh has little patience with museums and reading things on the wall. The audio guides are more interesting for him but only because he can play (dork) around with the audio device. He even said he doesn't do well with audio guides. (loses interest) But the minute Jenn Halter started talking to him and Andy and Joey about the war, he is instantly interested. He was mesmorized by anything to do with strategy and "why" things happened that way. He would try to reason out why some events happened the way they did and Jenn would correct him and then he would think about it and say "Ah, yes, that does make sense.." You could literally see the wheels turning in his head. At the gift store, they had some kids books in the "Horrible Histories" series relating to WWII and England. He wanted to get those so we did -- and he was reading the WWII one after lunch and loving it. We will need to spend more time in the future preparing him for some of these exhibits so he can better enjoy it when he goes. (mental note for next time)
After that, we headed to Barbecoa for brunch. The food here is very good (not cheap) and we got to sample quite a bit among the 7 of us. The kids all had waffles (the Halter boys had chocolate waffles -- Josh just had plan of course). Karen had amazing granola. I (as did Jenn) had a very well seasoned Cobb Salad (didn't need dressing) and Steve had pulled pork waffles. And we sampled their hamburger. Very tasty stuff.
At this point, we all split up in different directions. I (Jeff) went back to the hotel to do my longer (2.5 hr) (zzzzzzz) elliptical workout. Karen and Jenn went to the Borough Market to get food for dinner. Steve took the boys back to their rental unit (flat) to relax and rest up. We all met back at their flat later for dinner (sausages, bread, cheese, nuts, fruit..). They rented a place in a part of London called Islington. Nice rental unit. Lots of space.
We are going to head out to a local bar (that's been around forever) down the street while we leave the kids in the flat. Then we'll trek back to our hotel for our last night there. Tomorrow we have to check out and switch hotels to one here in Islington. And we'll visit Buckingham Palace.
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