London

(Originally posted June 2011)

Saturday, June 11th

We left Minneapolis in the late afternoon, thanks to Erica’s ride to the airport. I planned on sleeping through the night only to realize when I got my boarding pass that we were visiting Iceland. I can now say that I’ve been to Iceland, however briefly. A brief tour of the landscape as we landed and took off, a series of documentaries played on the airplane screen and I got two stamps in my passport (one for in, one for out). The entire Icelandic experience lasted about 15 minutes.

Sunday,  June 12th

We arrived at London’s Heathrow Airport in the late morning. Got another passport stamp and took a taxi to “London McCormicks” flat. Immediately we felt at home, like we’d just driven out to Mahtomedi instead of flying across the ocean. We received huge hugs from the family and a quick tour of the house. Something about PJ’s sarcasm and being able to flush the paper down the toilet just seems like we’re in Minnesota. We fought off jet-lag with a walk in the rain to the Churchill Pub for beer and Thai food. After that, I promptly fell asleep as we watched “Notting Hill” (Look, that street is just around the corner!!)

Monday, June 13th

At the crack of dawn, I was ready to run out and explore the city, yet, the rest of my family aren’t such early risers. Eventually we got moving (fighting jet lag and “not-so-much-morning folks”) to grab the tube, the underground subway, to Oxford circus.  Turns out that a “circus” is just where a bunch of busy streets meet together and there’s shops and such. No elephants. For our first day, we were super-tourists and grabbed the open top of a double decker bus to explore all of London’s most well-known landmarks.  We ran around and explored many sites (some we just saw from the bus):

• The National Gallery
• Trafalgar Square
• Hyde Park
• Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guards (turns out those fancy blokes in uniform play Beatles songs in addition to the formal marching music)
• St. James Park
• Westminster Abbey
• Big Ben
• Parliament
• Lambeth Palace
• The London Eye
• Westminster Pier
• Downing Street
• Horse Guards Parade
• St. Paul’s Cathedral
• London Dungeon
• London Bridge (is falling down, falling down…)
• Monument
• Tower Bridge
• The Tower of London
• Tate Modern
• Sherlock Holmes Pub
• Madame Tussauds
• Piccadilly Circus
• Oxford Street
• Marble Arch

At the end we took a quick river trip down the River Thames back to the starting point to see a different view of London. By this time we were exhausted and walked to Soho for a pint at a pub before heading back on the tube to Holland Park. We had a lovely family dinner of the best spaghetti made around the world. Later that night, my dad and my brother and I walked to a pub just up the street.  

Tuesday, June 14th

By this time, I felt like I had a grasp of the city as places look familiar and I’m an new-expert at the tube system. My brother informs me that I have only seen a tiny fraction. He’s right. We started out early for a morning visit to the inside of the Tower of London, a place of torture throughout England’s history. Our humorous tour guide looked the part as he describe the thousands of beheadings that took place up the hill. We saw the Crown Jewels and the rest of Her Majesty’s riches (there’s a lot of them and they’re big). Denise met us for lunch at the Leadenhall. This open air market is full of quick restaurants and was the inspiration for Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley.  

In the afternoon, we hopped the tube to the Victoria and Albert’s museum where I could have spent all day. We went on a guided tour for a sample of the museum’s art. Keep walking if you have time to see all 12 acres and 8 miles of galleries.  

Then, we were off to see Wicked, the Untold Story of the Wicked Witch of Oz. The show was amazing with the songs, dances, costumes and lighting.  Back to the pub later in the night for a pint with the family.

Wednesday, June 15th

Today we went on a day trip out of London to explore Windsor Castle, the Roman Baths and Stonehenge. A person could spend days exploring both the castle and the baths but we soaked up as much of the history as we could in our time there.

Windsor Castle is still the main residence for the Queen although thousands of visitors explore her home each day. We saw the State apartments, St. George’s Cathedral and the changing of the guard before hopping back on the tour bus for the next stop.

In Bath, a beautiful town built in the 1700s with relatively few changes since, we explored the ancient Roman baths filled by a hot spring that still bubbles up today. Our tour guided also pointed out Johnny Depp’s residence and the house formerly owned by Jane Seymour.  

Our last stop was Stonehenge, the mysterious monument built about 4000 years ago. Little is known about how, why or by whom it was made but it’s amazing to wonder about its purpose and construction.  

In the evening, I sampled the British specialty of “Bangers and Mash” at the Prince of Wales pub in Holland Park.

Thursday, June 16th

After all the on-the-go adventures, we “slept in” this morning and left for the day of exploring around 11:00. With Denise back in the states and the kids in school, my brother took a day off of work to hang out with us.  He’s a busy guy so that made us feel like VIPs. We stepped off the tube at Bond Street for some shopping and a quick visit to the Exact Target Global Office, the very reason that my brother moved across the pond in the first place.

I could have spent days at the British Museum but settled for three guided tours of different galleries (Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome and the Assyrian Reliefs). My family had to drag me out or I would still be there listening to every audio guide and tour guide there, not to mention taking the time to read every sign.

Not sure what people did before cell phones (although, I don’t miss the constant connection to my own, I may leave home without it more often once I return to Minnesota). My brother guided us on the flip phone via google maps through the narrow alleys and twisted streets to a small no-name, hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant for pork fried dumplings for dinner, then down through Trafalgar Square to the ice cream shop.

Londoners dress much more fashionable than I do, or most Midwesterns to say the least. Feeling underdressed and inspired by London fashionistas, I parked my parents at a pub and made my way through stores in Soho. I returned to find my parents doing shots with a cheeky fellow named Paul from Bristle. Cheerio.

Friday, June 17th

Pangaea, to support relief efforts in Haiti and to support work for children in Brazil. She’s become a leader among her peers and an inspiration to her friends and family. Although she was unable to attend school today, as both of the kids are home sick (really sick), her family, friends and school community know how hard she worked and how deserving she is of this award. 

Since attending the celebration at Julia’s school and her cello concert in the evening were off the schedule because she was so sick, we continued our exploration of London for our last full day. We went on a guided walking tour through London Walks (highly recommended if anyone is visiting London, which I’ll list as a highly recommended destination in general). Our witty guided ran a through to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace in various locations (I thought the advertisement line of “our guides know the best spots for viewing” was just a line, but if you don’t mind hustling, you really do get the best views). We walked and talked our way up to Westminster Abbey, the location of the recent royal wedding, and many other important historical events over the last 1400 years. Our guides brought us through the back door and gave us the highlights of the abbeys history.  I was amazed by the building; it was taller, bigger, older, fancier and contained far more history than I had anticipated.

Lunch at the nearest pub (a pub and a pint a day, one of my father’s traveling goals) then off to the Churchill War Rooms museum. Interesting piece of history, beware the museum includes every, minute detail of the Churchill’s life, including his childhood report cards, his escape as a prisoner in South Africa and every quote he uttered in his entire life.

We ended the evening at Gelato Mio, PJ and Julia’s favorite gelato store across the street from the flat.

Saturday, June 18th

We spent the morning drying laundry and packing up as my brother made plans to take still sick Julia to the doctor (a more complicated task while residing in another country). We took a taxi to St. Pancras/Kings Cross Station. Due to lack of time, I didn’t get to run into the wall at Platform 9 3/4, although a quick trip to Hogwarts would have been a great finishing touch on the adventure in England.