this trip's overview

Gran Canaria portion

First Day Back

Man-made Finery

Queen's Life Guard

Covent Garden Markets

London's Transport Museum I

Marks & Spencers

Natural History Museum

Science Museum

High Street Kensington

Bus Karma I

The Strand

Simpsons-in-the-Strand

Tower of London

Science Museum II

Worst Food Ever

Where the shops are

Neal's Yard Dairy

Seven Dials

Bus Karma II

returning home

Saturday 1 February 2003, continued

Even though we haven't had great luck with the London buses, Rose is always enthusiastic about them, so we try once again. Here the family are sitting in the front seat of the upper balcony of a double-decker bus. Lila is refusing to look at the camera, yelling "oh no" each time I call her name.

Following are two rather abstract pictures of the traffic along High Kensington Street. In this picture things are rather stop-and-go, but at least it's somewhat moving along.

Now we're waiting at a light, and you can easily see the reverse traffic flow: the oncoming cars are to our right, and our traffic is on the left. Isaac noticed the steering wheel of the minicab (we took from Heathrow) was on the other side, but he hasn't noticed traffic (yet).

Isaac is getting tired, and he's refusing to make a happy face for our pictures. This is the best of the bunch. Unfortunately we got on a modern bus. I'd like to think we'd all be cheered up on one of the older Routemaster models with the open rear platform...

The traffic grinds to a halt, and Lila gets very fussy about it. We get off and start strolling along Hyde Park. It's dark out, and we can't see Kensington Palace right now. We spot a snow kitten, melting but still recognizable.

We jog along, both children happy at my calling cadences as we run. (I really must look up more of those Army, Airborne, and Ranger songs I liked so much when I was in the service.) I'm really hot and sweaty by the time we arrive at the Knightsbridge Underground stop. Here we can see a just-closed Harrod's. We'd wanted to let the kids play in the toy area; in the next few days, hopefully.

Those who know me well know that I'm a map geek. I've collected a few, and I'm always in awe of the wonderful design and typeography of the London Transport maps, posters, and signage. (I learned today that the typeface is Johnston Sans; I'll see if I can track it down.) This is a wonderful above-ground view of the Piccadilly line; a view of London I've not seen before.

We're nearing the end of our day. It gets dark early here, and we're all tired and in some state of being sick, so it's hard to remember whether we ended up back at the hotel at 1700, or 1900, because it all feels like 2300. Just as Isaac loved escalators when he was a toddler, Lila now loves them. Here she and Rose are following the "Way Out" signs in the Tottenham Court Road Underground stoup.

In addition to the "industrial action" (strike) of the fire brigades the subway system is being impacted by a closure of the Central, Waterloo, and District lines. Luckily our needs and desires on this trip don't really require these lines.

Now we're on the last leg of leaving the Underground. Rose (in yellow) and Isaac (in blue) can be seen at the far left. On our last visit some of these escalators were broken, which really is a bother. The London Underground is deep down, and walking up just isn't fun.

At Tottenham Court Road I spy a row of the traditional phone booths (not the newer, ugly, British Telecom ones).

It's been an adequete day, full of fun and laughter, but marred by lots of feeling poorly all around. But we're still working on it, hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. We're planning on visiting the Strand.

previous

next