Day Out: London (Eye, Trains, and Lines)

Family Photo at the Eye (insert clever comment about Elise being translucent)

This trip began with a conversation when we were in London at Easter and planning our agenda for the next day:

Daddy, Clare and I have talked.  We want to go on the London Eye tomorrow.

Charis, Mommy and I have talked.  We're taking everyone on the bus tour tomorrow.

The next day:

Charis, that tour wasn't very much fun.  We're going to come back to London, and I promise we'll take you on the Eye.

Our time in London over Easter gave us confidence we could do a visit to London in a long day.  That conversation set the agenda for our day trip to London while Kristine's brother and sister-in-law were in town visiting. We had lofty aspirations for lots of sightseeting on this trip with some travel in between.  It actually turned out the other way around.  We spent a lot of time in transit and a bit of time sightseeing.

Transit #1 - we caught the 90 minute train ride from East Midlands to St. Pancras station.  We then tried to be slick by getting all four adults through the Underground turnstiles on two Oyster cards with ample balances to pay for our tickets.  It didn't work.  The turnstiles evidently don't let Oyster cards get swiped twice at the same location.  Add extra waiting time while Kristine and I stand in line to buy new Oyster cards.

Waiting on the platform at East Midlands station

Using her uncle's sunglasses to look intimidating

Or not

This found on the inside of the train's toilet lid

We didn't buy advance tickets for the Eye because I found a couple buy one get one free coupons.  I thought we'd be there early enough in the day that we could miss the crowds.  Of course, I hadn't planned on being the victim of inflexible turnstiles.  That led us to Transit 2 - Matt and I stood in line at The Eye to buy tickets while Kristine and Ashley took the girls to the adjacent playground.  The playground recharged the girls, which was a good thing since the line to get on our pod was long and moved slowly.  A certain 4 yr old was a little non-functional by the time finally got to our pod.   I'm not sure the trade between ticket money saved and time spent in lines really turned out in our favor.

Sightseeing 1 - The Eye.  Despite misgivings about the height from an unnamed blog author and one of his daughters, everyone enjoyed the ride.  Said blog author may or may not have spent more time marveling at the engineering ingenuity of the Eye than at the ability to see so much of London.  The girls figured out how to use the tablets in the pod to point out some of the sights.  Circuit completed, we took in the iMax show about the Eye before heading on.

Note the London Eye in the background

Some of us enjoyed the playground while others stood in line to buy tickets

She was much more cheerful once we finally got out of line and into our pod

Enjoyed the ride

We got to pretend to ride on top of our pod

Ruling was 4 (adults) to 3 (children) that free Coke was a good thing

One of our friends from Melbourne suggested taking the water taxi from Westminster Pier up to Greenwich, grabbing lunch, and then taking the cable car to get another aerial view of the city.  We thought it sounded like a good idea.  We also thought it would be simple to get tickets for the river taxi.  Channel Rafiki the baboon: "Hah! Wrong again!"  Queue (literally) Transit 2. One long line later we had tickets for the taxi, walked down to the pier, waited in line for the boat, only to find out that it was full by the time we got to the door.  Queue Transit 2b - waiting for the next boat to come.

Standard Collins daughter pastime - chasing pigeons

This wasn't our boat, but it was pretty cool

Finally! Our boat!

Fortunately the ride on the water taxi turned out to be quite fun (Sightseeing 2).  The girls enjoyed all the boats, and the grownups enjoyed the view of the buildings along the river front.

View of Tower Bridge from the Thames

Thanks to the earlier lines and water taxi ride using up most of our remaining slack time for the day, the planned Sightseeing 3 in Greenwich got cut drastically short.  It consisted of walking to lunch, eating lunch, then walking to the Underground station to get back to St. Pancras.  We had a minor panic at the station when the sign said that particular line was shut for the day.  Fortunately there was someone at the ticket gate, and he explained that while the underground trains weren't running, the overground train that we needed to catch was.  We had a much greater panic when we got to St. Pancras, split up briefly thinking we had plenty of time for Kristine and Ashley to window-shop while Matt and I took the girls to get refreshments, only to realize that it was time for the train to leave and we were on the wrong platform.  Cue mad dash through the station, some spilled coffee, getting through the turnstile without scanning all 7 tickets, and being the last people to climb on the train before it left.  After which we enjoyed the refreshments we'd picked up on what was an uneventful ride back to East Midlands.

Our stop for lunch

Lunch was well chosen.  The girls enjoyed the apple juice and beans.  Their father enjoyed the portions of the sausage rolls that they didn't eat.

On the train from Greenwich back to St. Pancras

One of our cheerful navigators

We took turns creating a story with these cards while Matt and Ashley kindly entertained the other two girls

Father's Day: Planes, Bicycles, and a Micro-car

"Shawn, are you still looking for another car?"  "Not actively.  Why do you ask?"  "Fellow in the other building just advertised his Ford KA."  "Send me the advert and I'll take a look."  

Such is the consequence of being very weak on the "J" scale of Meyer's Briggs.  I cycled through last winter so I know I can do it again.  We've only got a handful more times where we'll have guests and need to rent a car.  But the discussion happened right before I had to rent a car for the weekend while Kristine and Elise went to Germany.  I called USAA for an insurance quote, ran the numbers, and decided that if the 2003 Ford KA with 70,000 miles ran for another 12 months, I'd have spent about £1000 to (a) not rent when we have guests; (b) have flexibility to drive during the winter instead of cycle; (c) let Kristine have the car during the summer when the girls are off school; and (d) have a car when we're in temporary housing and my bike is in the container on its way back to the US.  That's how my Father's Day gift this year unexpectedly became a new (to me) car.  I told Kristine that for as long as I've been too tall to fit in small cars, I've dreamt of owning one.  In the US, utility always trumps ideology.  The small car is never going to happen.  So this is really my once-in-a-lifetime chance.  Yes, the Ford KA lacks the cool factor of something like a Mini Cooper.  For the fun factor of squeezing my 6'5" frame into it, though, it does just fine.  An unexpected benefit was having the car when I came down with a nasty ear infection over Father's Day weekend, which left me in no shape to cycle for the following week.  It was a blessing to drive without causing hassles for Kristine (who needed the Golf several days since she'd been out of town the previous weekend).

Ayup, Shawn.  How's things?  I've just been to see a colleague about a KA.  Not for yourself, surely?  Actually, yes.

It is properly small.  I can actually pull it up between the house and the fence.

You've got to come see this new car!  It's awesome!  Entertaining the girls was not an envisioned benefit of having the car, but I'll take it.

Charis and Clare did a bang-up job helping me celebrate Father's Day.  We went out for breakfast at the Melbourne Tea Rooms on Saturday, followed by a hike in the woods behind the pool (not the pond, as I've been gently reminded by my Melbourne friends).  Clare gave me a special treat Sunday afternoon when we went down to the cycle track.  After a little encouragement, she successfully rode her bike without training wheels (something like "stabilisuhs" if I try to capture Clare's phonetic homage to Peppa Pig).

Starting the walk at the Melbourne Pool.

We are slowly getting into the routine that says Wellies accompany any walk when there is rain.

Father's Day slumber party.  The girls got the parental bed, and I got a mattress on the floor.

She's off!

With trademark Clare smile to show for it

Proudly displaying my Father's Day gift.  This chain took them the better part of Saturday to put together.

We finished the day with a couple rounds of UNO.  Despite her gentle nature, Charis insisted on beating me a couple times.

Meanwhile, Kristine and Elise enjoyed their time in Germany.  Kristine said it felt more like seeing actual family life, and less like the tourist-oriented trip than our visit last August.

Obstacle course at Saturday school.

Teeter-totters need no translation

Nor do slides

German countryside around Bad Boll, where Kristine and Elise went

Day trip to Legoland

Two Legoland tickets.  Free to a good home.  Would anyone like them?

I can give them a good home.

I've also got a buy one, get one free coupon for additional tickets.  Would you like that as well?

Absolutely.

This discussion from the St. Giles Facebook page gave us a chance to spend £90 for tickets that would normally cost closer to £200.  That turned Legoland from "We're not going there." to "Let's give it a try."  It was almost a bad idea.  Kristine was ill the previous week, we didn't do a good job setting up the night before so got a slow start, and had lots of rain accompanying us as far as Birmingham.  Thanks to Kristine persevering through a long day, the girls turning around their behavior, and the weather clearing up by the time we reached Windsor, we had a pleasant outing.  It was a long day.  We left Melbourne a little after 9 am, and didn't get home until after 9 pm.  It's a trip we would not have considered making a year ago.  That we pulled it off opens up opportunities for the next year.

As an amusement park, Legoland truthfully isn't that great.  There are not very many rides.  The lines are long.  And you've got to wade past lots of stores selling overpriced merchandise to reach any of the rides.  But I don't think you go to Legoland for the amusement park experience.  You go to see the LEGOs.  And that part of the trip was worth it.  Here are some of the photos from our day.  I'll make a disclaimer that captions may be sparse.  There's not that many different ways you can say "cool sculpture."  For the record, the walk to the car at the end of the day involved conversation among daughters who were eagerly anticipating a return visit.

It's almost a scary dragon

I was a little surprised there were not more places providing free play opportunity.  Build a wall around an animal - simple concept that kept the girls happily occupied for quite a while.

I am not ruled by bias.  I can take photos of more than East African LEGO sculptures from the train.

But the East African sculptures are pretty cool.

As I said ...

Disregard this conductor at your peril.  You've been warned.

Pirates - awesome!  LEGO Friends - not so much.  This from the girls, not the parents.

Trademark Clare smile

Look - no hands!

Umm ... was this supposed to be exciting?

Miniland was my favorite stop.  It's got the sculpting skill to satisfy my engineering self, the historical information to make me feel like a responsible parent, and lots of cool things that captivated the girls.

Like autonomous boats (well, not exactly autonomous - they were tethered to tracks on the bottom of the pond)

Around the LEGO world - London

Around the LEGO world - Paris

Around the LEGO world - Cape Canaveral

Cool sculpture

Yep.  Cool sculpture (castle #1).

Really intricate cool sculpture. With water.

Really cool sculpture.  With moving parts.

Mt. Rushmore hero shot #1

Even parents get to play at Legoland!

Cool castle sculpture #2

Mt. Rushmore hero shot #2

Less rides, more of this please, Legoland

I like the mole hypothesis

We wrapped up our day with this tube / raft ride, although we did not get nearly as wet as the girls would have liked