England 4

Back in England for 4 1/2 days, and we've been seeing lots of family. My mom has come to London for a month with my brother, just in time to take care of Michael so that Anna and I could take our trip to Amsterdam together. Nice....

Tuesday brought our arrival very early back from the Continent, and my mom let Anna and me sleep for a long while. When we finally awoke, though, it was go, go, go. We hopped on the Tube and took it to Charing Cross to meet up with my sister Anne and her family at the National Museum. We had a family reunion tour of the galleries while passing the Constables, Turners, Monets, Van Goghs, Gainsboroughs, Hogarths, etc. Luckily brother-in-law Dan could fill us in on some of the more important aspects of what we passed so it wasn't a totally silly venture, although we all decided the 18th century British collection mostly was pretty silly stuff.

We forewent the race to the British Museum and gave into the pleading of the children to climb the lions in Trafalgar Square, so there we rested for quite awhile. We then pushed on to Covent Garden, walking through the back streets. The children really enjoyed watching a string quartet get up to all kinds of antics dancing and acting with the crowd, all while playing some really beautiful music. Very talented people! I enjoyed a guitarist out in the plaza and bought his cd which is my favorite now, listen to it everyday - lots of songs about London. We continued on our walk down to the Thames and along the Embankment, tucking into Victoria Gardens and taking a look at Anne's favorite statue in London: a memorial to the camel troops in WWI, the troops of Lawrence of Arabia. It is a very sweet rendition of a camel.

We then crossed over, as rain began to fall, on Hungerford Bridge to the South Bank where there was more play and climbing and music before eating yummy noodles for dinner. Afterwards I took Michael back to my mother's flat, while Anna was lucky enough to join Uncle Dan and cousin Sarah for moonlit walk up the Thames to St. Paul's and back.

The next day was a rest in the morning for Michael and me, and Anna and her cousins, with Dan and Anne finally made it to the British Museum. Michael and I joined them later at the Foundling Museum in Bloomsbury; one of those small lesser known, but absolutely fascinating, places in big cities. Artists Hogarth and Handel helped establish this orphanage for all the babies who were left abandoned to die in the early 1700's in London. Partly this was out of sympathy and partly out of good business sense for it was a waste of a perfectly good resource - human labor. We learned so much here about how art galleries started in London, about social system development, about life for most of the population over the last few centuries in London (not very pleasant really...) And, the best thing of all? A playground right outside in Coram's Fields, complete with statues of lambs grazing; I guess the live versions are safer kept elsewhere these days.

On Thursday we went on a big adventure out to the west of England to the county of Wiltshire to see Salisbury and Stonehenge. On the way there we stopped in Buckinghamshire to go to the Roald Dahl story writing museum; another little gem of a museum in the small village where Dahl lived, and got his inspiration for all his wonderful stories. Michael and Anna really enjoyed exploring their imaginations and listening to the stories of so many authors' lives. Michael sat himself down in Dahl's chair and absorbed himself in writing a new story.

We didn't have much time, and became stuck behind a few tractors on the narrow, hedge-lined roads, but we made it to Salisbury just in time to take a quick walk around the cathedral and see the copy of the Magna Carta kept here. Then the best part of the day of all...we had special reservations to go into the Inner Circle at Stonehenge after normal closing hours. I had noticed this little part of the Stonehenge website that said 'phone this number for access to the stones'. Usually nowadays you are required to stay on a path quite a distance from the monument, with all the other hoards of people, but we got to go up inside the stone circle with just 20 others. The sun was dropping on the horizon, it was quiet (except for the busy road not too far off across the fields, but then one could just pretend that's water gurgling in the distance), and it felt a very special place. This was Anna's dream come true, this was pretty much the high point of her being in England. I'm not sure when she became so enamored with Stonehenge, but for her I think this might have been better than Disneyland right now.

On Friday and Saturday we had the good fortune for being in town for Michelle's (the friend we're staying with) sister's wedding. The groom is from Ireland, so his big clan came over and the whole day was so much fun. The brides and maids were beautiful (especially Michelle and her sister Claire!), and Michelle's son was a proud page boy. It was a late night, but quite a lot of fun, and always interesting to discover how other cultures do their rituals - kind of like our weddings, but kind of different too. A much longer party for sure!!

Tomorrow very early we're off to Naples and an exploration of Pompeii, and maybe some gelato eating too!