The white chalk cliffs of Dover loomed ahead of us as the ferry crossed the Strait of Dover towards England. It was a picture perfect morning standing on the top deck, sharing the moment with the seagulls as we approached the Mother Land.
We adjusted ourselves to driving on the left again (in a LH drive vehicle) and had a quick stop in the medieval city of Canterbury to view the famous Canterbury Cathedral - the centre of the Church of England. It was, again, another impressive facade for a building dominating the local skyline.
Everyone learnt something at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, the home of “longitude” and “Greenwich mean time”: Ellie learnt that you could jump across a line on a pavement and be in the eastern half of the globe on one side and in the west on the other side;
Tom learnt about the beginnings of Nebulas and that in five thousand million years time “the earth will be nothing more than a frazzled rock”; Georgia learnt about the competition that resulted in the invention of the modern day clock; Vid was intrigued with the development of ship faring clocks so that they could keep accurate time on a rolling sea, necessary for longitudinal navigation; and Sarah learnt all of the above.
London
Four days of sleeping in a house with rooms, comfortable beds and big showers ... don’t worry, we are mentally holding up just fine with our motorhome circumstances. We stayed with some great friends in Fulham, London – John, Claire, Charlie & Bertie Maiden. They spoilt us rotten, which we lapped up as we enjoyed the small comforts a home can bring. There were plenty of laughs and plenty of late nights chatting.
We tightened the laces on our adventuring boots as we headed off to explore the sights of the big city of London. Days could have been spent in the Natural History Museum and the British Museum – both housing incredible exhibitions and generously provided free of charge by the city of London. The Earth Hall captured our attention for the longest as the children learnt about the effects of earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and other geological phenomena on Earth.
Amongst the masses of displays were various interesting ponderings: an elephant bird egg, a dodo, all sorts of creepy crawlies, and rare mammals. The Rosetta Stone at the British Museum was fascinating – it was from this stone inscribed with three languages (hieroglyphics, Egyptian and Greek) that archaeologists were able to decipher the mystery of the ancient language of hieroglyphics.
The family later enjoyed a lazy stroll through Kensington Garden and Hyde Park playing with the local squirrels.
We walked past the Wellington Monument to Buckingham Palace - no corgis, no queen and no princes, just a couple of very stiff “buzzybee” Welsh guards who weren’t interested in engaging in a civil conversation over a cup of tea and scones.
The old City of London, with the Tower of London, Tower Bridge and St Paul’s Cathedral made an interesting day.
The crown jewels in the Tower were incredible with the world’s two largest diamonds (530 and 317 carats) and an amazing array of emeralds, sapphires and rubies. Let’s just say that Georgia and Sarah joined the crowds on the conveyor belt to view the crowns a few times – their favourite being the petit diamond crown worn by Queen Victoria.
St Paul’s Cathedral with its iconic dome dominating the London skyline was fascinating. We concentrated our time on finding some old and very distant relatives buried there.
The giant revolving London Eye soared us high (135 metres) above London. The 30 minute trip (the wheel only spins at double the rate of a minute hand on a clock face) was awesome and although the morning was overcast, patches of sun persisted so the 360 degree view was spectacular.
We departed hastily to beat the weather and ran past the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben in the pouring rain to take shelter in Westminster Abbey.
It is a simple but elegant structure though a little cluttered inside. The guided tour unravelled some of England’s history as we stepped over and around some 400 odd tombs.
It was a short walk then to the Cabinet War Rooms and the Churchill Museum at Whitehall. The rooms are an excellent relic of wartime Britain - it was here where Churchill, his cabinet and military leaders made some heavy decisions during WWII. The museum offered an intriguing expose of the public and private faces of Winston Churchill in very interesting displays.
The enigma machine (German code machine) was particularly fascinating and reading some of Churchill’s incredibly witty quotes were a valuable insight into the man and his dedication to the role he played in this turbulent period of history.
Our visit to London would not have been complete without a walk around the Monopoly board – Regent Street, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Pall Mall, Oxford Street, Mayfair and Whitehall. Fortunately we didn’t land on “Go directly to jail”.
A taste of London was all there was time for, but we all agreed it was FANTASTIC sampling the flavours the grand city had on offer.
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