the Brussels Adventure: 8/8/10

Back in July, the Smidt family came to visit we got to enjoy several adventures together. One of our first destinations was London. In London we were able to see all of the main sights including the Tower of London, Big Ben, Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Shakespeare's Globe Theater, Westminster Abbey, Churchill War Museum, Museum of Natural History, St. Paul's Cathedral, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, and of course, the London Underground. My favorite parts of London were the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, the Globe Theater and catching an evening showing of "Phantom of the Opera" with Ben. The Tower of London is actually a fortress...who knew?!?! I thought it was just going to be one tower, but it was an enormous complex. Inside housed the crown jewels, a 4-story ancient armor and weapons exhibit, several torture rooms and prisons, living quarters, and many other buildings. I really wish we would have been able to spend an entire day there; i feel like we didn't even make a dent in all there was to see. Westminster Abbey was breathtaking and spanned quite a large area with all it's Abbey rooms. Shakespeare's Globe Theater was another fantastic experience. As some of you may know, I taught one semester of freshman English at Morton High School in 2008 and we covered a unit on Romeo and Juliet. As prep for that unit I taught a day or two of Shakespeare's history including info in the Globe Theater, so it was really special for me to be able to be there living what I taught about. I also love to act and being such a famous and historical theater was amazing. We even got to witness part of a rehearsal of Henry VIII...very cool!

Our second night in London, Kathy offered to put Isaiah to bed and babysit him in the room while Ben and I went to a show. We originally tried to see "The Lion Kind" but it was sold out, so we got tickets to "The Phantom of the Opera." Time was short because I had to nurse Isaiah before we left, so we didn't leave the hotel until 7:15 and our show started at 8:00. It was quite and adventure getting to the show...we ending up walking almost 2 miles, very quickly...and I was in heels! I was definitely limping after mile one... Miraculously, we made it to the show with about 10 minutes to spare. It was really great to see a Broadway style show in London. (This was my birthday present :)

London was very interesting and it was great to actually understand signs and menus (although I think I heard more Spanish and French than English), but I have to admit that London wasn't my personal favorite (although it was probably everyone else's favorite). I love feeling like I am in a "different" country, and to me, London felt like Chicago- only cooler. Great fun with the family though!

Isaiah and Ben inside the Tower of London.

Isaiah drinking from my water bottle. Notice that he is drinking English style with a raised pinky. He knows how to assimilate, this child :)

Shakespear's Globe Theater

St. Paul's cathedral

Typical London street.

Tower of London bridge, but not the famous "London Bridge"

Tower of London.

The Rosetta Stone!! Absolutely in amazing. This was located in London's natural history museum, which is known as the "Museum of Things the British Empire Stole From Other Countries" The Museum was enormous and impressive- there was everything from mummies to ancient Greek sculptures to Indian pottery to gold Buddhas.