Morning view of Big Ben and Parliament from next to our hotel
Our long day began with visiting Shakespeare's Globe Theater. Kate actually enjoyed the Globe, particularly the tour inside the theater. Seeing the actual stage was pretty neat (--Jeremy, who spent the year studying Shakespeare) and it was more interesting learning about it there than at school (--Chris). Fun fact: fermented urine was used as a stain remover (during Elizabethan time).
Inside Shakespeare's Globe Theater
Crossing over the Millennium Bridge
Greg is a glutton for punishment - he did not have enough of driving on the wrong side of the road (and going "out of the way"). But this time he changed it up a bit - not only did he drive through the city of London (twice), he did it with a stick- shift!! Did he reach for his seatbelt on the left side again? Yup. But it gets more entertaining ... He reached to his right side for the gear shift! Nope, try again! After we survived driving out of the city, and he started breathing again, Greg made one simple comment: "I didn't like that."
A funny sign on our way out of the city
Windsor Castle was something I figured we did not need to prioritize - my 2nd visit helped me decide that. However, to a 12-year old, seeing a real queen's castle is pretty appealing. So I worked a visit into our itinerary. As it turns out, I didn't need to bother. Kate was bored. Other than knowing it is the queen's home, visiting the castle has nothing to do with the queen and everything to do with the castle's history. So I can see why Kate was disappointed. Greg enjoyed it, though. Jeremy wasn't disappointed at all - he just didn't go. (Someone would rather be in a pub than a palace.)
We had one last sight to see before leaving England. After Windsor we drove to Stonehenge for a "private access" tour that allows 30 people to leave the pathway and go right into the circle of rocks. It was quite high on Chris' wish list, so we made it happen. I could make an AmEx "priceless" ad from his visit: rental car/gas $160, tickets $210, watching his enjoyment of experiencing Stonehenge...priceless. He had an overpowering sensation to climb the rocks like he does in Yosemite - but respectfully wouldn't even pretend to touch one. He likes to capture what he enjoys like I do - on film - and he made circles taking endless pictures. (Visitors with bright pink jackets should be banned access, and will be promptly photoshopped out of all photos.). I will always remember and cherish our hour there - how we freely laughed and played together as a family.
"Posing" with the guard at Windsor Castle
Private Access off the path and up to the stones
Diversion (aka "detour") - we are now entirely too familiar with the meaning of this word, as we saw it no short of 15 times on our way home - adding an hour to our 90 minute drive. Greg, and the GPS, do not handle diversions well. His advice to driving in London: Don't! In all seriousness, I was relieved and proud to see Greg - who has come so far after all he has been through - as the confident excellent driver I know him to be.
What an odd sensation to go from being the pedestrian to watching the crazy tourists run unexpectedly and sporadically across the streets. One lady, assumably drunk, screamed as she realized how close she was to getting hit. It was sobering to see how foolish they are!
I finally crawled into bed at our last stop - an airport hotel - at 1:30am. Tomorrow morning (well technically today) we fly to Rome.
Logistics
- I wish the logistics of Stonehenge worked out better. It took them longer than usual to release the tickets (they were busy deciding to double the ticket price) so I got a less than desirable day/time to work with. It took us no less than 7 hours to experience Stonehenge.
- Since we had a manual car rental and were driving it through the city of London, we added an extra $45 of insurance to bring the deductible down to nearly $0.
- The "London Congestion charge" is a fee to drive through the center of London. We narrowly avoided it by 1 street on our way out of town, and again on our way back due to our late arrival. If you are driving near London, look up the zone, times, and fees.
