Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Goodbye, England!


Well Dearies, we’re on our way home! We have had two fast and furious days in London. We have walked a hundred miles, and ridden the Tube or the Underground, whichever you prefer for twice that! Sam is a terrific tour guide, and has shown us, Parliament, Big Ben, the London Eye, St. James Park, Green Park, (our hotel is on Hyde Park, and funny, we explored it the least), Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, The National Gallery, Buckingham Palace, the Queen Victoria Monument, the Prince Albert Monument, we have been to Soho for a concert, and dined at the Brewmaster Pub. Do you dine at pubs?
We walked both ways across the Tower Bridge (over the Thames), and were too late to enter, but carefully studied the tower of London from all four sides, nevertheless. The Tower of London (I am embarrassed to say that I did not know this), is not a single tower, rather a massive castle complex, complete with moat. And completely wonderful.
We have viewed paintings by all of the great masters from three feet away, separated only by rope. I felt my heart skip a beat when I stood in front of “Van Gogh’s Chair” and “Sunflowers”. I have always loved Van Gogh. I think since Vincent (by Don McLean) came out when I was a sophomore in High School.
Sam especially loved Van Gogh’s, “Wheatfield and Cypresses”, and Mark found that he is a real fan of both Renoir and Monet. These were all on view, and hundreds, maybe thousands more at the National Gallery.
When we were in Leicester Square, they were having a world premier for a new movie coming out the first part of May. It had Cameron Diaz and Austin Kucher. Did I spell those correctly? It was a gala, complete with paparazzi. We couldn’t see the stars arrive, but we certainly heard the cheering, and could see all of the commotion with the television cameras and flashes.
We have been to Paddington Station where we saw the Paddington Bear Statue, and bought Paddington Bear Dolls, and Paddington Bear Books for, just whom do you suppose?
So we’re are about to turn out the lights, we are packed to leave except for those things that must be attended to at the last minute, we have mapped out our route to the airport, and we will be on our way!
We love you all and can’t wait to see you tomorrow afternoon!
Goodbye, England! It has been grand!

1 comment:

  1. it's odd that your trip didn't even seem real to me until I saw the picures today. it was so difficult for me to mentally place you and dad and even Sam in England.

    Beautiful photos and as time goes on the memories will become sweeter and sweeter. thansk for coming by today and showing us all the photos. Love you mom!

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