Observation of the day: The Brits may have a reputation of being
stuffy, but they sure do seem to enjoy life, at least the Londoners do. All
week long, we’ve observed friends & families hanging together in cafes,
pubs, parks and the like. Some of this may be due to the upcoming Easter
holidays, but we also get the impression they are simply a “social” lot, really
taking advantage of life and everything their city has to offer.
Today, Thursday, we first visited Kensington Palace and then
went on to the Imperial War Museum. Those of you who are royal enthusiasts know
Kensington is where Prince William, Princess Kate, their two kids and Prince Harry
reside. But, frankly, you would never know this, as what you see when you visit has nothing to do with their residences.
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| HM checks out the beautiful gowns. |
What mostly drew us here today was a temporary exhibit I had
read about regarding the late Princess Diana’s fashion influence, showcasing
some of her most iconic “looks.” Now I’m certainly no royal geek, but Princess
Di was definitely part of my pop culture growing up. As JM said today, it
seemed like she was on the cover of People
magazine every other week in the 80’s.
The girls had no expectations for this exhibit but I think
they both enjoyed it. EM sketched along as we walked the exhibit and HM was
fascinated by the many beautiful dresses still fashionable today, proof of
Princess Di’s eye.
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| The exhibit included "look" sketches. |
Afterwards, they both had many questions about her, her role
while she was princess and why she was so influential. JM and I explained how
she really tried to use her power for good and personally, I always admired
this.
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| We loved the gardens created in memory of Princess Di. The sign states she liked this garden a lot and would often talk to the gardeners about it. This year, in tribute to the 20th anniversary of her death, they created the "White Garden." It is meant to be "simple, joyful and elegant." |
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| HM channeling her inner model. |
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| Breathtaking. |
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| McCarty clan: Selfie-stick Kensington Gardens edition. |
We enjoyed the exhibit and also loved the gardens outside. And the icing on the cake was walking through the park to reach the Palace.
Everyone was out and about with his or her canines out for their morning romps.
We miss our pups terribly and we had many lovely Londoners indulge our need for
a doggie fix.
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| Milo was one of the many pups we met walking through the park with their owners. The dogs here are incredibly obedient and while off-leash in the park, they don't stray far from their owners. |
After Kensington, we went to the Imperial War Museum (IWM)
on a mission to visit Churchill’s War Rooms. However, upon arriving at the
museum we learned that while the exhibit is technically part of the IWM, the
Churchill exhibit is in another location about a mile away. I had definitely
not understood this from their web site! That said, the family all had an
interest in touring the IWM as it featured many topics the girls had studied
including the Holocaust and World War II.
To mitigate the crowds, we decided to visit the museum top
floor down and started with the Holocaust exhibit. It was simultaneously incredibly
well done and emotionally harrowing. From the firsthand accounts of survivors,
to films featuring Hitler, to artifacts from the six million who perished at
the concentration camps and at the hand of the Nazis, the exhibit fully
juxtaposed what we had seen in the morning – power can also be used for evil. Inconceivable
evil.
In the span of one day, we experienced two people who
arguably had the “it” power – Princess Di and Hitler -- yet they used it in
polar opposite ways. Needless to say, it sparked lots more conversations with
the girls. And despite it being emotionally draining, I think it’s safe to say
we’re all glad we experienced it.
After a quick stopover at the apartment, we headed to the
Covent Garden area for linner prior to heading to the theater for an evening
showing of School of Rock.
A TripAdvisor consultation lead us to The Real Greek (http://www.therealgreek.com) which is apparently owned by the British
Greek version of our Pioneer Woman – Tonia Buxton. The food was absolutely
yumola and we had great service. A big thumbs up.
As we had time prior to our show starting, we wandered
around the Covent Garden area which is bustling with restaurants, shops and
pubs. A JM quest for ice cream led us to a delicious gelato shop called Scoop (http://www.scoopgelato.com). We highly
recommend it if you are in the area. |
| Happy shoppers. |
Next to the gelato spot, we found a fun little
vintage shop called Pop Boutique (https://www.pop-boutique.com)
and while HM immediately was in heaven & promptly found some cool Levis jeans, Miss EM also joined in and was excited to find a vintage Army jacket.
By this point, it was time to head back towards the theater,
but as we had 20 minutes left before the doors opened, HM asked if we could
check out a FreeMason temple that had a large sign on it saying “We’re Open.
Come in.” Now, JM and I have both seen FreeMason temples before, but none were inviting you in, so we agreed to check it out.
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| London's FreeMason temple is an impressive edifice. Photo creds: HM |
We arrived just as they were closing but a kind security
guard felt bad we should miss it as they were going to be closed tomorrow for
Good Friday, so he quickly ushered us to in to look around. As it’s a society shrouded in mystery and even the guard didn't quite seem to know what they did, JM and I are still
a bit perplexed as to the FreeMasons’ purpose, but we do know many of our country’s Founding Fathers were part of it,
and that this particular temple was HUGE. It was interesting to see it and we were
so
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| Our friendly guard even took our picture in the temple! |
We ended our night jamming to the School of Rock show. It
was a real treat. The actors all used American accents and our lead was the
epitome of Jack Black. The cast was phenomenal; particularly the kids who just
won the equivalent of a Tony Award this past Sunday here in London.
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| Our lead did Jack Black proud! |
Being used to only large venues like our Broward Performing
Arts Center at home, we all loved the intimate feeling of London theater. The
show was true to the movie with an original score written by Andrew Lloyd
Weber, the master of musical theater as far as we’re concerned!
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| School of Rock rocked the West End! |
We all can’t believe tomorrow is our last day in London. We
will FINALLY make it to the Churchill War Rooms as we now know where we’re
going & we’re planning to head to Camden Market before coming home to pack
up for our Saturday flight to Ireland.
Both girls have gone to bed, but EM was happy to report we
walked 15,000+ steps today!
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