Soggy London and Last-Minute Culture

Getting up was HARD business for everyone. The littles took over the couch bed and the tweenager claimed his own room, little does he know he gets the couch in Edinburgh.

After breakfast in the flat, we grabbed our umbrellas and headed out for more Underground time, navigating our way to the Southbank neighborhood. Sissy exclaimed "This is the longest escalator EVER" which was true until we got to the next station. We got off and it was pouring.  

After a little turnaround in the navigating and we made it to Borough Market, an amazing food market undercover and more than 300 years old. We had passed through it in our October tour and I really wanted to go back on a Saturday to eat our way through it. The plan had been for David to go with Chris and Daniel to "The Clink", the London Torture Museum, and Sissy to come with me to the market. 

We were not even one stop in and she was melting down because she wanted to go "see the torture". The rainbow bagels wouldn't even change her mind. Thankfully the boys hadn't made it into the museum yet and I walked over to bring Sissy to the boys and found David being "tortured" by Daniel and refusing to go in. 

We swapped kids and for the second day in a row, David became my tour buddy. We walked to see the ferry ship model, and the Southwark Cathedral, home church to William Shakespeare and John Harvard (we won't hold that against them). David thought it was weird to step on crypts and he'd tip-toe around them. Next stop back to the Market since we were starting to get hungry. David and I got freshly baked treats from a bakery school then wandered around tasting/buying breads and cheeses, looking at the beautiful displays, and buying some lavender treats to bring home. 

Chris called and was on his way back and we treated ourselves to the "Best Fish & Chips" and Sissy said that she LOVED the torture museum. David was still glad that he didn't go. We fed some chips to some greedy birds so I could get a picture and see what they were in my bird app. Whatever they were Merlin couldn't figure it out. (Edit: English Starlings per the Google)

We took a walk past the Globe Theatre and across the Millenium Bridge. David really wanted to go on to the banks of the Thames where we saw people looking for treasures. I thought it looked disgusting. The need for the loo drove us up to St. Paul's Cathedral where we saw some antique double-decker buses for a wedding. Thinking we could pop in to see the Cathedral but came to find out, like everything in London including public bathrooms, it cost money. Satisfied with another tube ride back to our flat, we felt like we were finally figuring our way around. 

Chris got ready for his Peloton class and the kids and I got ready for tea and sweets in the Crypt of St. Mark's in the Field (not to be confused with St. Mark's Church). On our way there we passed a theater that was showing a show called "Patriots" which we thought say it was starring Tom Holland, aka the best Spiderman. I started looking for last-minute tickets while we gorged ourselves on cakes, cocoa, and tea in s 500+ year-old crypt. Somehow we missed the whipping post, where the term "rule of thumb" came from. Probably good, we had enough torture for the day. 

When we popped out of the crypt it was pouring again, this time we had only brought 2 umbrellas so Daniel had to walk in his raincoat over to Leicester Square to the much-longed-for Lego store. We spent the next 30 minutes grumpily standing in line to get in...and getting pretty wet in the process. Once we got in the kids went wild! I stayed with Sissy as she built her own trio of minifigs, Daniel found a Lego car, and David dismayed I wouldn't get him the 150-pound Star Wars kit, settled for a small clone trooper set plus a custom-made mini fig made right there on their mini fig machine. Each got a London Bobby mini fig key chain in addition to their 25 pound limit and just as they were finishing I was feeling light-headed from the heat in the store so we went back to the flat, which was great because now the weather was perfect and they wanted to build legos. I wanted to eat the market cheese and bread!

While waiting in line I found three last-minute tickets to see the Patriots show for the boys and two tickets for me and Sissy to see a Vivaldi's 4 Seasons back at St. Mark's (in the Field). But when I pulled up the reviews on Patriots we realized it was Tom HollandER (from White Lotus) and not Tom Holland. David refused to go so I got another Vivaldi ticket for him. Definitely for the best, that show was 2:40 + intermission! Vivaldi was only an hour. While we had fun seats sitting in a box off to the side, Angela promptly fell asleep during the "warm up" Bach concerto and David did as well. I had to keep blowing in her face throughout because she was snoring and with the church acoustics, it definitely carried! David popped awake when Vivaldi came on and mouthed "I know this!" So at least one of them enjoyed it with me. 

We wandered back through an empty Covent Garden, hungry and looking for dinner. Nothing was open on a Saturday and 8:30 was crazy. We found a Mexican place (usually good for fast service) and were not disappointed. The kids even got dessert to bring home. They were sugar buzzing until almost 10 but Daniel and Chris didn't get home until nearly 11 after stopping for a post-show hamburger. Late bed for all but the next day was our walking tour!